On a cross country trip during the Spring & Summer of 2011 I visited Bodie Ghost Town near Lee Vining, CA. Actually, I made two visits, the first on May 8th, and the second on June 4th.



Bodie is open year round, however there are times the road into the park is closed. The first 3 miles or so of the road into the park is paved; after that is is a somewhat rough although quite wide dirt road.



During my May visit the road was closed about 1 1/2 miles from the town. There was room to park along side the gate - there were about 10 vehicles parked when I arrived. It was a easy (although uphill - Bodie is at 8375' elevation) hike to the park on a road mostly cleared of snow. It was obvious why the road was closed - the parking lot was still heavily snowed in.

Although it was a cold day & a long walk into the park, a number of people were walking around the buildings. The gift shop & museum was not open but there were a number of volunteers & rangers in the area.



The buildings are beautifully weathered and photograph well against the blue skies & snow:





In addition to the many buildings scattered around the park, there includes the smelter used to process the extracted gold, and old machinery and vehicles throughout the area.







After spending most of the afternoon at Bodie, I enjoyed the view walking back to the car:



By the June 4th visit the town had officially "opened" for the season. Much easier to drive all the way to the parking lot.

More machinery and no snow!



The museum & gift shop were open & quite busy:







While in the Bodie area (which, when CA 120 is open, is about 1 1/2 hours from Yosemite National Park) be sure to take some time to visit Mono Lake, about 20 minutes south of Bodie:



More photos of both areas are linked from my State & National Parks web page.