At the visitor's center the day before we learned that there were bird watching walks on Sunday mornings, so we decided to force ourselves out of bed early to go on the walk. We had a breakfast of scrambled eggs (with a little leftover BBQ in it) and Peet's coffee, then got moving as quick as we could. The bird watching walk left from the Mono County park, guided by one of the park rangers. He told us a bit about the bird ecology of the area, and some of the species we might see. Then we followed the boardwalk down through the marshy banks of the lake to look for birds. We saw the ubiquitous violet-green backed sparrow, and heard the meadowlark (though we didn't see it). There were also red-winged blackbirds, flickers, yellow warblers and others. We also saw a small tree completely encased in a hive of bees. Pretty neat. Though I didn't really see many birds, I did see some cute little ground squirrels and a rabbit.
After the walk we made a short stop at the visitor's center to visit the bookstore (which we missed before). Of course, our stomachs were ruling our lives, so we stopped at the Mono Cone yet again (yes, I had an orange slush, and yes they recognized me). Fortified, we decided to head for Bodie, an abandoned mining town and state park about 20 miles north of Mono lake.
The road to Bodie is really part of the experience- it give you just an idea of how isolated the town was. 13 miles of narrow road (at the time, all dirt, now just the last 3 miles) winding through essentially barren hills, with just a rare hidden meadow to break the monotony. Then you turn a bend and there is the town, with the hill covered with mine tailings rising above it. Bodie was founded ca. 1859 when a rich gold strike was made. Bodie quickly grew to more than 10,000 people, mostly men seeking their fortune prospecting or working in the mines. The last of the mines closed during WWII, and the last people left Bodie in the 1950s. All that remains today are about 50 buildings in various stages of arrested decay, and one last stamp mill dating to the turn of the century. Bodie is remarkably picturesque, and there are books, web sites, and classes devoted to how to best photograph the town.
Being an archaeologist, I was both excited and frustrated by Bodie. Excited, because everything in the town is pretty much as it was abandoned, down to the cans in the cupboards and the trash piles behind the sheds. Frustrated because I couldn't dig through all those piles to try and find out what things were like at the time. At least the frustration could be eased through the exhibitions at the museum, the tour of the stamp mill, and the Bodie video documentary (Emmy award winning). These gave a very good feel for just what life might have been like in a high sierra gold rush boom town.
After 4 hot, windy, dusty hours at the park, we were feeling pretty parched (and hungry- there is no food available at the park). Rather than driving all the way back to Lee Vining, we went north a couple of miles to Bridgeport to raid a country store for ice cold drinks and salty snacks. These held us over until we got back to Lee Vining. After two nights of BBQ, we were in need of something else, so we stoped at Nicely's Restaurant for dinner. Though we managed to steer away from BBQ, we ended up with fried chicken, which wasn't really an improvement. The blackberry pie for dessert really made up for it though.
Back at the cabin we retired to the couch and the pleasures of cable TV (we don't have it at home) for a couple of hours before bed.
Tuesday, May 30th-
I'd like to say that we slept in and had a leisurely drive back to LA, but unfortunately I had a 3:30 meeting with the kids I mentor with Los Angeles Team Mentoring. That meant we had to get up early and start driving. We did stop at an antique store in Bishop (and picked up a nice little Daguerrotype). I didn't quite make it back in time for mentoring (apologizing to do!), but we did make it home safely. Our cats, of course, couldn't have cared less!
Day: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Last Updated 9 June, 2000
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