Some National Parks take a little effort to visit, and the Great Basin National Park is one of those. It’s 5 hours south of Salt Lake City or Elko, Nevada, 6 hours north of Las Vegas, it’s 7 hours east from Reno, and because the park is on the far eastern edge of Nevada, it’s 8 hours east of South Shore Lake Tahoe, and on highway 50 which is dubbed ‘America’s Loneliest Road.’
This park is named after the Great Basin (encompassing almost all of Nevada) where water does not flow to any ocean, but stays within the 200 hundred basins of the Nevada desert. The park was set at this location for three good reasons:
The park is located in the Snake Range of Mountains, and we observed the plentiful snow, which provides the lifegiving water runoff to keep this desert area alive. Many ranches co-exist with Shoshone Native Americans.
- Wheeler Peak is the second highest mountain in Nevada at 13,063 feet in altitude;
- The Lehman Caves are a popular tourist attraction, and;
- These mountains host the Bristlecone Pine trees, some of which are up to 5,000 years old!
The park is located in the Snake Range of Mountains, and we observed the plentiful snow, which provides the lifegiving water runoff to keep this desert area alive. Many ranches co-exist with Shoshone Native Americans. This park was the 47th National Park (of 59 total) that we have visited, and we hope to visit at least four more this year to get us closer to eight remaining parks. Our bucket list goal to visit all of the National Parks is close to within reach!
On this road trip, we visited seven National Parks, and three were new ones to us. We’ll complete this trip, shared with our good friends Mike and Joanie Kernaghan, with a visit to Lake Tahoe. It’s been a great time seeing the beautiful western United States!