Hey everyone!
Last weekend my girlfriend and I made our first real trip! As the topic says, we took the old Bodie-Masonic road from just north of Bridgeport, through some BLM land and down into Bodie from the North.
This was our actually our second attempt, after being caught in a thunderstorm a few weeks ago and deciding to abandon the trip. We were about 10 miles off the highway when we turned around, and the nice dusty road had turned to slippery clay, leading to some tense driving with a little bit of fish tailing on the way back. This time however, we were successful and the weather held out the the entire time.
We left Tracy, CA around 6pm Friday night, and had hope to camp out at the Stanislaus Gargoyles. After grabbing pizza in Sonora it was already getting dark, so we decided to stop in a stop right of the highway, about 12 miles east of Pinecrest instead.
We woke up at 6:15, chugged a cold can of Starbucks and hit the road around 6:45, the trip over the Sonora pass and down into Bridgeport was uneventful, but we grabbed a great picture as we started descending:
We grabbed hot coffee at the garage in Bridgeport and carried on our way, taking a left just as we headed out of town to go up the 182, alongside Bridegeport Lake. After around 4 miles, we took a right on Masonic Road (32046) and left the asphalt behind.
The road is pretty mellow for most of the way, definitely easy enough for a stock SUV in good weather conditions. The first real sight to see is Chemung Mine, roughly 5 miles in. There is a road that takes you closer to the mine, but we stayed on the main trail and just took a quick picture (this photo is from our previous trip - it looks better!).
After the mine, the road continues winding its way East and around Masonic Mountain. We skipped this optional detour and pressed on, passing the junction for Masonic and turning south toward the Bodie-Masonic Road.
The views here were fantastic, and we were completely alone. It was the perfect opportunity for some truck pictures!
We kept heading South, passing a rock with "Bodie, 7mi" painted on it.
We carried on, crossing a couple of really small streams, until we saw Bodie in the distance.
Winding down into town, we eventually came across an annoyed parking attendant, who seemed less than impressed at our alternative route into the park. After having to drive all way out the main entrance only to immediately U-turn and come back in, we were eventually parked up and headed off to explore the town.
It was a great trip, and I would definitely recommend the route to anyone looking for something fairly easy with an interesting destination at the end. Total time off road was around 2.5hrs, and about 20 miles. If you want to camp out once you are on the trail, there a couple of good spots, so it's definitely not necessary to stay up by Sonora pass, we just got beaten by the sunset.
Thanks for reading!
Last weekend my girlfriend and I made our first real trip! As the topic says, we took the old Bodie-Masonic road from just north of Bridgeport, through some BLM land and down into Bodie from the North.
This was our actually our second attempt, after being caught in a thunderstorm a few weeks ago and deciding to abandon the trip. We were about 10 miles off the highway when we turned around, and the nice dusty road had turned to slippery clay, leading to some tense driving with a little bit of fish tailing on the way back. This time however, we were successful and the weather held out the the entire time.
We left Tracy, CA around 6pm Friday night, and had hope to camp out at the Stanislaus Gargoyles. After grabbing pizza in Sonora it was already getting dark, so we decided to stop in a stop right of the highway, about 12 miles east of Pinecrest instead.
We woke up at 6:15, chugged a cold can of Starbucks and hit the road around 6:45, the trip over the Sonora pass and down into Bridgeport was uneventful, but we grabbed a great picture as we started descending:
We grabbed hot coffee at the garage in Bridgeport and carried on our way, taking a left just as we headed out of town to go up the 182, alongside Bridegeport Lake. After around 4 miles, we took a right on Masonic Road (32046) and left the asphalt behind.
The road is pretty mellow for most of the way, definitely easy enough for a stock SUV in good weather conditions. The first real sight to see is Chemung Mine, roughly 5 miles in. There is a road that takes you closer to the mine, but we stayed on the main trail and just took a quick picture (this photo is from our previous trip - it looks better!).
After the mine, the road continues winding its way East and around Masonic Mountain. We skipped this optional detour and pressed on, passing the junction for Masonic and turning south toward the Bodie-Masonic Road.
The views here were fantastic, and we were completely alone. It was the perfect opportunity for some truck pictures!
We kept heading South, passing a rock with "Bodie, 7mi" painted on it.
We carried on, crossing a couple of really small streams, until we saw Bodie in the distance.
Winding down into town, we eventually came across an annoyed parking attendant, who seemed less than impressed at our alternative route into the park. After having to drive all way out the main entrance only to immediately U-turn and come back in, we were eventually parked up and headed off to explore the town.
It was a great trip, and I would definitely recommend the route to anyone looking for something fairly easy with an interesting destination at the end. Total time off road was around 2.5hrs, and about 20 miles. If you want to camp out once you are on the trail, there a couple of good spots, so it's definitely not necessary to stay up by Sonora pass, we just got beaten by the sunset.
Thanks for reading!
