The Ghost Town!!!!

A.k.a Bodie.  W.S. Bodie discovered gold here back in 1859. Over the years, Bodie has seen numerous booms...and busts. There were some huge gold strikes here and, at one point, the town had nearly 10,000 residents. By 1882 though, the big strikes were mostly history and the folks began to go elsewhere. Gunshots and stabbing were everyday story. Check out the bullet marks

Today Bodie is one of the largest and best preserved ghost towns in the West. Over 170 buildings remain and what the California Department of Parks and Recreations calls a state of "arrested decay." It is, without a doubt, a photographer's paradise. 

I first saw the photographs of bodie on Prakash's blog (http://passanha.com/home/gallery/Bodie/) when I was in India and I knew I had to capture this in my camera someday.  I bought my SLR after coming to USA and I knew where to use it. It had to be Bodie. Nobody was interested in joining me. I was determined to go alone, but finally my wife, Neha, Sumit and Shivank decided to join me:)  We hired an Impala LT, one of the worst cars ever. It did not even touch 90mph even after standing on the accelerator, But the decision turned out to be a good one when we hit the Bodie road. Actually there was no road at all. In fact in most rural parts of India there are better roads than this one. Had I brought my car here, I would not have forgiven myself for torturing it. BTW checkout the famous Bodie car.

Everybody was tired. We reached here in the afternoon around lunch time to find there is nothing to eat. Everyone was cursing me and I was in no mood to pay attention to them. I was seeing paradise in front of me. I immediately assembled my lenses and here are some of the pictures of the ghost town including a group picture (dont laugh at my shades) :) 

Location: Bodie state historic park

Camera: Nikon D80