From Lee Vining on this chilly and mostly clear morning we set our sights on Bodie. The easy way to get there is to take the west entrance from 395 (between Lee Vining and Bridgeport). But I had done that a couple of times before, probably more than 20 years ago. I decided to try the Cottonwood Canyon Road approach from the south. This is a remote and much more adventurous route, and I recall being very tentative about trying this road back when I had my 4×4 Pathfinder. For this trip Jennifer and I were in my 2WD Xterra.
Well, the dirt road turned out to be very well-maintained and it was an easy and fun drive to Bodie from the north side of Mono Lake. The first two images below show the first glimpse of Bodie from Cottonwood Canyon Road, looking north.
We arrived about 10 minutes before the 9 a.m. opening time for the State Park. And, we also had to wait a little for a construction crew that was replacing the kiosk at the entrance. The ranger allowed me to walk into town before the few waiting vehicles could enter. I had a few minutes to shoot with no one around!
And the next few hours were spent walking around the ghost town with the cameras. These were with the zoom lens:
And these were with the wide-angle lens. The weather could not have been nicer, with the bright sunshine and calm winds.
We departed Bodie to the west, back to 395. The road is paved for about 90-95 percent of the way now. I recall it as a rough and washboarded dirt road in the 1980s and 1990s. The nice paved road will attract a lot more visitors, but that is not really what your typical ghost-town explorer desires! Finally, here are a couple of Mono Craters images which don’t really deserve their own web entry page!
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