9/21 San Rafael Swell, Great Basin National Park

9/21/21 

46 degrees this morning.  Since we are in close proximity to two others campers, we decide not to use the noisy generator early this morning and instead move on.  Next destination is Great Basin National Park, just over the border in Nevada.

We stop at Black Dragon Canyon rest stop on 70W to make some coffee and oatmeal.  The landscape continues to be dry and rugged. 

 We pass a couple of "dry lakes", with Sevier Dry Lake being the largest - it just looks huge and white and you could see how travelers might get excited at this "mirage" which kind of looks like a wet lake from a distance.

  We leave 70 and head west on 50.  This is known as The Lonliest Highway, and indeed there is not much to be seen.  A few ranches or small towns which must be near a water source since they are much greener. But they are few and far between.  And things get even more sparse in Nevada.

 The geological uplifting is apparent in the rock formations which show a variety of layers of different color rock.

At the Nevada border, we stop for gas and enter the Pacific Time zone. Greg notes that yes, we are in Nevada now as the gas station has quite a few slot machines!

A bright yellow-flowering bush is prolific here, especially along the roadways.  It is called Rubber Rabbitbush and looks pretty.  The ranger says some folks are allergic to it, like ragweed.  For the next few days, our phones are confused as to which time zone we are in, but we hear that this is common in the Great Basin area.  Surprisingly, there is generally pretty good cell and 4G coverage.  I would say that overall, coverage has improved a great deal since we started Treking in 2007.

We pull into the Main Visitor's Center,  but someone parked there tells us it is closed and we should to go to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center,  a few miles away. Masks are required.  This place is fairly busy and we get the usual maps and try to sign up for a cave tour.  There are no available spots over the next 2 days, and we're told to try first thing tomorrow and there may be a cancellation. We didn't make reservations because we weren't sure exactly when we would be arriving and reservations are specific to not only day but time.  

In the meantime, we go to our campground, which is FCFS (first come first served) and sign up for 2 nights.  There were only a couple openings and the other 2 reservation-only campgrounds were filled.  We are somewhat surprised since this park is pretty remote! They must have read the same articles we saw about this being one of the least visited National Parks - haha! Another campground high on Wheeler Mt has been closed all year for renovations. The 3 mile road to ours, Baker Creek, is pretty rough but doable... at least nothing fell apart!

We set up and decide to do the Baker Creek Trail, which begins about 1/2 mile from the campground.  The rocky trail climbs pretty steadily for the first two miles, in and out of shade.  Beth has to stop often to catch her breath.  We are at around 9,000'. Glad I have my walking stick and Greg has brought water.

 We cross Baker Creek at the half way point - a rocky, spirited delight deep in shadow with bright mosses.   But then we climb again before looping back downhill (finally!) towards the campground, glimpsing the creek now and again.  There are a few rustic bridges and we wonder what things look like in the Spring when the snow melt is heavy. The twenty-something ranger had described this trail as "not too bad, with just a few switchbacks".  Ha! I should have known better!  But we survived.

Soup for dinner along with the delicious melon that we got back in Utah. So sweet!  Slept well this night!