Bryn and I finished our backpacking early, so we squeezed in a side trip to Bodie. I love Bodie. It's one of my favorite ghost towns. Parts of it are more well preserved than others (like the Chinatown and "Maiden Lane / Virgin Alley," which are almost entirely gone - cough, cough), and the park's management approach of "arrested decay" may be somewhat problematic, but it is gorgeous. And the landscape is so beautifully sparse.
While we were there, we took the guided stamp mill tour, led by a guide playing Mrs. Hoover. (Theodore Hoover, who ran the mine for a few years, was Herbert's brother and a future chair of Stanford's Dept. of Mining Engineering.) The tour participants were a tough crowd: Bryn and I (who were very well behaved), two former Bodie SHP employees, three tourists from a mining town in New Zealand, and two mining history buffs from Reno. Props to Mrs. Hoover for keeping us all in line!



Downtown Bodie:

(Peaking in the windows of the schoolhouse.)



A bit farther out:

A view of the Chinatown area, with the remains of a liquor store in the foreground.

What is left of "Maiden Lane / Virgin Alley."



Bryn reads the interpretive brochure! The old mine area is closed to the public, due to safety hazards and such.