When I am a docent at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, I often talk to visitors about deserts. Since we were taking a different route north to Portland, how could we not stop at the Great Basin Desert National Park?
We left our hotel in Ely, Nevada and drove east towards Great Basin Desert National Park. To the south of Ely, we could see snow covered mountains - we are not sure, but think they are called the Confusion Range (at least we were confused).
Ely is at 6,437 feet elevation. Our route took us up and over the mountains through a pass that is 7,722 feet elevation, then down into Spring Valley, past the north Spring Valley Wind Farm and then back up through Sacramento Pass at 7,162 then back down into the Snake Valley and Baker, Nevada at 5,315 feet elevation. We stopped at the Great Basin Desert Visitor Center there where we learned about the great basin between the Wasach Mountains in Utah and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California - it is a true basin where none of the rivers run to the sea but rather end in the basin and water then evaporates - hence, things like the Great Salt Lake are formed.
We then drove into the park to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center to check in for our 1:00 p.m. tour. The visitor center is at 6,825 feet elevation. We then headed out and up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive - it is an eleven mile drive that takes you up over 10,000 feet elevation.
Our first stop was the Osceola Ditch Trailhead. In the 1890s, in an effort to get more gold out of the mountains, they planned to divert water from Lehman Creek to Osceola - some 18 miles. The project was eventually abandoned.
We then drove on to Mather Overlook. Stephen Tyng Mather was a wealthy industrialist who pushed for creation of the National Park Service and was the first NPS director from 1917 to 1929. After his death, this was one of three plaques placed in his honor (the others are in Acadia National Park in Maine and Zion National Park in Utah).
Wheeler Peak from Mather Overlook is an impressive sight - 13,159 feet tall.
Here is a short video I shot at Mather Overlook showing the great views of Wheeler and surrounding mountains.
We then drove on to Bristlecone Parking Area - the gate on the road to the Wheeler Peak Camp was still closed because of the snow. Here is another short video I shot of the snow where you can hear the mountain stream there.
We walked around for a while and went out on the trail for about 100 yards. It is beautiful here but the trails still have too much snow to hike any distance.
We then drove back down to the visitors center for our picnic lunch and tour of the caves. We had a very informative tour led by Ranger Rebecca. We learned about how the materials formed slowly over eons as the water table dropped and how many have been named after food - popcorn, turnips, bacon, etc.
There are double door airlocks at the entrance and exit, and they monitor the humidity (that white thing is one of the monitoring devices). And twice per year they have lint parties to remove accumulated lint left from humans in the caves.
Another interesting and informative day is done.
We left our hotel in Ely, Nevada and drove east towards Great Basin Desert National Park. To the south of Ely, we could see snow covered mountains - we are not sure, but think they are called the Confusion Range (at least we were confused).
Ely is at 6,437 feet elevation. Our route took us up and over the mountains through a pass that is 7,722 feet elevation, then down into Spring Valley, past the north Spring Valley Wind Farm and then back up through Sacramento Pass at 7,162 then back down into the Snake Valley and Baker, Nevada at 5,315 feet elevation. We stopped at the Great Basin Desert Visitor Center there where we learned about the great basin between the Wasach Mountains in Utah and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California - it is a true basin where none of the rivers run to the sea but rather end in the basin and water then evaporates - hence, things like the Great Salt Lake are formed.
We then drove into the park to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center to check in for our 1:00 p.m. tour. The visitor center is at 6,825 feet elevation. We then headed out and up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive - it is an eleven mile drive that takes you up over 10,000 feet elevation.
Our first stop was the Osceola Ditch Trailhead. In the 1890s, in an effort to get more gold out of the mountains, they planned to divert water from Lehman Creek to Osceola - some 18 miles. The project was eventually abandoned.
We then drove on to Mather Overlook. Stephen Tyng Mather was a wealthy industrialist who pushed for creation of the National Park Service and was the first NPS director from 1917 to 1929. After his death, this was one of three plaques placed in his honor (the others are in Acadia National Park in Maine and Zion National Park in Utah).
Wheeler Peak from Mather Overlook is an impressive sight - 13,159 feet tall.
Here is a short video I shot at Mather Overlook showing the great views of Wheeler and surrounding mountains.
We then drove on to Bristlecone Parking Area - the gate on the road to the Wheeler Peak Camp was still closed because of the snow. Here is another short video I shot of the snow where you can hear the mountain stream there.
We walked around for a while and went out on the trail for about 100 yards. It is beautiful here but the trails still have too much snow to hike any distance.
We then drove back down to the visitors center for our picnic lunch and tour of the caves. We had a very informative tour led by Ranger Rebecca. We learned about how the materials formed slowly over eons as the water table dropped and how many have been named after food - popcorn, turnips, bacon, etc.
There are double door airlocks at the entrance and exit, and they monitor the humidity (that white thing is one of the monitoring devices). And twice per year they have lint parties to remove accumulated lint left from humans in the caves.
Another interesting and informative day is done.
No comments:
Post a Comment