Mono Lake, CA

When it was formed 760,000 years ago, it was a great deal larger than it is now.  Much of the the shrinkage in modern times is due to tributarial fresh water being siphoned off to quench the thirst of Los Angeles.  The Lake water itself isn't thirst-quenching because it's a basin, has no outlet, and is 2.5 times more saline than the Pacific Ocean.

The water is too salty for fish but not for brine shrimp.  They're tiny, flimsy-looking little critters about 3/4" long - unlike the foot-long fakes pictured below.  Millions of migratory birds stop at Mono to feast on shrimp and alkaline flies, which abound in the spring.

As noted in the above picture, the minerals in fresh-water springs combine with lake-water carbonates to form calcium carbonate, aka limestone.  This action, which only occurs underwater, eventually builds tufa towers that become visible as the water level goes down.  The tufa towers resemble stalagmites or an illustration on the front of a sci-fi paperback - in a word, weird.

Mono Lake is near Lee Vining, CA, a small community near the back door to Yosemite NP.  The mountains in the picture below are part of Yosemite.