Bodie

A couple of you asked to see some pics of Bodie, so here they are.  Bodie is a California state park 13 miles OFF Highway 395.  It is paved for 10 miles, but the last 3 are on a dirty, dusty, and pitted road and it has an admission fee of $7.00 PER PERSON.  It is only open from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. and the park rangers WILL ask you to leave at 6:00 p.m.  Unfortunately, unless you are IN LINE at 9:00 in the morning, you won't get good morning shots.  And, the best afternoon lighting is AFTER 6:00 p.m.!!!  So, go figure!  Fortunately we were there on a day with clouds and that really helped our photos.  Unfortunately we were there at noon and it was HOT, HOT, HOT!  And dry!  Bodie has NO water for sale, so bring your own.  Also bring a wide hat and sunscreen as there is NO shade at all in the park.  They do have a museum there, but the bathrooms are up by the parking lot (away from town), and it is a hike back to them. Also, there is NO FOOD for sale there, so bring a sandwich or snack.  We've been there both in the morning and afternoon and I actually like the afternoon better.  Bodie is an old mining town which burned down a couple of times...the last time was 1932, which finally led to the abandonment of the town.  There are lots of books for sale in the museum about the history of Bodie, but here's what I know.  It was a major mining town during the late 1800's and early 1900's and a stage line ran through it.  It became a state park in 1962 and you can see many buildings there complete with their interiors intact, including the school house.  The post office and the weigh station are also complete, along with several other buildings.  It's interesting to see the interiors (you can view them through windows).  I always love the fire station and the old hotel.  There are some buildings with lots of windows, which makes me wonder HOW those people survived the extremely COLD winters there (it gets down to -18 degrees!!!)  Bodie is up on a plateau, so it gets HOT in the summer, but extremely windy and cold in the winter and the road is NOT plowed to it.  In fact, it's only open a few months of the year (due to snow)...you can google it and learn more about Bodie.  Here's the California state park website:  http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509   Here are a few of my pics from yesterday ... we only stayed for one hour because it was too hot and we didn't plan on going there, so we didn't have WATER... (duh)...  That's the cemetery in the top photo.  It is across town and VERY hot and dry!!!!  We've never actually toured it.  That's on our "to do" list.  So, enjoy your tour of Bodie!  ***NOTE*** I took the last 2 photos which are photos of Bodie at the Bridgeport museum.  The first one shows the town on fire in 1932.  The bottom one shows Bodie during the winter months and all the snow there!