Calico Ghost Town
Final night of the trip is at Calico Ghost Town Campground just east of Barstow, CA. The campground is situated within a big stone gully which was once part of one of the most lucrative silver mines in California back in the 1880s. Whenever I book reserved camp spots I always try to choose the plot that seems most remote within the campground. In this case it had to be the one at the very upper tip of the canyon, which unbeknownst to me is actually a "group site" so it turned out to be frickin massive haha! But yeah it certainly was nicely tucked away, with the big row of fancy RVers down around the bend, and then me up here in the corner 🤣 Lots of nice people here too, made friends with some awesome folks who were camping in their self restored vintage pop up camper, and then a family even came by selling Girl Scout Cookies! 👍
Calico Ghost Town is a neat sight to see, even though it isn't really a "ghost town." It's actually more of a restored town replicating what it looked like in the 1880s when they struck silver here in Calico, CA. Most of the original buildings had been destroyed years ago through various fires, but I'll say they did a pretty amazing job of recreating these wooden buildings to look and feel authentic. Initially I was slightly bummed to learn the aren't original, but that feeling quickly fades as you still very much feel transported back in time walking around here. I'm enthralled by anything out of the late 1800s era so it's super cool to experience a reenactment like this, and also just to appreciate all the love and care that goes into restoring and preserving something like this. As long as you can look past the vaguely theme-park aspects of it I guess, considering it was Walter Knott who funded the original restoration project in the 1950s. I have plans to visit both Bodie Ghost Town and Cerro Gordo Ghost Town later this year too, which I look forward to. Would take additional ghost town recommendations as well!
