Great Basin National Park, Nevada

...with a companion story, America's Great Empty Has Pleasant Surprises

Nevada’s Little-Known Gem

Most people put pedal to the metal when traveling through Nevada, hoping to spend the least time possible traversing its seemingly endless and barren desert basins and mountain ranges. But a smaller group knows that this driest and emptiest of the Lower 48 states holds great rewards for those patient enough to find them.

Perhaps the greatest of Nevada’s hidden treasures – though its existence is there for all to see who can read a map – is Great Basin National Park, a fairly new unit, established by Ronald Reagan in 1986. It stands near the eastern end of the Great Basin (see sidebar story, "America's Great Empty" ), a few miles short of the Utah border, encompassing the top of the South Snake Range, one of the highest in the Great Basin. (The park’s loftiest mountain, Wheeler Peak, at 13,063 feet, is only a little shorter than Nevada’s tallest mountain, Boundary Peak, which is all the way on the other side of the state.)

This is not a big park. Its 120 square miles make it 1/10^th the size of Yosemite, 1/30^th the size of Yellowstone. Nor is it well visited. The astounding little secret about Great Basin is that it draws fewer than 100,000 visitors per year – less than 3% of what Yosemite or Yellowstone attract.

Even though access to Great Basin is just off U.S. Highway 50, Nevada’s major central artery, the highway isn’t heavily traveled. Life magazine (see "America's Great Empty") once labeled Hwy. 50 “the loneliest road in America.” The good news is that the prospect of visitors having to inch their way toward the park entrance behind scores of lumbering motor homes is not likely in these parts. The bad news is the park’s isolation, especially from major towns that can serve up distractions and supplies. (Nearby Baker, NV, has two gas stations, two restaurants, two bars and two motels – that’s it. Ely, population 5,000 and the next major settlement, is 62 miles west from the park.)

But what a place to take the road less traveled! Within Great Basin’s boundaries is an astounding array of features and terrain. The park’s climb along its main road from its lower boundaries at 4,500 feet most of the way up Wheeler Peak to 10,000 feet takes visitors from sage-scented desert up through juniper and pinyon pine forests, then on through surprisingly lush stands of  oak, pine, fir, spruce and aspen. This thick forest is hard to see from Hwy. 50 far below, and visitors are invariably surprised to see it in the middle of desert. The island nature of the park begins to assert itself.

Beyond the tall conifers is the realm of bristlecone pines, some of them among the oldest trees on earth (one park bristlecone is almost 5,000 years old), and, finally, a barren upland of tundra, scree, rock and ice. The glacial cirque carved near the top of Wheeler Peak shelters a remnant of  the biggest and oldest glacier in the Great Basin. During the Ice Age, 15,000 years ago, most of the Great Basin’s peaks were swathed in glaciers and perpetual snow.

Three campgrounds, one of them at almost 10,000 feet, give access to small lakes, streams and hiking trails at the heart of the park. This is an isolated refuge where visitors can unwind, safe from crowds or people in a rush.

There’s one more treasure: Lehman Caves, one of the biggest caves between New Mexico and Oregon. The spectacular limestone cavern, whose building material was laid down by ancient sea creatures 600 million years ago, pushes its way under Wheeler Peak through a series of “rooms,” and features all of the classic cave formations: stalactites, stalagmites, columns, “draperies,” “soda straws,” “popcorn” and rare circular structures, called shields, that at times can look like stone jellyfish.

At an altitude of almost 6,800 feet, the park’s visitor center in summer is often cooler than the desert 2,500 feet below. But even on hot days, Lehman Caves promises relief with its steady 50-degree F temperature. Visitors entering the 1/4-mile cavern from bright sunlight and heat often disbelieve the advice they may want to take a sweater.

A final caution about the park’s scenic drive from the visitor center up to 10,000 feet: the climb down is fast and can be hard on brakes. Use turnouts to stop and cool off your brakes if you start smelling roasted lining. If you can remember, bring along extra water to slosh on your wheels to cool down brakes and cut short waiting time.

– Patrick Totty