Cui-Ui Panunadu (fish in standing water) is the Paiute Tribe name for this Lake.
While in Nevada, my brother took me to see Pyramid Lake.
On the way to the lake I took some pictures as we drove through the country. These majestic skies and sweeping hills are so vast, it really is breathtaking.
As you come up over the hill, there is a shock of blue which is mesmerizing as it stands out against the pastel landscape.
This body of water was once a part of the ancient Lake Lahonton. During the Pleistocene era, Lake Lahontan stretched over what is now northwestern Nevada and even into parts of California and Oregon.
Pyramid Lake is home to the Paiute people who fish the ancient Cui-ui fish and Lahontan cutthroat trout. Their ancestors have been living here for thousands of years.
Being 11 miles wide and 27 miles long, it is one of the largest natural lakes in Nevada.
In the picture above, you can see formations standing out of the water in the far distance. The more I observed, the more otherworldly it felt.
This place is known for rock formations, called tufa, made of calcium carbonate. When spring waters at the bottom of the lake mixed with salty carbonate water, it created this substance. As the water evaporated, the tufa material became hard, no longer able to grow. Most of the tufa was formed between 26,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Across the way is the pyramid shaped island made of tufa deposits. It’s name is Wono, what the Paiute call a cone-shaped basket.
The shoreline appears shallow for a distance, but there are sudden drop offs to the depth of hundreds of feet. The lake itself is 344 feet deep.
There is no natural outlet for Lake Pyramid, making it one of the deepest terminal lakes in this part of the world and also making it saline. Referred to as a geographical sink, the lake receives water from the Truckee River which flows out of Lake Tahoe and winds up here in this basin.
Because there is no outlet, evaporation and sub-seepage are the only way water dissipates.
From what I have read, conditions on the lake can change rapidly. Winds can suddenly arise and the lakes cold currents can be dangerous.
A mesmerizing place, mysterious and beautiful all at once. I thank my brother for taking me here, to the last remnant of an ancient lake.
Here is a wonderful rewrite of the Paiute legend by Zteve T. Evans Petrification Myths: The Legend of the Great Stone Mother of the Paiutes
channeling the abstract 