We spent a week in California visiting with family and friends, but we still got some hiking and sightseeing.
Watson Lake – off the Tahoe Loop trail
Bodie Ghost Town – Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town. You can walk down the deserted streets of a city that once had around 2,000 structures and a population of roughly 8,000 people.
The town is named for W.S. Body (or Bodey), who had discovered small amounts of gold in the hills north of Mono Lake. In 1875, a mine cave-in revealed a rich vein of ore, which led to the buying of the mine by the Standard Company in 1877. People flocked to Bodie and transformed it from a town of a few dozen to a boomtown. In 1881, Bodie’s “bust” began and the town’s population declined drastically. The town’s population continued to decline until only a few remained. Mining officially ceased in Bodie in 1942, the final nail in the coffin for Bodie’s township. Two large fires in 1892 and 1932 reduced the town’s remaining structures down to less than 10% of the 2,000 structures that once stood.
Only a small part of the town survives. Interiors stayed as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of “arrested decay.”
Yosemite National Park – Yosemite National Park has the distinction of being the first scenic natural area to be set aside by the United States for public gain and appreciation of landscape beauty. Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were the 1864 birthplace of the national park idea.
Shaver Lake – Shaver is hugged by pine forest in the granite-studded Sierra Nevada Mountains. Shaver is located up in the Western Sierra Mountains at about 5600 elevations outside Fresno California and is part of the Southern California Edison power project that feeds into the Big Creek power station.
Travelling Photographer 