Lying east of Yosemite National Park is Mono Lake — a saline lake covering part of the territory previously occupied by a larger lake formed about 760,000 years ago. Since it is a terminal lake with no outflow it has accumulated salts and it currently roughly twice as saline as seawater and has a pH rating of 10. This, in turn, has led to a specialized salt tolerant ecosystem that centers around algae, brine shrimp, and alkali flies. The surrounding plant life is more and more salt tolerant species as you get closer to the lake.
USGS page on Mono Lake
The lake is known for a few other things as well:
These pictures are from a visit to Mono Lake on July 31st, 2013. This is the same day as visits to Devils Postpile and the nearby Panum Crater which are covered in other diaries. The geology trifecta.
The tufa formations show that the lake used to have a higher water level. And the current agreement stipulates that the level will be allowed to increase further.
And a few photos of the denizens of the Mono Lake ecosystem. (Thanks to a student intern who was there running a short half-hour tour that gave good explanations of the ecosystem, and also a hands-on example of how the calcium carbonate precipitates if you mix local fresh water with the lake water.)