Great Basin National Park

 Mark and I took a road trip to Great Basin National Park. It's in Nevada, and only a 6.5 hour drive for us, so we headed there when he got off work on a Thursday afternoon. We drove straight to where we would do our first hike Friday morning, and slept in our car at the trailhead.

On Friday morning, we got up early and set out to do the Wheeler Peak/Alpine Lake/Rock Glacier loop. It was almost 13 miles, and 4000 feet of climbing. All the climbing happened in the first few miles to get to the top of Wheeler Peak. It was tough, but the views were totally worth it. 

We saw 5 deer right when we got started, and lots more on the rest of the hike.

We had a good view of where we were headed for most of the hike. 

It was a little daunting to know that's where we were headed.

Getting closer, but we still had the hardest part left to make it to the top.

We made it! The views were incredible!

You can see Pyramid Peak in the distance behind me. That  is where we were headed the next day.

Taking it all in!

I love our park adventures together.

On our way back down. 

We went past the two alpine lakes, and I guess we've become spoiled with where we live, because we chuckled at the lakes a little bit. Nothing like the alpine lakes in our neck of the woods. But then we headed to this amazing area called Rock Glacier. It was so cool, and we wished we could have stayed out there more, exploring. We had to hurry, because we had a reservation to visit the caves we needed to be back for.

The Rock Glacier area.

A quick selfie, and then we had to bust it back to make it on time.

After our hike, we did the Wheeler Peak scenic drive. It's a 12 mile stretch of road the winds through part of the park. Then we went to our Lehman Cave Tour. The caves were huge and awesome, but we had a strange group. I leaned over to Mark and said, "We're with all the old people." Then a minute later I leaned over again and said, "Oh my gosh! We're the old people now!" 😂 But for reals, they were all asking questions just to hear themselves talk! Who the heck cares what the millipedes eat in the cave! We kept sneaking away from the group taking selfies and cracking ourselves up. Yep, that's how mature we are. 😂

This is the fun popcorn stuff in the cave.

The caves were awesome, and kept opening up to these huge rooms.

Ditching our group to take pictures!

We were cracking up right here! After 90 minutes of listening to dumb questions, we had to make our own entertainment. Someone asked what was above us outside where we stood. Um....dirt!

After our cave tour, we had time for one more hike. We did 6.5 miles on the Osceola Ditch Trail. The trail was through remnants of an 18 mile long channel built by gold miners in the 1880s. That was pretty cool, but a fire had gone through most of the area, so we were just hiking along the burnt side of a mountain. Not really our favorite, but it gave us the rest of the miles we wanted for the day.

Hiking in the ditch.

Burnt trees.

On our way to the trailhead we were sleeping at that night, we saw the cutest family of wild turkeys.

Saturday we started early again, and did the Baker Lake/Pyramid Peak/Johnson Lake Loop. It was by far my favorite of the weekend! It was close to 14 miles, and 4300 feet of gain. So gorgeous, and Pyramid Peak was even better than the famous Wheeler Peak.

We started out with a great sunrise.

There were a lot of aspens on this one, and we could see patches that were starting to change colors.

This is Baker Lake. It has a perfect backdrop, and I'm sure n a non drought year, it would be stunning, but we could walk right out to where the middle of the lake usually is. Sooooo low!

Baker Lake

Heading toward Pyramid Peak. We climbed right up that crazy steep ridge to the left of Mark. It was slow going, but awesome!

Starting up the crazy part. This angle doesn't do it justice.

The view of the mountain ranges from the top was incredible. I loved all the different shades of blue and gray that they were. I've never been to the Smokey Mountain, but in my mind, this is what I picture them looking like.

From the top of Pyramid Peak, looking across at Wheeler Peak, where we were the day before. 

The view from a different direction.

I wish you could get the feel for how cool it was up there, but pictures will never capture it.

Made it down!

Now headed off the sketchy ridge to Johnson Lake.

This ridge was a bit crazy to come down.

There were miner's cabins and a whole Johnson Mill settlement. 

We were almost back, and we turned around and saw this view of Pyramid Peak. This one gives a better perspective of how high it was, and the ridge we climbed to get to the top.

We took a little break to go to the visitor's center, and then we had one more hike to do before we headed home. We did the Lehman Creek Trail, and it was awesome. It was the perfect one to end our Great Basin adventure with. It was beautiful, and we saw tons of wild turkeys and deer.

It was a lot more foresty than the other hikes.

Cute group of wild turkeys.

There were so many deer on this one, and they were all so pretty and healthy looking. They were super muscular too, and from the amount of elevation we climbed in the park, I understand why.

Great Basin in an awesome little hidden gem in the middle of the Nevada Desert. My honest take on the park....we loved it. With that being said, we loved it because it had some epic hikes. If that isn't your thing, I would say don't bother. There isn't a lot to see and do (other than the caves), unless you get out and put some miles under your feet exploring. Since that's our thing, it was amazing for us. For someone that thinks it will be touristy like Yellowstone, or Arches, it's not really that kind of park.

Thanks for a wonderful, adventurous weekend Great Basin!