Glark

Well I slept in today. I had these ambitious plans to get up before dawn and get to the ghost town of Bodie when it opened at 6am to get some sunrise-ish shots but I’m still sick (and I’m still lazy) so I ended up waking up at 10:30. It’s over an hour away and my helpful GPS sent me the shortest way but also the route with the bumpy road no one who has done an ounce of homework goes on. That place is amazing. It’s an old gold rush town and it’s surprisingly big for what it is. You’ll see the big mill buildings, church, school, stores, homes and an impressive number of outhouses. Some even have a moon carved in the door.

I spent a few hours there shooting as a thunderstorm slowly drifted over the nearby mountains. I have a new appreciation for the phrase “rolling thunder” now. The storm took over two hours to roll in and you could see the rain draining from the clouds in grey wisps long before you felt the first drop. Really impressive.

I took the good road out of Bodie and headed back towards Mammoth Lakes in the rain. I passed by Mono Lake which looks like it warrants a closer look and I took a couple scenic loops including one around June Lake where I missed hitting a deer by about 6 feet.

I don’t know where the hell this place gets off being so awe-inspiring and majestic. You know all that crap about purple mountains you hear about but figured your American forefathers were smoking some good hemp rope? They have them here. They are purple. They are majestic. It made me want to eat a bald eagle.