As previously mentioned, even for stopovers, we try and schedule a two-night stay. During our no-travel-with the RV day in Lone Pine, Claudette expressed a desire to visit the Cerro Gordo Ghost Town. It turned out to be a stressful experience. Once we got off the paved road, we still had an 8-mile drive ahead of us on a gravel road. Claudette was driving, because I voiced concerns about going there. As it turns out, the road was worse than we had both expected, in that not only was it a one lane road with very few pull-offs that would have allowed an oncoming vehicle to pass, but as it progressed towards our destination, we were driving along either a steep rock cliff (we had to fold the rear view mirrors inwards), or a steep drop-off (no guardrails anywhere along the route) or both at the same time. In addition to that the road had many sharp turns, sharp enough that our long-bed F350 was pretty much the longest vehicle that could “safely” be driven up that road. In one instance there was a crest in the road where we couldn’t even see in advance which way the road went afterwards.
We made it to the top, and were greeted by the property owner who gave a a quick briefing about the property and its mining past. Back when the mine was in operation, during its peak, Cerro Gordo was home to some 4,700 people
The abandoned mine site itself is not that noteworthy, but while there, we discovered that the current owner actually has a YouTube channel that covers the topic in more detail https://www.youtube.com/@GhostTownLiving