Great Basin National Park

Summer Road Trip!!!

This is a relief map of the Great Basin stretching from The Sierra Nevada in the west to the Wasatch Range in the east.  Our first stop was the Great Basin National Park.....(yeah we only learned about it because we saw it on a map!)

The drive through Nevada is a reminder extractive mining is still alive and well!

The main entrance into the park is from the east and enters the Snake Range of the Basin and Range area.

Wheeler Peak (13,065 feet) is the second tallest mountain in Nevada.

From the Snake Range, looking east into the flat "basin" area that leads to the next set of mountains.

We made reservations at Grey Cliffs Campground in the park.  Here are the grey cliffs.

Onions new innovation......instead of a ground tarp!

Our first animal sighting!! 

Our go to camp dinner.....pasta with alfredo sauce, chopped up fried chicken and purple cabbage for some veggies!

Onions requires a shower every evening, so it's a part of the daily process.

The view as I waited for Onions to finish his shower!

On our second day we drove into a more obscure part of the park for a hike.

We started with an easy loop hike......

Then this! I tripped and ripped the a big chunk of skin open on my knee.  So our day was occupied with a three hour round trip to the biggest town (Delta, UT) with a community hospital.

11 stiches!  The knee cap abrasions are just my normal wear and tear!

In our traditional "gotta eat some Chinese food," on our way back to camp Onions tried a "pupu platter."  It was the worst Chinese food we have EVER eaten!

Driving back to Great Basin National Park, we saw this.....

Windy and dry......so this is what Burningman must be like.

Achievement!

Listening to Onions....I'm now required to hike with kneepads and my AFO.

Lehman Caves tour.  Pretty cool.

They call this "cave bacon!"

After the tour of the caves, we drove backup to Wheeler Peak to try and do the hike to see the famed Bristlecone Pines.

Alas, the trail was still snow-covered and we couldn't find the pines.  So we punted and called it a day.

We were scheduled to camp a third night at Great Basin but punted because we felt we had seen the park.  So we headed off into Utah.

The drive along I-70 in eastern Utah (near Arches) is spectacular!!!  Especially at sunset.