Great Basin National Park, Nevada

One of our goals in retirement is to visit every National Park. I don't know if that will happen, but we've seen several so far. The Great Basin N.P. is the newest park in the U.S. The great basin itself is a 220,000 square mile area where all the water doesn't run outside the basin. No river or stream connects to another and heads to an ocean or body of water. The main attraction in the park is the Lehman Caves. They were discovered in the late 1800's. Mr. Lehman used a candle to traverse the cave. The ranger, who was our guide, had a candle and showed us what it would be like. We saw 2 feet in front of us. In the early 1900's it was an attraction that was used for weddings, parties, boy scout camp outs, and dances. With all the stalactites and stalagmites in the caves if people could break them off they took them, which is a shame. At least they are very hard, like rock, and it's not easy to do.

The other part of the Great Basin N.P. is 10,000 feet up. It has a grove of bristle cone pines that are between 1500 and 3500 years old. Their needles can be 40-50 years old. Also there was 2 alpine lakes and the only glacier in Nevada. The glacier was 8 miles back on a trail, so we bypassed that one, but we did go on a 6 mile round trip hike to see the grove and the lakes. Did you know that Nevada is the third most mountainous state behind Alaska and California?

We camped by tent in Ely, NV and the weather was perfect. It was a wonderful trip and I'm looking forward to seeing more of our great country. If anyone still reads this, know that I still miss my friends and the beauty of Alaska. Bye for now, Vicki & Ed