Great Basin National Park in Nevada – Road Trip Day 7 Ep.14

Lex sez:

Just a short drive away from Route 50 within the town of Baker, Nevada is the entrance to Great Basin National Park.  It is filled with ancient natural beauty, such as the iconic Bristlecone Pine trees throughout the park, as well as spectacular scenic views.  Neek, Sar and I decided to start our exploration by checking out the Great Basin Visitor Center for information and advice.

Before we ventured inside the Visitor Center, we noticed when we parked our car outside of it that there was already a spectacular view to see.  The horizon was filled with beautiful mountain peaks!  There was a helpful sign nearby that showed that the highest visible peak was Jeff Davis Peak.  It rises up to 12,771 feet (3,830 meters) and looked impressive.  But the tallest peak in Great Basin National Park wasn’t immediately visible.  That was Mount Wheeler, whose peak rises to 13,063 feet (3,982 meters), but was obscured by closer mountains from our view outside the Visitor Center.

There was a wealth of information inside regarding geological facts as well as the history of those who settled in the area.  The park takes its name from the Great Basin, a dry, mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and Wasatch mountains.  It protects about 77,180 acres (31,230 hectares) of land.  Many of the rocks are from the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago and volcanic activity during the middle and late Cambrian period contributed to the uplift of the surrounding mountains.

A Cross-Section of an Ancient Bristlecone Pine

In addition to many photographs, charts and models that explained and described the many plants, animals and other natural wonders at Great Basin National Park, Neek, Sar and I enjoyed watching a 20 minute orientation film there.  We learned about the early people who lived in the region called the Fremont who lived there about 1,500 to 700 years ago.

They planted corn and squash and hunted as well, and built small villages and made pottery.  The Shoshone came into the area about 700 years ago and they were hunter-gatherers who lived in structures made of brush known as wikiups.  There are still descendants of the early Shoshone who live in Ely, Nevada.

After viewing all the colorful displays in the Visitor Center, we asked one of the rangers in the lobby for advice on what to see.  There are 12 different trails there that range from 0.3 to 13.1 miles (0.48 to 21.08 kilometers).  The ranger told us about the Lehman Caves, which sounded fascinating to me, but because we had a limited amount of time and portions were not accessible to Sar, we decided not to.  We all really wanted to drive somewhere to see spectacular views and check out the ancient Bristlecone Pines.  So the ranger recommended we go to Mather Overlook, which had plenty of Bristlecone Pines and a spectacular view of Wheeler Peak.  That sounded like exactly what we wanted, so we headed back to the car.

The drive to Mather Overlook was a little steep, but fortunately the road was well paved.  After our scary drive through the snowstorm in Wyoming, this drive wasn’t nearly as intimidating!  But there was quite a bit of snow in the upper hills and when we approached Mather Overlook, we could see that roads going to higher elevations were closed.  We found a place to park by the side of the road.  Sar stayed close to the side of the car while checking out the view and Neek and I did a little hiking on the trail.

We found some really gnarly Bristlecone Pines!  They are some of the oldest non-clonal organisms known to humanity, living thousands of years and one was documented in 2012 as being 5,065 years old!

Walking around Mather Overlook, Neek and I really enjoyed breathing in the fresh mountain air.  The view of the valley below on our left was amazing and the majestic Mount Wheeler to our right was equally breathtaking!  We left feeling invigorated by the great outdoors, glad to have witnessed such stunning beauty!