DELIGHTS IN GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK

Catching the sunrise at Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Crossing Utah the land of great canyons

Pushing west along Hwy 50, from Moab, Utah we knocked off 320 miles on the road in six hours to reach Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. It was to be our last big hurrah and proved to be a gem of a sanctuary, relatively undiscovered. In the shadow of 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, where 5,000 year old bristlecone pine trees grow on rocky glacial moraines, we were fortunate to obtain the last of the limited sites in Upper Lehman Creek Campground.

People come to GBNP to experience the solitude of the desert, the smell of     sagebrush after a thunderstorm, the darkest of night skies, and the beauty of Lehman Caves. With the gradual melting of snow on Wheeler Peak, streams dance down the mountain, diversity explodes, and bouquets of Prickly-Pear Cacti, Indian Paintbrush , and Globe Mallow begin to dot the late springtime desert.

Here we were able to witness the rare annular solar eclipse happening for the first time in two decades. Half a dozen high power telescopes for viewing the solar eclipse in the sky were set up at the visitor center’s parking. 

A fellow fully dressed as Galileo was on the scene to humor and add dimension to the gathering. A chance to see the stages of the eclipse through the various big telescopes and place our cameras on several of their lense tubes to take photos was pretty cool.. Unfortunately, cloud cover dampened the opportunity for seeing the full ring of fire during the latter stage except for just a few seconds as the moon passed in front of the sun. 

All was not lost, however, as in Great Basin National Park on a clear, moonless night thousands of stars, five of our solar system's eight planets, star clusters, meteors, man-made satellites, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye. The area boasts some of the darkest night skies left in the United States which we will attest to having seen.

Touring Lehman Caves within the park through passages and various chambers to a depth of 194 feet below ground on a ranger 90-minute tour became great fun. The dim lighting along narrow surface pathways illuminated the cave for safety. At one point the power went out leaving us all in total darkness for a period of time. The ranger with his flashlight returned back and found the auxiliary switch to reboot the lighting in the cave.

Those hollow rooms and sculptured walls started thousands of years ago as surface water turned slightly acidic from carbon dioxide gas, mixed with water deep below the surface, dissolving the soluble rock below were amazing. Drop by drop trickles of dissolved limestone formed stalactites , stalagmites, columns, draperies, flowstone, and soda straws within the cavern which continue to grow.

As if a solar eclipse and cave adventure weren’t enough there was still Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive yet to conquer in the park. With our Jeep we whined up the mountain range through a landscape of forest limber pines, pinon trees, aspens, and a few bristlecone pine trees  before the road ended at the summit’s 10,500 ft elevation parking lot. From there hiking trails lead higher up to Wheeler Peak at 13,500 ft in elevation. Absolutely worth giving it a bit of a go I suggested. Now most good hikers usually have some high altitude training conditioning. So you can imagine it wasn’t long before we turned and hoofed it back down the trail short on oxygen. 

The most we conquered after that was a few photos from below of the glaciers up on the peak . 

All in all a solar eclipse, cave spelunking, gazing at thousands of bright stars in a dark night sky, viewing the Great Basin region on a grand scale from Nevada’s highest peak along with another sunrise as we departed the park made for a grand time before continuing further westward on the long haul home.