Bodie - Official California Ghost Town

Believe it or not, we left Yosemite by 3 to then make the couple hour drive north (some of it by dirt trail - boy, did we wish we had taken our 4-Wheel Drive Honda Element at that moment) to the Official Ghost Town of California - Bodie.

The place had a ton of photographers crawling about through the ruins. Of course, my P loved it for that reason as well. I like it because it was in the boondocks, off the beaten path and had such an interesting history about it. It boomed in the late 1800s when gold was found. According to Wikepedia: "As a bustling gold mining center, Bodie had the amenities of larger towns, including two banks, four volunteer fire companies, a brass band, a railroad, miners' and mechanics' unions, several daily newspapers, a gym, and a jail. At its peak, 65 saloons lined Main Street, which was a mile long. Murders, shootouts, barroom brawls, and stagecoach holdups were regular occurrences. As with other remote mining towns, Bodie had a popular, though clandestinely important, red light district on the north end of town."

Two major fires in the past 100 years destroyed a lot of the town that stayed after all the gold was gone. Only about 5% remains but it was fascinating to walk around the preserved buildings - some you can only peer through windows but clearly see remnants inside of a once Wild West lifestyle.