Great Basin National Park

 We decided it was time for a field trip.  We were going a little stir-crazy in the house.  On Wednesday, October 14, we went on a daytrip to Great Basin National Park in Nevada.  It was a long day.  We left at 8:45am and got home at 8:45pm- exactly twelve hours.

Great Basin National Park is not the most well-known of the national parks, but it is a great one.  It is centered on perhaps the highest mountain peak/sky island in the Great Basin--Mount Wheeler, which is about 13,063 feet in height. The great basin includes most of Nevada, and parts of Idaho (southern edge),  Utah (western edge--west of the Wasatch Mountain Range), & California (eastern edge--along eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range).  Thus, the park includes a great variety of habitats from a high desert elevation of about 7,000 feet to about 13,000 feet. It is perhaps best known for its Bristlecone Pine stands in the higher elevations and for the  Lehman Cave in its lower elevation and for a landlocked glacier. 

When we got there, we ate a picnic we had prepared in one of the very nice campgrounds.

Selfies from several of the scenic viewpoints in the park:

One of the most interesting  features of the park are these trees.  Some of these bristlecone pine trees are over 5,000 years old !! 

The elevation was high.  You could feel it!

We were so glad to see some of the fall colors.

Pictures never do it justice, but the Aspens were golden and beautiful- like shimmering gold coins.

I accidentally got some beautiful sunlight through the trees pictures.

We masked up at the visitor's center.

We found the little town at the entrance to the park fascinating.  Baker, Nevada has 65 permanent residents.  Children go to school K-2nd in Baker and 3rd-6th in Garrison, Utah just a few miles down the road. They go to high school in Escadale, Utah.  All of these tiny communities join together to educate their children in this way. They literally live in the middle of nowhere.  We drove out there through Nevada, and home up through Milford, Utah.   That is one long, lonesome road!

It was a fun daytrip!