Great Basin is a National Park we weren’t very excited about going to…and it may been left out of our loop because it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. Since we were kind of stuck in Salt Lake City anyway we decided this was the time to do the almost 5 hour drive from Salt Lake City. We would never really drive to this area of Nevada probably not go this direction again as it isn’t really close to anything so it was a good thing to get out of the way in the 2 1/2 days we had before we could pick up our generator again. Plus, any other direction we went there was too much to see and it would take us longer than that many days and we wouldn’t want to have backtracked again. You know what they say when you’re not expecting much it’s often better than you expected. I’m really happy we did make it out this way. You’re driving through hours of desert to get there. Actually we drove on what was what is dubbed “the Loneliest Road in America”, highway 50 between Salt Lake City and Reno.
One thing we were kind of excited about was that the “southern taurids” were happening in the night sky and Great Basin is known for its night sky. It is so far away from anywhere else it is one of the areas in America that has the least amount of light pollution. Unfortunately it was almost a full moon and so the sky was very bright. We did not see any of the fireballs we were hoping to see.
Light pollution is a real thing… In 2016 Great Basin National Park has been designated an “International Dark Sky Park”
Great Basin National Park lies to the East of the Great Basin Desert. There are 4 defined in North America. The Great Basin Desert is huge and covers the entire area Sierra to the Wasatch Mountains. The uplifting of the Sierra Nevada 15 million years ago created the rainshadow which is now the desert. They say that Great Basin National Parka is an island in terms of fauna. It’s water system is not attached to the ocean in any way and there’s so much desert around it that no animal can make its way into the national park or leave the national Park. Wheeler Peak with an elevation of 13,065’ high, enough to cause its own weather for Great Basin National Park, The pic is high enough that the weather needs to drop it’s moisture to cross the mountain pass. another interesting thing is that you go through five ecosystems in a very short period of time. Desert, Sagebrush Prairie, Juniper Pinyon Pine, Alpine, Sub Alpine.
This whole area is also known as Basin and Range. The thinning of the crust created mountains and then over time over because of erosion it created flat basins.
We started off in the visitor center with a snake presentation. The Sonoran King Snake tried to mimic the poisonous Coral Snake. To tell them apart here’s a little riddle. Red on Yellow, Kill a Fellow. Red on Black, Friend of Jack.
The Gopher Snake tries to mimic the Rattlesnake. They’re very similar in color and the gopher snake is even able to make a hissing sound similar to a rattlesnake. What you really need to look at is the tail. Want to go for snake it’s stripes go all the way down to its tail.
One of the things Great Basin National Park is known for are the Lehman caves and the Bristlecone Pine‘s.
We found out we weren’t able to drive up to Wheeler Peak because we’re over the 24 foot vehicle allowance. We are pretty bummed because that’s where all the old Bristlecone Pine trees are. So we decided to do the Lehman Cave tour first and maybe we could finagle a ride up there.
Lehman Caves. it’s pretty neat down there. It always stays a constant 52°F no matter if it’s the summer or the winter. There is a one natural opening that is 150 feet above the ground. Of course they have since built an entrance for tours. One thing that was pretty remarkable is that for a few minutes they turned out all the lights and it’s very surprising that you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Period. Whatsoever. To the point where both Edwin and I both hit our own noses with our hands looking for our hands. You don’t really think that things can be really that 100% dark.
Lehman Caves is by no means the largest cave in United States. It’s actually quite small, only a few miles long. The mammoth caves in Kentucky are huge as well as Carlsbad caverns and Arizona. But what is significant about the Lehman caves is that it contains over 300 shield formations. The Carlsbad Cavern has 2 for example.
Quick science: Water drips down from the ground water above. The calcite in the water is what makes up the formations. There are two distinct formations; stalactites and stalagmites. To easily know the difference which one grows from the ceiling down and which from grows from the ground up… Stalactites has a “c” for ceiling, they grow down from the ceiling. Stalagmites has a “g” in it and they grow up from the ground. When a stalactite and a stalagmite meet they form a column.
After the cave tour we had lunch in the visitor center and we were surprisingly floored by how good the food was. They’re handmade potato chips were off the hook. We also start looking for a ride up to Wheeler Peak and the cook was nice enough to offer us his car (not drive us up, but give us his keys and return it) but he said don’t worry about the 24 foot length restriction…our car would make it up just fine especially since there weren’t that many people.
The drive up in our car was totally fine and I’m glad we took the RV. We did the 3 mile walk up to the Bristlecone Pine Forest. I still remember my dad taking us to Bristlecone Pines in the Eastern Sierra‘s when I was little and I’m happy we came here. There is something very very cool about these trees.
Bristlecone Pine trees can live up to 5000 years old. It’s pretty crazy to think how much the world they have seen in this one area. They are used to growing an adverse conditions 9 to 11,000 feet in elevation, with little moisture.
Because of cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds, and short growing seasons, the trees grow very slowly. that is also what gives the Bristlecone Pine tree it’s an usual swirly luck because it is growing in adverse conditions all the time. It’s needles, which grow in bunches of five, can remain on the tree for forty years. Even the dead trees can remain standing for thousands of years.
We ended up taking a detour to an alpine lake. So happy we did because it had a thin layer of ice across the whole lake and skipping rocks, throwing ice, and listening to the sounds of the pieces skip across the top
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