We visited the Great Basin National Park today. It was established as a national park in 1986. The park derives its name from the "Great Basin", the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. The park protects 77,180 acres. Mount Wheeler is the central symbol of the park. It is a 13,063-foot mountain and is also the home of the Wheeler Peak Glacier. We drove the "Wheeler Peak Scenic Road", which is a 12 mile road up the mountain. It stops at the 10,000-ft mark. From there, hikers can take trails clear to the top of Wheeler Peak. Another part of the park is the Lehman Caves. It is a small cave, but has many unique formations, such as stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies and soda straws. The bad news is that you can only enter the cave through a park ranger led tour. All the tours were booked today, so we weren't able to visit the caves.
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| Wheeler Peak Scenic Road |
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| Wheeler Peak |
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| A picture of Wheeler Peak between two Aspen trees. The aspens are starting to change to their fall color. |
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| A windmill farm in the Nevada valley |
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