One of these West Coast ghost towns costs $8, one costs nothing, and one costs four miles on your feet

Ghost towns have a reputation for being free — just old buildings sitting in the sun, no admission required. That’s not actually true on the West Coast, where three of the best-preserved mining towns each make you pay in a completely different currency.

One wants $8 at the gate. One won’t take a dime from you. And one doesn’t care about your wallet at all — it just wants four miles out of your legs.

—

Psst — we made you a West Coast Adventure Map. Nearly 1,900 of our favorite spots, already pinned, ready to load into Google Maps in two clicks — grab it here.

—

Bodie, California — $8, and a rough road to get there

Bodie sits east of Highway 395 near Bridgeport, and it doesn’t make getting there easy. The last three miles of the access road off State Route 270 are unpaved, washboard gravel — the kind that rattles everything in your glovebox loose.

Once you’re through the gate, it’s $8 for adults and $5 for kids ages 4 to 17 (3 and under are free). That gets you into a town that held roughly 8,000 people at its 1880s gold rush peak and now sits frozen at over 8,300 feet, with nearly 200 buildings still standing exactly as their owners left them.

Bodie State Historic Park runs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Memorial Day weekend through September 30, then shifts to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the rest of the year. Bring cash — the entrance kiosk isn’t always staffed, and the self-pay envelope in the parking lot doesn’t make change.

Sumpter, Oregon — free, and in no hurry to get rid of you

Drive into the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City and Sumpter won’t ask you for a dollar. The town itself and the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area are both free to walk, including the 1,200-ton dredge that clawed roughly $4 million in gold out of the valley floor between 1935 and 1954.

You can wander the 1.5 miles of wetland trails around the dredge on your own or catch a ranger-led tour on weekends. The park is open to visitors aboard the dredge May through October, and if you time it right, there’s a free gold-panning demonstration — you even get to keep whatever you find.

Monte Cristo, Washington — free entry, but you’re hiking in

This one doesn’t take your money at all. It takes your legs. The old mining town sits about four miles up a washed-out logging road in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and there’s no driving it — a 2006 flood took out the road for good.

From the Barlow Pass trailhead, where the pavement ends, it’s roughly 8.5 miles round trip with about 636 feet of elevation gain — a mostly flat, easy grade that follows the old road along the South Fork Sauk River. You’ll need a NW Forest Pass to park at the trailhead, but the town itself, with its scattered mining relics, doesn’t cost a thing once you’re standing in it.

So which price would you actually pay — the $8, the four miles, or neither, since Sumpter’s sitting right there for free?

Trip tips: grab a rental car to get out here, lock in your hotel before the good rooms are gone, or skip both and book a camper van instead.

Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.