Great Basin National Park Things to Do Tips by mtncorg

PRONGHORN ANTELOPE

Down low, towards the desert floor, driving to or from Baker, you will see pronghorn antelope dancing among the sage of the desert floor. The Great Basin desert is one of four warm weather types found within the US - Mojave, Chihuahuan and Sonoran being the other three. Sagebrush is symbollic of this desert. Pronghorn feed on the sagebrush and the rabbitbrush. They are capable of speeds of over 50 mph. At night, you will hear another well-know inhabitant of this desert - the coyote.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

SOUTHERN BACKCOUNTRY

Th view off to the south from atop Wheeler Peak brings more peaks, more cirques and more bristlecones. This is the backcountry of the Park that few ever visit. More marvels await those willing.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 8931

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

CIRQUE VIEW

Wander from the heliography stateion remnants over to the tall stone cairn just to the east. Here you can look down into the cirqu off the easter Headwall. You can make out the Scenic Wheeler Peak Drive as it snakes up through the hills. Your trail, the lakes. Lots of energy was expended getting here. Enjoy.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

TOP OF WHEELER PEAK

After 3-4 hours of perserverance, you reach the summit. Views go in all directions. Breaths come slowly. You will find an old rock shelter atop that is the reamins of a heliograph station - canvas tents were used as roofs. Heliography was an experimental system using the sun and mirrors to send messages quickly from one peak to another in a Morse code-like fashion. The station was used throughout the 1880's and people would spend long intervals atop the peak.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

WHEELER PEAK TRAIL

From Stella Lake, you come to the start of a trail that will take you to the very top of the Park. The trail climbs 3000 feet/909 meters in 4 miles, demanding some physical condition. The hardest part of the hike will be enduring the high altitude encountered. Wheeler Peak tops out at 13063 feet/3959 meters. From the lake, the trail switchbacks up to the western ridge above and then heads south on the broad, open ridge to the summit. Up high, rocks, pervail. Take water.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

BRISTLECONES AND CIRQUES

The trees do eventually die. Erosion will expose their root systems, drying them out. But as in life, so it is in death. Ages go by before they eventually die. 90% of the tree can be dead, yet a little piece of bark can remain connected to a little piece of limb which can be connected to a little piece of root. The wood is so dense that a tree can stand for another 1000 years after death!

Going on from the grove, you come into the literal Hall of the Mountain Gods. Walss rise vertically on three sides, as you pick your way across the rock. The small glacier of Wheeler Peak glistens ahead.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

ANCIENT BRISTLECONES

Other destinations call from the roadend, as well. One of them is the ancient bristlecone forest lying tortuosly among the rocks of the glacial moraine of the old Wheeler Peak glacier. Bristlecones can be found in several areas of the Great Basin - there are many more trees in the southern regions of this Park - given the right mix of soil and altitude. Lower down, like the sequoia, these trees will grow much larger and faster, plus their life span will be much shorter. Up here, extreme altitude, dolomite rock and very arid conditions combine to dramatically slow growth and extend the tree's life to truly Methuselan ages. The slower the growth, the older the age that seems to be able to be obtained. I have to admit to not being much of a religious person, but to walk among these trees, realizing their struggle to survive over the centuries and their absolute primeval nature, puts me more in a sense of awe than any walk through the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, or any temple or cathedral could. These trees have struggled and lived up here on Wheeler Peak for 3000 - 4000+ years. That is 1000 years laonger than the oldest sequoias, 1200 years older than the Egyptian pyramids!!

The oldest living thing - 4900 years - was cut down up here. Better tree core smapling techniques makes such drastic methods unnecessary now, luckily. The oldest tree on record now is another Bristlecone in the White Mountains of California at 4767 years.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

STELLA LAKE

From the Cave, the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive takes off rising to 10000 feet/3030 meters in 10 miles. The road pases three campground and a glorious overlook which lets you look directly into the glacial cirque on the eastern face of Wheeler Peak. At the roadend, trails go off. One of the easier trails wanders up to Stella Lake. Here, the early morning view of Wheeler Peak mirrored in the waters of Stella Lake is classic. The trail is about one hour from the road - out and back.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

LEHMAN'S CAVE RANCH

Ab Lehman's first ranch was almost two miles down Lehman Creek from where the Cave is located. Afte he found the Cave, he built a new ranch with new orchards, shortly after 1885. Apricot trees still give up a bountifull harvest over 100 years later. Bon appetit.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/

LEHMAN CAVES

Absalom Lehman was a longtime prospector who wasn't very good at it. He finally realized he could do better supplying miners food than by prospecting himself. He started a small ranch, in 1869, a little over a mile down from where the cave is located, planting fruit orchards. He, officially, discovered the Cave in 1885 - though evidence points out that native Indians had known about the Cave long before old Ab. After the inital discovery, Ab promoted the Cave as an attraction in its own right and guided 800 people through them in the first year. He died in 1891 and not much happened until 1922 when a campaign was launched establishing Lehman Caves National Monument. The National Park Service took over in 1933 and the Cave have slowly been improved upon for the normal visitor over the years: electric lighting, paved walkway, a new entrance tunnel and, much later, a new exit tunnel which makes the whole walk through the Cave flat.

There is a small fee for the guided tour of the caves and you can reserve a spot with a telephone call. The tour takes about 1 1/2 hours and the inside temperature is a cool 52F/11C. The Cave is a 'living' cave meaning 100% humidity and depostiion still occuring either as stalagmites or stalagtites - unlike Carlsbad Caverns which is a dry cave, though Carlsbad is on a much larger scale than the much smaller Cave here. There is a small visitor center nad gift shop, plus a short movie describing the Cave's formation and history.

Address: GBNP, 100 Great Basin Nat. Park, Baker, NV 89311

Directions: five miles west of Baker, NV, near the Nevada-Utah border. Driving distances in miles are Salt Lake City: 234; Las Vegas: 286; Reno: 385; and Cedar City: 142.

Phone: (775) 234-7331

Website: http://www.nps.gov/grba/