Getting to Know Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park is one of the least visited parks in the Lower 48 States, which you can understand when you realize that the park entrance and visitor center are not far off U.S. Highway 50 in Eastern Nevada, which bills itself as "The Loneliest Highway in America."

The park was formed in 1986 by combining Lehman Caves National Monument (established in 1922) with national forest land comprising most of the South Snake Range, a desert mountain island including Wheeler Peak and many rare bristlecone pines.  Wheeler Peak boasts the southernmost glacier in North America.  Perhaps you can understand why we were curious about visiting this unique park.

Here was our first view of Wheeler Peak as we drove up U.S. Highway 93 through the impossibly expansive Spring Valley:

After a stop at the Visitor Center to pick the ranger's brains on what options we had, we decided to spend our first day exploring as much of the park as we could by road.  Our first stop was the road to Lexington Arch, in the southeast corner of the park.  Lexington Arch is one of the largest limestone arches in the Western United States.  Our drive took us from Baker, Nevada, where we are camped, to Garrison, Utah, and back across the Utah-Nevada state line along 11 miles of dirt road to get close to the arch.  Along the way, we passed desert lake filled to overflowing by the large amount of snow and rainfall this region received this winter.  The peaks of the South Snake Range in the Park are visible in the distance:

Approaching the park from the east, we had to open a ranch fence at the Nevada-Utah State Line.  We're sure there's a reason why the range fence line ran along the state line, but, since this was all BLM land, it is possible that the BLM permits open grazing in the part of Nevada, but not here in Utah.

Our road started climbing quickly as we approached the park border.  Rangers had warned us that the road would be muddy and snowy, but we found the road to be dry and in good condition:

Climbing into the foothills, we found the ruins of an old settler's cabin tucked into the Lexington Creek valley:

The lush vegetation resulting from all the wetness this winter made for a colorful scene:

The trailhead for Lexington Arch is 11 miles in.  We made it 10.64 miles before being stopped by deep snow across the road:

We decided that it would not be possible to get to the arch without hiking about 2.5 miles in by snowshoe, which we decided we'll do later in our stay.  In the meantime, our stopping point was perfect for lunch and a scrambling rock climb in the sandstone formations rising above the road and Lexington Creek:

The snow, coupled with the spooky look of an entire forest of juniper trees that were dead from a fire some years ago, and the dark peaks, made for dramatic scenery:

The black-grey-white of the burned trees highlighted the subtle peach and gold colors of the rocks:

Climbing to the top of the nearby ridge, we got a clear view of the snow-covered road extending beyond our Jeep -- the route we hope to snowshoe in a few days:

The ridge also gave us breathtaking views of the peaks around us:

There are five roads into the park from various directions.  We finished our drive on Lexington Canyon Road and moved north to Snake Creek Road, which leads into a series of campgrounds along Snake Creek in the lower-middle reaches of the park:

Snake Creek Road led us past some unique sandstone and limestone formations, including this unnamed one --

-- and this one, known as Monkey Rock.  We surmised it had this name because its three main prominences appear to resemble the "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil" monkeys.  From this view, however, that resemblance wasn't clear, but we did discover a small round arch in one of the upper prominences:

Someone in the park took the trouble to preserve and memorialize this "Historical Outhouse" with a descriptive plaque.  It served the Monkey Rock Group Campsite in the early 1900's:

Our next drive was up the main road in the park -- Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive -- which winds from the Lehman Caves Visitor Center at about 6,500 feet elevation, up to a dramatic cirque, sitting at about 10,000 feet elevation between Wheeler Peak and Jeff Davis Peak, in which hikers can gaze on Wheeler Peak's permanent glacier.  Unfortunately, the road is closed for snow at about 7,500 feet, and we weren't able to reach anything of major interest.  We stopped at the Lehman Creek campgrounds to explore whether it would be desirable to try to fish Lehman Creek, known (as other streams in the park are) for being the home to rare Cutthroat Trout.  Sadly, the snow blanketed the streamside trail so much, and the stream was so overgrown with willows and brush, and the stream so tiny, that we concluded it wouldn't be much fun to fish that creek -- at least during this time of year.  All we returned with was this snowy trailhead photo:

Back down we drove to explore the fourth main road, Baker Creek Road, which we were able to drive a short way up to a group campsite, but not far enough to get close to Baker Creek for another possible try at fishing for cutthroat trout.

Rats.  And the fifth road into the park, Strawberry Creek Road at the north end of the park, is closed due to a wildfire a year or two ago in that whole section of the park.

You might think from this story that our visit isn't likely to be rewarding.  Not true, mon freu.  It is true that the most exciting feature, a drive and hike up into the Wheeler Peak cirque won't happen this time.  However, we're going to tour Lehman Caves tomorrow; we plan a snowshoe to Lexington Arch after the rains come through on Wednesday and Thursday; and we'll still have two days to explore other parts of the park or nearby wild areas.  So, stay tuned.