Day 30: Buckeye Hot Springs to Virginia Creek, CA

Day 30:

Monday, Oct 26, 2015  Buckeye Hot Springs to Virginia Creek, CA

Well, this is pretty typical! Bodie is awesome!

Up early and there were already a few people in the hot spring (we are talking 6:30 am here and just turning light) so we decided to just leave and make our way on California route 395 going south from Bridgeport.  On a whim we decided to check out Historic Bodie State park.  Paid $5 entrance fee and were happy to for this historic site.  Bodie is a well-preserved mining town, long since abandoned. 

Bodie was a very cool sight!

 The California parks system took it over in 1962 to preserve it.  They don’t renovate the buildings just keep them from falling down.   The current buildings represent just five percent of what was originally there.  At one time, the town boasted between 6,000 – 8,000 people.  It was quite impressive. 

One thing I found rather interesting were the letters in the museum.  Various people had walked off with a momentos of the town (all kinds of things really)…as there are all kinds of things just laying on the ground (mostly glass bits and rusted metal pieces currently). The people were writing in to return the item they picked up and/or to tell the things that went wrong in their lives after they brought it home (lol).  We spent ½ the day there before heading out.  I took lots of photos.

Another interesting thing is that if you work at this historic site you can actually live here as well in one of the old buildings!!!!  Imagine having this place to yourself (with a few ghosts I imagine) after hours!

Alpine Lakes make for a nice hike

Next stop took us down Virginia Creek road looking for a potential place to overnight.  Nothing was opened on this date so we went for a hike.  We went around Virginia Lake and by Blue Lake and landed at Cooney Lake for a rest…2.65 miles and 800 feet of elevation gain at oxygen starving 10,200 feet.  Nice day for a hike…blue skies, alpine lakes.

On the way out on Virginia Lakes Road, we found a Forrest Service road that we could squeeze along and found a nice spot to spend
the night under the pines.