The historic Gold Rush town of Bodie, California, is one of the state’s most remarkable and well-preserved towns of the era.
California State Parks manages Bodie State Historic Park, which is home to a small collection of abandoned buildings far out in the high desert near Mono Lake and the California-Nevada border.
You can visit Bodie at any time of year, but if you’re brave enough, it’s worth looking into the sporadic Ghost Walks offered on just five evenings each year.
2026 Bodie Ghost Walks
The Bodie Foundation hosts extraordinary Ghost Walks through Bodie, where guests can join a living-history tour after dark. A guide will tell stories of ghost sightings, disembodied sounds, and the so-called “Bodie curse” on people who steal artifacts.
The park stays open after hours from 6pm to 10pm, with three tour slots available on just a few select Saturday evenings per year. You can now book a spot on the following dates:
- Saturday, June 27, 2026
- Saturday, July 11, 2026
- Saturday, August 22, 2026
- Saturday, September 5, 2026
- Saturday, September 26, 2026
History of Bodie
Bodie started as a remote mining camp in 1859, after prospector Waterman S. Bodey discovered gold in the hills. By 1879-1880, the town grew to about 2,000 buildings and thousands of residents, housing a curious collection of saloons, brothels, a school, and even a Chinatown.
Many of the structures were destroyed in fires in 1892 and 1932, leading to a drastic decline in the town’s population by the 1940s. However, Bodie’s isolation helped to preserve what was still standing, and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park.
California State Parks now maintains about 100-200 surviving buildings in a state of “arrested decay,” meaning that the buildings have been stabilized but not restored. These days, Bodie is considered one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the American West.
