2 Backpacks, 2 Bikes, a Van and a plan..: Utah and Nevada Days...

Yes, you will notice that I skipped a few states in my entries. I promise I will get back to those and post in more detail over the next week to fill in the gaps of our travel journal. We have been traveling rapidly and seeing much worth noting, but have spent most evenings in areas that have no Internet reception so I have neglected keeping you up to date and posting as things happen. That said, I promise to revisit our many adventures from western Nebraska & Colorado in future posts and give you some highlights of our travels over the Rockies, Denver, etc. For now, I will start with the present…..

After leaving Colorado a few days back, we drove across Utah in one long day, deciding to fore go stops at the National Parks along our route (somewhat), like Arches NP and Canyon lands NP, in lieu of getting closer to our destination. We drove straight through to Nevada and instead chose to visit Great Basin National Park. We felt it made sense to stop and get to know the geology, geography, history, etc of the Great Basin itself, which encompasses pretty much all of Nevada, including the area in western Nevada where we will be spending the summer volunteering. In fact, the non-profit that we will be working directly for is The Great Basin Institute.

We were not disappointed with our choice. We camped in the park for two nights and spent an awe inspiring day going underground in the morning, taking a guided cave tour of the park’s famous Lehman Caves in the early part of the day and then driving to an elevation over 10,000 feet on the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive in the afternoon, stopping to spend a few hours hiking in some of the most amazing terrain we’ve ever hiked, through Pinyon-Juniper woodlands, aspen-lined creek beds into sub-alpine forests and meadows.

We trudged through waist-high snow at times, hard-packed dry rocky terrain at others to be rewarded with stunning views of sub-alpine lakes and snow-capped mountains. The trail to the ancient Bristle cone Pine forest (with Bristle cone Pines said to be 5000 to 7000 years old) was still impassible on foot due to high snowdrifts, but we did see a few of the ancient wonders along our path to the alpine lakes- smaller and younger, perhaps, but still pretty wondrous.

In the park Visitor Center, we learned that the Great Basin is actually a desert, one of the four deserts in the United States. They include the Mohave Desert, the Chihuahuan desert (where we spent last summer), the Sonoran Desert and the Great Basin. Unlike the other deserts, that are “hot” deserts, the Great Basin is a cold desert, with numerous isolated mountain chains, whose highest peaks retain their snow cover even into the early weeks of summer. It’s a strange combination of hot and cold, high and low, wet and dry. One unique aspect of the basin, however, is that no rivers in the Great basin flow to the ocean. All waters stay in the basin, gathering in a limited number of lakes or more often, falling victim to evaporation, leaving only a salt footprint.

We are presently driving across Nevada, expecting to reach Reno this evening. Here are some photos from the last few days.