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Thread: Great Basin

  1. #1

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    Great Basin

    Hi all,

    Never been but planning on going so looking for advice on where in the bristlecone forest is best as well as other locations in the park

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Great Basin

    Drive up the road to its highest point and take a short hike on the trail you'll find there. The air will be a bit thin.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  3. #3

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    Re: Great Basin

    Thanks

  4. #4
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Great Basin

    If you are planning on camping at the campground at the top of the road (Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive), be aware that moonless nights can be hard to find a campsite -- too many people are there for the stars!
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  5. #5

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    Re: Great Basin

    interesting ok good to know thanks!

  6. #6
    Nodda Duma's Avatar
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    Re: Great Basin

    Watch out for antique store toys! Just saw a movie about them.
    Newly made large format dry plates available! Look:
    https://www.pictoriographica.com

  7. #7
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Great Basin

    I assume you are meaning Great Basin National Park? Very few facilities in the area, and it's a pretty stiff drive either way from even the nearest sizable towns like Ely,NV or Cedar City, UT. The tiny town of Delta,UT right below Wheeler Pk has a some modest or perhaps marginal accommodations. The official Park campground uphill is along a little stream in a pleasant aspen grove. Bring all necessary supplies along. Lehman Caverns is nearby. Don't go up the road when it's iced up towards Autumn. Wheeler Peak is the second highest peak in Nevada and has a single glacial cirque with a small lake in it, below the summit cliff. Typical high altitude with a lot of UV. Only three places in the Great Basin were glaciated during the Pleistocene; this is the furthest south and the one least altered by glaciers, or rather, just a single small glacier in this case. The surrounding desert might seems either intriguing or desolate; but it's only about four hours, as I recall, from much more colorful places like Kanab Canyons south of Cedar City, the forgotten end of Zion NP, but equally beautiful, especially in fall, when it will be unrealistically late for the upper part of the road in Great Basin NP. Considerably more bristlecones pines can be accessed in summer in the White Mtns on the border of CA and NV, with the lower grove accessible on a small paved road, but the classic gnarly trees quite a bit further on a bumpy dirt road along the summit of the range. Be self-contained there too. There's a big campsite lower down, but without even water. Most other bristlecone groves are inaccessible by car.

  8. #8
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Great Basin

    A couple times I passed thru Baker without knowing the beauty waiting at the end of that drive into the heavens. My Boys and I took the shorter of the the two tours thru the caves, and we had a good walk in the bristlecones, tho I only had my Rollei with me. We camped lower down below the HQ and caves. The creek and trees were a joy to discover after driving on Hwy 50 across Nevada.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  9. #9
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Great Basin

    Won't go there. Altitude may be to high, pun intended.

    I am a flatlander.

    I did drive up to Pikes Peaks twice in one day in a $1, 1972 Pontiac on mostly gravel, in 1993. Good car. Low miles.

    Real fun drive as I love gravel roads. I passed everybody. Snow drifting is my speciality.

    Anyway, I was fine at 14,000 ft as long as I took it real easy. Most people were having a bad day.

    I was surprised no oxygen was available. Many needed it. They were very sick. I got my sightseers back down quickly. Wife's family.

    Same trip, I wanted to motel it at 7500 feet, my wife vehemently declined.

    A smoker.

  10. #10
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Great Basin

    Hwy 50 is a lot of fun if you're not in a hurry and there's weather. Seemingly boring, bland Nevada can be utterly stunning with storm clouds. I once drove clear across Nevada on Christmas Eve, at night, and only passed two other cars going the opposite direction. Wandering cows are a bigger danger. Austin is a wonderful old mining camp. Wheeler Peak is part of the Snake Range. Three years ago I did some backpacking up in the Ruby Mtns of Nevada, above Elko, which was the most glaciated part of the Great Basin. People drive past that range on Hwy 80 and don't even imagine that it's a different world up there, all lush with wildflowered meadows and aspen groves, and one glacial cirque after another, with trout-filled lakes. Even mountain goats and bighorn sheep. You'd think you were in Montana, except there are no bears.

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