Bodie Ghost Town

Today was a really fun road trip to a gold-mining ghost town called Bodie. So many unique things to photo, from the preserved but dilapidated buildings to the smallest fragments left behind. I could have spent 3 days here taking photos. (Warning: This post has a lot of photos.)

On our way in, we came across this. It's about a thousand sheep. Super random.

Fragments...

The Methodist Church.

A crew was on site filming for something while we were here. It's not hard to see why this place is movie-worthy.

Something about this door handle on this old green truck that reminds me of my grandpa's old Ford he nicknamed "The Green Hornet."

Just had to take a photo of this one.

Frozen in time.

Pretty neat place with lots and lots to explore. I look forward to coming back and looking for things I didn't see or didn't notice this visit.

When we got back to the car, we decided to try a different road out of Bodie. Let the off-road adventure commence...

We started driving the Land Cruiser down Bodie Masonic Road.

Until we ran into too much deep snow on the road that we didn't want to chance getting stuck.

So we turned around and headed back toward Bodie, spotting some rain clouds in the distance. We'll have to give Bodie Masonic Road another chance another day.

Rain clouds over Bodie.

Well, we'll take this gravel road instead... Cottonwood Canyon Road toward Mono Lake. This ended up being an unexpectedly lovely route.

The majority was dry desert, and then, out of nowhere, we came upon this, almost lush, green region that I just had to stop and photograph.

Then, the first glimpses of Mono.

After getting to Mono, we decided to take a drive down Virginia Lakes Road to Dunderberg Meadow, where we thought we'd try off-roading again.

Things were going along pretty smoothly until we came across this downed tree. My husband thought it would be a great idea to put me behind the wheel of the Land Cruiser, he was going to wrap the tow strap around the tree, and I was going to back up and snap the tree in half so we could pass without driving over it, risking damage to the vehicle.

Unfortunately, we didn't get it on video, because I was driving, but I can vouch that it worked, I snapped that sucker in half, and we were able to continue on the road a bit farther.

We came across more snow. Just to be sure we wouldn't get high-centered, we got out the shovel and shaved a bit of the top off. The snow pile doesn't look like much in the photos, but it was enough of a potential obstacle we felt it was prudent to take some precautions.

And! Here we go!

Whew. Made it.

But we eventually ran into deep snow. Again. And had to turn around. Again.

This has kind of been the theme this spring/summer.