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. |
| Deep in the Lehman Caves |
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| The Parachute (named cave formation) |
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| An unexpected return to snow-hiking |
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| Stunning Stella Lake |
