If you are lucky enough to have a friend like Deb it always pays to take her recommendations on places to see when you are in an area. Seriously, she has told us about the coolest places, and whenever I “cheat off her paper” I always have a a great time. She recommended Bodie since it is an extremely well preserved ghost town and even though it was a bit of a hike Lee and I got up early and drove North!
As we traveled further north and the elevation climbed we started to see more snow. We also got to see a grizzly bear gaurding the restroom door at a gas station which was a first for me.
Finally we made it to the road leading to Bodie State Historic park. The road was dirt and had some snow on it, but we did fine as we climbed to over 8,000 feet, The views were absolutely gorgeous along the way and it really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Which we kind of were.
As the town finally comes into view I was struck by how large it was. The town was a real gold mining town and at one point had 2,000 buildings and over 8,000 people. The elements were no joke up here though and many people died from exposure or starvation suring the bad winters. In 1881 the mines dried up leading to a mass exodus and two fires in 1892 and 1932 destoyed 90% of the buildings. The 10% that is left though was pretty cool and although we couldn’t walk into any of the buildings the park staff were clearly living in several of them.
It is one of those places that you can’t take a bad picture and despite the snow on the ground (which Jack loved rolling in) once we were out of the wind it wasn’t really that cold. It was really fun walking around and looking at the old buildings and I have added a few black and whites to show you what I thought it should really look like. It was a step back in time for sure.
Although you couldn’t walk into the buildings (which Lee was pretty bummed about) you could peek in and see some and they had lots of artifacts from the original buildings. The schoolhouse in particular was pretty cool. Lee also was fascinated by the sawmill and had me take lots of closeup pictures of all the machinery that was still in place. Personally I liked the bank which still had the old safe in it.
Our friend Deb who has seen more ghost towns than anyone I know says it is the most intact she has ever seen, and I will say it is definitely worth the drive.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
Camper Chronicles 