Framedlight

We rattled our way into Bodie and stopped in the parking area - you have to buy a ticket. We lost ours after moving to the picnic area for lunch and got a notice of a fine from the ranger. We scrabbled on the floor, found the original ticket and then hunted down a ranger who tore up his paperwork. The ranger service is a force to be reckoned with. They have the same status as policemen and can carry firearms. Not like your run of the mill National Trust wardens. Bodie was and still is a god forsaken place. Above the tree line it is barren and cold at over 8,000ft, where winds over the scrubby hills can reach 100mph. William Bodey came to this wilderness area and found gold in1859. He died a year later, caught in a blizzard en route for supplies and never saw the town which a year later had a populations of 5,000- 7,000 people and within 20 years had grown to 10,000 inhabitants and acquired a reputation for wickedness, drunkenness and 'the worst climate out of doors'. Ki...