Wednesday
For once, the program of the day is rather light. Not far north is a ghost town named Bodie. The only way to get there is via a gravel road, but after Death Valley we're ready for anything. In 1859, gold is found in these hills. Mines are dug and a city is founded shortly after, gold rush style. The town is abandoned in 1920 but some people keep on living there until 1942. It's a strange feeling to walk in the streets of a ghost town. We can enter some of the houses and building but for some other we can just have a peek through the windows. Furniture are still in place, toys, products in shops,... nothing has moved in decades. It's great for photography. We'll spend 5 hours there, walking the abandoned streets. The only part that is off limits unless you have a guide is the mining complex. It's unstable because of the mining.
We leave the ghosts in peace to go visit Mono lake. Bodie is higher up in the mountain so coming back down offers us breathtaking views of the valley. The lake itself almost disappeared. The culprit is not Mother Nature like in Death Valley but mankind. After the last ice age, when the glacier withdrew, they left behind a huge lake going from Mono lake to Death Valley. With no river to maintain this huge lake, most of it evaporated, leaving only small lakes here and there. In 1941, to meet the growing demand in water in Los Angeles, an aqueduct is built to send the water from Mono lake to L.A. In 50 years the lake looses half of its size. To prevent its complete destruction the locals react and a plan is put in place to safeguard it. The bright side of this ecological disaster is that the drop in water level exposed the « tufa » towers. These towers are limestone structures that can only form under water. We spend the rest of the afternoon walking by the lake before going back to Lee Vining. There are two (inactive) volcanoes nearby but we choose to save our energy for Yosemite.