Great Basin National Park

Day 1

When planning our trip along California's Highway 395, we realized we'd be within a day's drive of Great Basin National Park. So, it seemed logical to add this national park to our trip. After 4 days exploring along HWY 395, we spent most of the next day driving across Nevada, arriving at the Whispering Elms RV Park just outside of Great Basin National Park at 4:00pm. We quickly set up camp and then drove into the park to tackle the Bristlecone Pine Glacier Trail. This is a 3.7-mile roundtrip hike that cuts through a grove of ancient Bristlecone Pines (approximately 4000 years old) and then continues to the nation's southernmost glacier - Wheeler Base Glacier. 

Bristlecone Pine Glacier Trail

An ancient Bristlecone Pine

We finished the hike by 7pm and headed back to the campground for dinner and showers.

Day 2

Today we were up early to get in line for Lehman Cave tickets at the visitor center. We were able to get tickets for the 9:30am tour.

During our tour we learned that Lehman Cave was discovered by Absalom Lehman in 1885. This soon led to cave tours and designation as a national monument in 1922. In 1986, Lehman Cave was incorporated into the newly established Great Basin National Park. We have taken many cave tours previously, but we both agreed that this cave was very unique.

There is a lot of candle graffiti on the ceiling of the cave done during the time of the early cave tours where people used candlelight to illuminate the cave

Lehman Cave has over 500 of these unusual formations called cave shields

We were done with the cave tour by late morning, went back to the campground to hitch up to the trailer, and were on the road before lunch. Although it was a quick visit to Great Basin National Park, we thoroughly enjoyed our time at our 36th national park.