A Gay Couple’s Adventure at Ghost Town Bodie State Historic Park, California, USA – You know already that we love adventures off the beaten track. To find those hidden gems in and around Yosemite National Park, we spoke with all the friendly Americans we met during our American road trip. The special tip for a special place came from Peter, a bearded ranger at Yosemite Lake Resorts, just outside the West Gate of Yosemite National Park. He suggested the most photogenic ghost town of the Wild West in California, known as Bodie, located within Bodie State Historic Park. The abandoned village located in the Bodie Hills, east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, tells a long story about how the first Americans reached the Gold Rush area in Mono County. After a boom time in the 19th century, the city went down and is now a very photogenic destination for a one-day trip from Yosemite National Park or Lake Tahoe.
From boomtown to ghost town in California
Once it was a boomtown in the Wild West, where enthusiastic settlers from all over Europe found Gold and a new home. Within a few decades, Bodie transformed into a Ghost Town and became a registered California Historical Landmark, where the Bodie Foundation is preserving the historical heritage until now. While spending a whole day exploring the unique abandoned settlement, we got a realistic impression due to obtaining 170 wooden houses, partially complete stuffed stores, saloons, and even a school. This part of American history makes Bodie a must-see for a USA bucket list. For us, it was a perfect one-day gay travel during our one-month Road Trip to South West of the USA. Join us on our photo tour around a real American Ghost Town of the Wild West right at the gates of Yosemite National Park and see the Bodie State Historic Park through a couple of men‘s eyes.
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The Methodist Church at Bodie State Historic Park
We left Yosemite National Park and entered Highway US-395 in a northwestern direction. After passing by Mono Lake, the road went up and down until an intersection at Dog Town. Here we took a right turn, driving through a treeless and dry landscape for another approximately 20 minutes. Be aware that the last 4.8 kilometers are actually gravel roads (no, you don’t need a 4×4 for that).
The road ends just before Bodie town at a small gate, where a friendly individual provided us with a map and our entrance tickets for a fee of $8 per adult. Parking is available right next to the town entrance at no cost. Equipped with our camera, a drink, and a town map, we began our exploration by visiting one of Bodie’s landmarks, the Methodist Church, built in 1882. Don’t miss taking a look inside. It was fascinating to start walking through this town, thinking that no one was actually living there anymore, except for the caretaker.
Abandoned Houses of the Ghost Town Bodie
We took our time walking around every wooden and stone house in the town. We could even go inside some of them and see the furniture and equipment of a 19th-century American Wild West house. Although the entire area of Bodie State Historic Park is protected, and nothing is allowed to be removed or collected, you are permitted to take as many photos as you want and collect some unforgettable memories instead.
If you have time, close your eyes for a moment and imagine a bustling town that began as a mining camp after gold was discovered in 1859 and experienced its boom time from 1877 to the late 1880s.
So, if you imagine that the mines of Bodie produced almost US$34 million over the years, and that Bodie had a population of more than 7,000 people with 2,000 buildings. The Gold Rush town of Bodie must have been lively and a crowded Wild West metropolis at that time. But what comes with wealth and greed for more? Correct, unfortunately, envy, drugs, violence, and crime. And so, the decline of Bodie began in 1912.
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Original Grocery Store & Gasoline Stop of Bodie
Although it began in the early 20th century, there are still numerous remnants throughout the entire town. Like a fully stuffed grocery store and the Bodie Gasoline Stop with an original Dodge Graham in front of it. It gave us the feeling of visiting a part of American history, showing us how fast-paced American society changed in just a couple of decades.
It’s fascinating how well-preserved the post office of Bodie remains, still part of the town, especially considering that by 1920, only 120 inhabitants were left in Bodie.
Until Bodie State Historic Park in California was established in 1962, caretakers of the ghost town of Brodie, who had to protect the 170 remaining buildings from vandalism, were still in place. By the way, the settlement was named after William S. Bodey, who first discovered gold in 1859 in the area that is now Bodie.
After he died in a snowstorm, his family named the settlement Bodie, after changing the spelling to avoid mispronunciation.
Bodie Saloon with Billiard Tabel & Roulette
No, those are not nostalgic pictures of Bodie from 50 years ago. We took all the photos featured in this blog article about our one-day trip to Bodie ourselves. Even those from the saloons.
Although Bodie had 65 saloons at its peak, you can still see two, one with a roulette table and drinks in the back, and the other with a pool table and an oven. It’s good that we went to Las Vegas before, so we didn’t feel the urge to gamble.
But even by looking at it, we could imagine what it might have looked like when it was crowded with gambling prospectors. What a special atmosphere surrounded us and the original wooden houses of Bodie during our visit.
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The fully equipped School of the Ghost Town Bodie
Even the school of Bodie looked like it was back in the Wild West days of America. Old schoolbooks, a labeled blackboard, a piano, and several items from the daily routine of an American school can be found when you look through the dirty windows of the building. The winters in Bodie have been extremelöy harsh and cold with a lot of snow.
Good to know that the winter opening hours, from November 1st to March 17th, are from 9 am to 4 pm, which is two hours shorter than during the summer (March 18th to October 31st: 9 am-6 pm). But is it worth a visit when you only have two opening hours left? In our opinion, yes, since the main part of Bodie is easily walkable, even for such a short time. If you want to see everything and take photos of the ghost town, you’d better plan to spend more time there.
Dinner at Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant
As you can imagine, a whole day outside in the summer weather of California makes you hungry. After we left Bodie State Historic Park, we stopped at the Virginia Creek Settlement, which is not only a restaurant but also a place where you can book your overnight stay in a motel or at a campground.
The next bigger town from Bodie and the Settlement is Bridgetown, with a gas station, shops, and restaurants just 5 km away. We preferred not to make it that far, and the restaurant, with its Wild Western style and plenty of historical photos and furniture, looked very inviting.
So, we decided to get some good Wild West food at the Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant. Daan, as a vegetarian, went for the spaghetti with a locally made tomato sauce, while Karl chose the Virginia Creek Burger with an oven potato. Delicious, especially combined with a local beer. Our tip for a trip to Bodie. More about Virginia Creek Settlement Restaurant >
More articles about our gay travels:
- Read more about our one-month Road Trip South West USA >
- Hotel Tip Los Angeles: The Willow Apartment West Hollywood >
- Hotel Tip San Luis Obispo: Sycamore The Mineral Springs >
- Accommodation Tip Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Lakes Resort >
- Gay Pride Tip: Photo Story Castro Street Fair San Francisco >
Ghost Town Bodie State Historic Park in California
It was an unplanned adventure to explore the Bodie. However, since we spent almost a week in Yosemite National Park, we had sufficient time to take this one-day trip to the Bodie Hills.
More info: Official Website of Bodie
The driving time is about 2 hours from Yosemite National Park to Tioga Pass Road and Lake Tahoe, and 4.5 hours from Rachel, Nevada. Bodie, as the “official state gold rush ghost town,” should be on your bucket list for gay traveling to the southwestern part of the United States of America.
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Not only because of the great photo opportunities, but you’ll get to understand the young history of the Wild West in one of the most powerful countries in the world. Did you visit Bodie before? Please let us know in a comment!
Do you want to know more about our gay travels as an openly gay couple around the world? Stay tuned on Facebook, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. See you again at one of the world’s gay beaches, gay pride parades, and gay-friendly hotels. Karl & Daan.