9/22/21 Great Basin National Park, Lehman Caves, Stella Lake

 9/22/21

The term Great Basin refers to an area that includes much of Nevada, as well as some of Utah and small parts of Oregon and Idaho.  In this area, the few existing rivers do not join other rivers in going to the sea, but "dead end" in the basin where any extra water is retained in lakes or reservoirs until it evaporates.

48 degrees as we rise early and head to the Visitor's Center to try to get a spot on the Lehman Caves Tour.

  We get there at 7:15 to be in line for an 8:00 opening, and there is already another person waiting!  Beth makes coffee for he and Greg and Greg chats with him and a few others who soon arrive with the same idea.  Unfortunately, the ranger says it is not likely that there will be even one cancellation, but they offer to do an abbreviated tour for those who can't get on the main tour.  We will only see a small part of the 2 mile long cave, but at least we will get a peak!   We will meet at 10:00, so we have a nice breakfast and spend some time looking at the displays and reading about the park till then.

The caves were discovered in the spring of 1885 by Absalom Lehman.  They were quite an attraction and in the 1930's a bit of a "resort" was established, which included a log lodge, cabins, a dance hall, dining room and swimming tank.  One of the cabins has been restored to represent that era.   A few apricot and pear trees still remain from this time!

Great Basin National Park was established in 1986 to preserve what is basically a desert mountain island in the Snake Range.  You can go from desert heat and sagebrush to alpine cold at the peak of Mt. Wheeler in just a short time. 

 There are 14 of us on the tour of the caves. There are quite a lot of beautiful cave decorations, including stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, draperies, columns and more. Formations are almost continuous, with not a lot of plain rock walls.

 Our guide takes us into an area with several short trails which we are free to explore for twenty minutes or so.  There is some lighting, but we wish we'd brought flashlights!  At one point he turns off all the lighting and you cannot see your hand in front of your face.  What a wonderland - millions of years in the making!

There are signs that Native Americans used the part of the cave near the surface, perhaps for burial ceremonies as remains have been discovered there.  Today there are bats using the cave - they have not yet experienced white nose syndrome, which has killed many bats worldwide.  We had to fill out a questionnaire as to where we had traveled recently and those who had been to other caves had to follow more protocols.

Next we head for the 12 mile long Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, which goes from 7,000' to nearly 11,000'.  We wind our way upwards, stopping at several overlooks.  Lots of the Rubber Rabbit Bush early. The trees change as we change altitude, going from pinyon pine and juniper to mountain mahogany, then into aspen, ponderosa pine and Douglas fir.

We meet a couple from Missouri at Mather Overlook and chat for a while - we'll catch up with them again later.  We take photos for each other, so here we are!

At the end of the road, we take one of the trails toward Stella Lake. 

A group of turkeys crosses our path and pause to drink at a small stream.

Not a lot of green grass - only by the stream.

  We meet the couple from Missouri again and walk part way with them. They have been on the road for a couple of weeks, just coming from California which they said was quite smokey from fires.  

Through lots of aspen groves and spruce. 

 At Stella Lake we are near the treeline, and the bare, rocky mountain peak which hides a remaining glacier.  They say it can snow here any time of the year, but it is quite pleasant today.

 Another trail leads to a grove of Bristlecone pines - ancient trees that live at higher altitude than any others and can reach thousands of years in age! But we aren't up for another trail today.

Back down the mountain and to our campsite.  This interesting sign is near the campsite turnoff, but we don't see any marmots.  Only more turkeys.

 We relax a bit, and Greg grills some Greek burgers we had brought from home for a tasty dinner (lamb and feta and spices).