21 Wednesday

Before leaving Lee Vining we had a look at a couple of the tourist/souvenir shops then headed north (about two hours I think) to visit Bodie Ghost Town. We got the fright of our lives when we were buzzed by a US fighter plane. Bodie Ghost Town is a National Monument and is one of the best preserved Ghost Towns in California. It was built in 1877 and became a boomtown because of the stories of the gold in this area. It boasted a population of 8,500 people. The Chinese created a town within a town to maintain their customs because they were not welcome members of white society. As the mines were depleted the towns population had decreased to about 1,500 people. Six years later a fire destroyed a number of homes and businesses and in 1932 another fire destroyed all but 10 per cent of the town. It is now a tourist attraction and is preserved in a state of arrested decay. We spent a good couple of hours fossicking around the old buildings. You have to be a keen tourist to visit here as the last couple of miles of the road is just shingle and is very dusty. But there was a continual stream of tourists. After leaving Bodie we traveled south again and stopped off for lunch on our way through Lee Vining. A few miles south of Lee Vining we stopped off at Mono Lake to see the Tufas which had formed in the lake. These are limestone towers which are formed when calcium and carbonate combine. They protrude from the water and are apparently between 200 and 900 years old. Well worth a visit. We continued further south and branched off onto a loop road to visit the Devils Postpile which is another National Monument. We hopped on a shuttle bus at the Mammoth Lakes Ski Resort and travelled down a very scenic windy road through forest. There were only the four of us on the shuttle but we still got a commentary from the driver on the history of the area. We were dropped off at the Ranger Station and then we had a 10 minute walk to the Devils Postpile. The Postpile is a collection of hexagonal lava rocks which were formed 100,000 years ago by a volcanic eruption. They stand in columns 60 feet high. After seeing photos of them in brochures you cant quite believe you are actually viewing them. We took heaps of photos. We could only spend about 10 minutes looking at them because we wanted to catch the next shuttle bus back to Mammoth Ski Resort. If you had plenty of time you could spend all day in this area because there are many walks to waterfalls etc but we had to try and reach our overnight accommodation which meant another two hours travel by car to Bishop. We made it just before it got dark. Another Super 8 Motel.