Bodie Ghost Town — Attraction in Hawthorne

This ghost town is a state park. I visited in December and seemed like it was free parking but I’ve included the prices, park hours and the description from the state park website below.

GATE ENTRANCE

There is a sign at the gate entrance that says park hours are strictly enforced and a violation is subject to a citation. There are also multiple repurposed structures that employees that live in on site to most likely ensure park hours are enforced and that nothing is vandalized or removed.

ACCESS ROAD AND WALKING PATHS

The road to access the park is on the edge of mountains on a 15 mph rock/dirt road. When I went, there was no snow in the road but was when I got to the park, it still was accessible but I imagine would be harder to navigate around the buildings and structures with more snow. The park did have some snow removal equipment so that may be used for the main walking paths. I’m talking about the paths to look into building windows, etc that may be snowy/icy. I would bring hiking or shoes with grip and enough layers in the winter and enough water and sunscreen in the summer.

THE PARK

This was most definitely worth the visit. The gray metal structures were off limits and only accessible if you set up a tour through the museum. The history and seeing how people used to live is cool. The last time the town was inhabited was ~1960’s, so there are a lot of old products that we see today like old delmonte boxes, Maxwell coffee and the list goes on and on and on. Some of the buildings, as mentioned above, are employee residences and have curtains in every window but the other buildings you can walk up to and look into. It’s like looking at a place stuck in the 1950’s.

ME: I like to explore and went to pretty much to every building and looked in the windows. Old general store, fire department, church, hotel, mortuary (with coffins, a lot of small ones sadly), and multiple house structures. The park had one house that you could go into (see photos), it was very cool, I wish there were more open to the public, but may be due to it being winter. They also had the church doors open so you could see inside but you could not enter. Unfortunately my phone died and I wasn’t able to get a photo of that. The house was more interesting to me than the church anyways.

PRICES (as of 12/2023)

Cash/credit cards accepted Adults: $8.00 per person (18+) Children: $5.00 per child (ages 4 to 17) Infant: Free (ages 0-3)

HOURS Winter Hours: 9:00 am-4:00 pm daily (Beginning Nov. 1st) Summer Hours: 9:00 am-6:00 pm daily

Know Before You Go

Bodie is a ghost town. Today it looks much the same as it did over 50 years ago when the last residents left. To preserve the ghost town atmosphere, there are no commercial facilities at Bodie, such as food or gasoline. There is a bookstore inside the museum where you may also inquire about daily tours. Please read the following to prepare for your trip to Bodie.

Closed Areas For public protection, certain unstable sections of the park are posted as prohibited areas, and are closed to entry by park visitors.

Camping There is no camping at Bodie. Contact U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management offices for nearby camping information.

Souvenirs and Collecting Everything in Bodie is part of the historic scene and is fully protected. NOTHING may be collected or removed from the park (this includes natural features such as rocks and plants in addition to historic items.). Metal detectors are not allowed.

Winter Visits Bodie is open all year. However, because of the high elevation (8375 feet), it is accessible only by skis, snowshoes or snowmobiles during winter months. Snowmobiles must stay on designated roads in the Bodie Hills.

Winter weather is often unpredictable. Sub-zero temperatures, strong winds and white-out conditions are common. Many four wheel drive vehicles with chains get stuck each year in powdery snow. In spring, mud can be a problem. Local towing services, when available, can be costly. Check road conditions before traveling. Choose to travel...

A site emblematic of the decline of California itself.

We drove up the road, with 4km of dirt track at the end, not knowing what to expect. We came to a toll booth, with some old buildings beyond it, and asked the man what the deal was.

Apparently it was US$8 per person, and there was a lot to see - he offered a guide box for an extra US$3, so we thought it sounded worth a look.

The car park was a car park. The toilets odoriferous. On walking down to the buildings, there was an introductory film about the site, which made it sound interesting and the US$3 guide book was promising. So we walked down to where the buildings started, only to be told the place was closing and we had to leave.

I pointed out this was ridiculous - they shouldn't be selling tickets and a guide book if they were about to shut (and for no apparent reason - there was nothing to stop us looking around and leaving in our own room). The response was that the guy selling tickets should have warned us, to which I wholeheartedly agreed. But the fact is he didn't.

Dashcams are not common in the USA, but we're not from the USA and therefore the whole transaction was recorded. The State of California, who runs this show, is ripping off visitors. They should be ashamed.

However, as we're staying close by, they have the chance to make this good when we return tomorrow morning, and I hope to review the site rather than the disgusting toilets, and not to rely on dashcam footage of someone messing up. Mistakes put right don't count...

The town has the basis for a great historical park. But very little is done to attract visitors. It would be lovely to eg. have signs in front of the houses telling their and their owners' stories. Or to at least have some more accessible information. Unfortunately the museum was closed when I arrived (why is the museum closed if the park is still open?), so I did not have the chance to learn much about the place. Also no information center.

Now. The road leading to the town is an absolute desaster. It is not paved and in a horrendous condition with holes an bumps from the beginning to the end (4 miles). You have to drive at an painstaking speed, which prolongues the torture of shaking you and your car more than a rollercoaster tremendously. If you are driving an RV, the whole car will feel like it is falling apart and all kind of bolts and screws will come loose. Have fun tightening them back up again. And when you finally arrive after having lost half of your nerves, there is no information center and no museum, just some houses which are falling apart. Dont forget you have to drive back the path of hell again, wasting dozens of minutes of your life trying not to destroy your car due to 8 miles of horror. Had I known of the condition of this road and the park, I...