Yosemite - Part II

Coasting to a stop into Lee Vining from the heady views of the nearly 10,000′ Tioga Pass, I pointed out Mono Lake and filled in my passengers with the historical backdrop behind Mono Lake.  We drove north on US-395 for about ten miles before turning off on the road that led to Bodie State Park.

Bodie State Park is an ghost town that is in an state of arrested development.  Meaning that park rangers have taken steps to stop the decay of the various buildings and artifacts that were abandoned by its final residents over fifty years ago, but nor are they “restoring” the buildings.  They simply intend to present Bodie as an throwback to what it was, an once vibrant silver mining town that crashed when its mines ran dry.

I visited this park for the first time in 2006, and shot many pictures with a 35mm prime. This time around I decided to focus more on spot details, rather than landscape shots.  I used a 70-200mm zoom this day.

The Bodie church is the most dominant structure in town outside of the mining buildings.

Walking through town, you get the feeling that you’re wandering through a town that was abandoned in the 1800s, then you run into jarring reminders that the town did linger into the 1950s and there are some technological and historical markers that are visible testaments to that, such as power lines and antiquated gasoline pumps.

The day was hot and hazy, unlike my last visit which was in late-November, and the sky was cool and crisp.

Once the park had closed for the day, we all piled back into my truck and drove back out to Lee Vining.  Spotting an ice cream cone place, we all stopped for some ice cream to state our sweet tooth before taking on the Tioga Pass yet again, this time, all uphill.

The moon came out again, very nearly full and bathing the entire forest with silver light.

I found myself fascinated by the fleeting, abstract nature of our campfire.  It was an entirely different experience to photograph, because I could not compose a picture, the flames I saw through the camera were not the same flames I’d capture with my shutter release only split seconds later.  It was like seeing one scene, and photographing another.

In the morning, it was finally time to head back to The City.  We stopped for one more look at the Half-Dome before heading home.