Today we all packed up and drove out to Bodie, a well preserved (but not restored) ghost town that has become a California State Park. Even Chase was looking forward to it.
Chase
We picked up 5 caches along the way, including a virtual and a puzzle. While I was wandering around in one of the back lots I noticed a couple of large birds. As best I can determine they are females of a Mono basin subspecies of sage grouse.
Sage grouse
We peered through a lot of windows—not many of the houses are open. It’s amazing how they were left when people moved away. It kind of looks like the folks just vanished, leaving belongings on tables and shelves. I guess it was too hard/expensive to move it. The mine area is off limits except with a guided tour. One of these days I should do that.
Bodie mine
After leaving Bodie we stopped at the South Tufa area on the Mono Lake shoreline. These photogenic rock formations form when springs of calcium rich fresh water react with alkaline salt water of the lake. The towers can grow (underwater) up to an inch a year. The reason we see these towers is that the lake level is much lower than it has been historically. There were two earthcaches here that we completed.
Mono Lake tufts
Mark and Annmarie and the kids headed for the house, while we took a little hike up to Panum Panorama Revisited. While the crater was interesting, we ran into old friends from southern California (and we nearly didn’t recognize each other—the context was all wrong). How cool to run into Todd and Jennie and family.
Unexpectedly met old friends
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