2021-6 June Lake Loop, Bodie Ghost Town, California

 

2021-6

PART II, TRAVELING HWY 395

Bishop California
June Lake Loop, hwy 158
Bodie Mining Ghost Town

Campground: Silver Lake National Forest Campground: $12.50 Gov senior discount rate. No hookups but fresh water available. Sites and roads are paved. Bear storage boxes at each site.

Silver Lake National Forest Campground
with waterfall views

Campground: Topaz Lodge, Rv park and Casino, Nevada. $30 full hookups, 3 levels overlooking lake.

Coupons for discounts at restaurant, casino.

Topaz Lodge, restaurant, my view

Now I kind of left you hanging in Bishop California in the last report, and I feel kind of bad, because I didn’t stay long enough to explore this fine town. It’s one I would definitely make a destination stop next time especially since I have so many places I’m trying to get to this time around.

Silver Lake, along June Lake Loop

That being said, on the travel maps I’ve been checking out, I just had to explore the June Lake Loop, hwy 158. It travels close to some pretty impressive mountain ranges and a series of Alpine Lakes, one of which I’m staying at, Silver Lake NF. It’s actually on the smallest lake, but by gosh, Carson peak overlooks the lake and I have views of waterfalls right out my front door. Little snow remains on the mountain peaks as they had another devastatingly dry winter.

June Lake

June Lake, has a white sandy beach too

RV Note: after leaving Silver Lake, continuing on along the June Lake loop I discovered that Grant Lake has a large hard packed sand/gravel beach for boondocking. Only a few Rv’s using the site. Some looked like they might have stayed in the upper parking area.

Grant Lake, would def. camp along the shore here.
didn't find it on any of the camping apps

Not having reservations, I was able to secure a campsite for one night, and could easily stay longer by switching to the next available site. Zippy sure makes it easier to do that as the setup is, well just closing the slide, driving to the next camp spot, backing in, and opening the side again. Since I’m fully self contained, I don’t need to do any hookups of electric, water, sewer etc.

Bodie Ghost Town

Thanks to my good friends Sandy and Sandy, who told me about Bodie Ghost Town a couple of years ago while I conducted the Travel Club at Desert Trails. Well Sandy, I finally made another one on my Bucket List. After my detour to June Lake Loop, which I surely wish I could have spent more time at, I headed out to Bodie.

The excitement kept building as I headed north on hwy 395, turning off on the 10 mile drive, once again ascending the road up to an elevation of close to 10,000 feet. A relatively gentle increase in elevation, the last three miles being a dirt road. They had been working on it the past week and it was exceptionally well graded. Views overlooking the valley below and snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountain range. Lordy, have I been blessed with some of the most spectacular scenery lately.

The drive to Bodie Ghost Town was as exciting 
as visiting the ghost town

Bodie is a State historic Park. It originally was 7 to 8,000 people strong. 1877-1881 were it’s biggest years. Only 5% of the building remain, but still an impressive amount when viewed upon entering the park. Bodey discovered Gold here in 1859. And died in a blizzard a few months later. 10 years after the 1849 California gold rush. 30 mines and 10 stamp mills. Oh and 60 saloons, along with “cribs” and opium dens. The town quickly declined along with the riches from the mines completely ending in 1942. Now most of the buildings are closed to the public. One can only see the insides through the windows. Sure would be nice if the rangers and staff could clean the windows for all of up peepers. A booklet is available $3. Worth getting as is about the only way you’ll get any information on the buildings, people and living conditions during the mining era.

It definitely takes a couple hours to tour all the streets lined with the buildings remaining. Fresh air, plenty of space to enjoy walking around. Views to ooh and awhhh over.

Before leaving this bucket list experience, I must mention again my journey along hwy 395, following the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on one side and the White mountains on the other. It has truly been one of my best travel routes over the years and I look forward to enjoying it again on down the road. Many of the dispersed camp sites have been packed. And local officials have been trying to figure out how to handle that. You see with most of the commercial, State and local campgrounds closed in California due to Covid last year, many folks discovered the eastern side of the Sierras with it’s dispersed camping and have pretty much inundated the area. Once found, I have a feeling it will no longer be the sleepy side of the mountain range.

As an example, I stayed just outside of Bridgeport Ca on BLM land. The dirt roads were not in the greatest condition, but by early evening more and more campers were trying to find a spot for the night. Many having to back up back down the road, as there was no place to turn around once a site was occupied. I even had a car go down and up the side of a hill, only used by ATV’s. It was quite the site to see the car make a couple attempts to climb a 45 degree hill on up and over, right next to my camping spot. Like watching an action video game in 3D.

Rv note: Bridgeport is one of the most expensive places to stop for food and fuel. I paid $20.27 + tip for a sandwich, sweet potato fried and soda. Diesel fuel is currently $5.45 a gallon here. My next stop for fuel cost me $3.68 per gallon.

More Photos:

June Lake and Bodie Ghost Town, California