Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Any cool ghost towns along RT 395?

I remember reading somewhere awhile back about some ghost towns up near Yosemite. Does anyone have any suggestions or websites. I would love to find some time to check one of these out. I think the only one I've ever seen was on the Brady Bunch.

Thanks for any tips.

Try Bodie State Historical Park

http://www.bodie.com/




Gallery:
http://dbdimages.smugmug.com/gallery/2665336_7i2hE/1/141151559_UURNn

Dale B. Dalrymple
http://dbdimages.com

Was just out in Bodie myself, and it is amazing. Don't know about getting to it right now, though, with the new snow on the road.

But here are some more pics for you to peruse.

-L

Bodie is kind of like the Cadillac of Ghost Towns. Lots to see and do there.

There are others though in the area near 395 and the Yosemite area. If you are in the summer and can get to Tioga Pass, there is Bennetville which is not more than a couple of cabins up near the top of the pass. Lundy is close by off the Lundy Lake Road. Benton is a semi-ghost town off of hwy 120 and 6 down near Bishop. There is the Chemung Mine and Masonic a few miles out of Bridgeport.

There are many others as well - most not more than a depression in the dirt (like Dogtown and Mono Mills ). The area is rich with history! Have fun!

You might want to look at two books: Sunrise on the Sierras by John Landon and Ghost towns of Northern California by John and Susan Drew. Hope this helps.
Greg Lukenbill

Bodie is definitely the coolest and totally authentic. Best by far of what I've seen.

Bennetville is reconstructed and was way cooler before they blocked off the mine entrance but still really interesting.

Right at Tioga pass there is a trail to Gaylor Lakes and near the upper lake there is a bunch of mining ruins and the remains of a stone cabin. Really neat and remote and at about 11,000 feet. I think it was some sort of silver mine.

I've come across lots of old mining sites and cabins in the most unlikely of places in my off trail fishing expeditions.

Be careful and don't fall in any holes.

Eastside Magazine had a Bodie article in their Fall issue.

http://theeastsidemag.com/

Bodie as of February 3, 2009



Road access comes and goes with the weather.
Dale B. Dalrymple

Bodie State Park is the best in my opinion. Stop there and you step back in time. Sometimes I think, as you walk down Main Street, that you need to shake the bullets out of your hair as you read and hear about the gun fights that were common there.

Laura,

Thanks for the cool slide show! A couple of years ago my 2 brothers and I included it in a trip to celebrate my 50th. It was during the summer but lucky for us the sky was full of puffy clouds to minimize the intensity of the sun. I sure hope the budget crisis doesn't impact the goal of maintaining "arrested decay" for this jewel.

Bodie's the best state park in the USA, by far. No reason to visit any others to know this.

In the area, just north of Bridgeport, is Chemung Mine, a 2wd trip in summer, not sure what shape the well-graded road is currently but the mine's been there a long time so it should be there still.


Click here for larger photo

While you're at it, check out the ruins at Masonic, which is the northern point of a triangle between Chemung-Masonic-Bodie. There's not much left there but you did ask for ghost towns. A good ghost town web site is here. Turn the volume down when you visit that web site, the MIDI is way too loud.

I haven't been to Cerro Gordo in Inyo County (east of Owens Lake) but I hear that's worth the trip, too. It's on the list.

The next ghost town on 395 will be Independence. Is that town dying fast, or what?

Well, I think it's been dying since the court allowed Los Angeles to take all the water from the valley.

Ghost towns in the area would be the Spark Plug mine and Cerro Gordo.

I think if you want to be really ghostly, visit the Lava Tubes in the area. I have yet to do that, the lava tubes I've investigated all were up at the Oregon border. But I hear Independence has some really good ones. Not sure where they are exactly but old lava is all over the place around there.