Geology

The Mammoth Lakes area is a land of fire and ice. Over the millennia, natural forces have raised and sculpted the Sierra Nevada range. During ice ages, massive glaciers moved slowly downward, shaping granite peaks and carving out canyons and lake basins. Perfect examples of this glacial action in the Mammoth Lakes area are the jagged spires of the Minarets, the U-shaped valleys of Bloody Canyon and Rock Creek, and the smooth granite domes of Yosemite National Park 's high country.

Dominating the landscape is Mammoth Mountain , a dormant volcano that last erupted over 50,000 years ago.

Extraordinary features such as obsidian domes, craters, steam vents, hot springs and even Mono Lake 's tufa towers all attest to the region's active geologic past. Today, we reap the benefit of this natural process in ways other than sightseeing: Mammoth Pacific Geothermal Power Plant generates electricity by harnessing the energy of water heated deep below the earth's surface, and Hot Creek Fish Hatchery uses warm spring waters to maintain optimum thermal conditions for raising young trout.