Day 4: Great Basin National Park

Stops:

Great Basin NP, NV

Richfield, UT

Before we came on this trip, I had a lot of people give me park recommendations and I was always surprised that each person had a different favorite.  Great Basin National Park is the favorite of my friend Zach and he couldn't speak more highly of it.  His praise was warranted.  Just driving into the park is an experience - that vastness I mentioned earlier?  In spades!  They don't call it The Loneliest Highway for nothing.  Just getting to the park is an adventure in itself.  

Then there's the inside of the park.  The plain around the park is flat and covered in shrubs and small dry-adapted plants, but as you move up the mountain, there are rivulets and streams tumbling over rocks and fallen logs and beautiful Bristlecone and Flowing Pines surrounding you bearing testimony to the force of wind pushing them into shapes suggestive of sculpted clay.  Then you'll look down at your feet and be reminded of the dry season when you see prickly cactus.  Much of this park is back country and I envy the rangers and backpackers that get to go deeper than we did as the roads cover very little of the park.  We pretty well drove them all, though and the views are spectacular.

As A may have mentioned, we drove all through the camping areas looking for a place to camp and that gave us a good tour of the park - through the wooded area covering many streams and then into the Grey Cliffs area which is just what it sounds like - the ranger who led our astronomy program is a geologist and requested to be at this park and all you have to do is look around to see why.  I don't have the knowledge to describe what we saw, but just laying around are beautiful stones - dazzling white, purple, striped in a variety of colors and the natural stone formations are unique in my experience.  It's worth driving down the Grey Cliffs roads even if you aren't camping down there.

Scenic Wheeler Drive takes you up to overlooks where you can see for miles across the Snake Valley portion of the Great Basin.  Eventually you reach about 9,800 feet elevation where three main hiking trails begin: the summit, bristlecone pine grove, rock glacier and alpine lakes loops are all popular.  

We decided to do the alpine lakes loop as we were advised that there was not too much snow there and that the views were spectacular.  We made friends with an older couple that were on the same schedule as us and decided to hike up to the bristlecone grove with them and then see if we had time to do the lake loop after.  So what one must understand is that I really haven't much experience as a hiker.  I've done a little hiking and until the last year or two, had decided I didn't really like it.  Really, what's not to like, it's walking in nature, but somehow I thought it was always hard and uncomfortable.  With enough water, snacks, breaks and good company, though, I've learned to like it.  Now, with trekking poles, I think I could learn to love it.  Wow, they are so helpful, and as you can see from the photos, we really needed them during this hike!  In addition to my dislike of hiking, I have very strong feelings about snow.  I grew up in Michigan and lake effect snow, snow dumped inside my jacket and snowballs are not fond memories for me.  So we did the bristlecone grove hike...through the snow.  Well, we said it would be an adventure!  

When we got to a certain point and were occasionally in knee deep or deeper snow, our friends peeled off to the lakes, but A and I just kept going.  There were places where the trail was obscured by snow, but we always located it.  Eventually the snow got the better of me and I decided to go no further.  We knew we were close to the glacier so Ankesh pushed on.  We had GPS showing him where he was on the trail and walkie-talkies to keep in touch, but I was still nervous while we were apart.  He made it to the glacier and enjoyed the views for a few minutes before coming back down to where I was comfortably catching my breath on some boulders watching the birds and listening to the breeze blow through the trees.  

We had bought tickets for the cave tour so after the hike, we just had time to change our soaking shoes and grab a sandwich before it was time for an underground walk.  Lehman caves have a long history with writings from the first peoples of the area (no extant tribe), "discovery" and commercialization by Lehman and probable conversion to a speakeasy during prohibition.  During the time of Lehman, the policy was, "if you break it, you can take it," so many small stalactites are broken off, but the cave is still spectacular as caves are.  Some of the fun formations we saw are cave shields (pictured here), bulbous stalactites (made when a bubble formed and calcite was laid around the bubble), cave bacon (created by streaking of iron, pictured here), popcorn, columns, drapery, cave straws and of course, stalactites and stalagmites.  It was a beautiful cave and we learned a little more about white-nose-fungus and it's effect on bats which has an 80-90% fatality rate in bat colonies.  As we'll be visiting many caves, we asked about decontamination procedures which basically involve bleaching the soles of your shoes and laundering your clothes.  They also recommended that A wipe down his camera with a Lysol wipe.  

Though we had planned to overnight at the park, after the cave tour, we decided to hit the road and get part of our drive to Capitol Reef out of the way, so it's more Hwy 50 for us.

Day 3: Fallon, NV to Great Basin Nation Park

Stops:

Austin, NV

Hickinson Petroglyph Recreation Area, 

Ely, NV

Quite a difference in temperature today.  Woke up to 62 degrees vs 27 degrees yesterday.  Wal-mart is a great location for parking your vehicle overnight.  I even have an app on my iPhone to locate Wal-marts that are open 24 hours and allow overnight parking.

This is a Super Wal-Mart, which is great, because that means we can restock on food and supplies.  Since we are heading to Great Basin NP and  Southern Utah, we decided to get enough food to last a week because we are going to be in the parks most of the time.

Onward across Nevada, heading East to West on Hwy 50, known as the loneliest  highway in America.  It is quite true as the there is almost nothing on this road.  No billboards, no gas stations, no nothing except for sand, dirt, shrubs, and mountains.  While it may be the loneliest highway, it is by no means, a boring highway.  The scenery changes enough to keep it interesting.  Sand dunes, flat light-tinted dirt for as long as the eye can see in all directions, then mountains with snow, and then mountains with pretty yellow flowers, and even parts of the Pony Express Trail.

In some parts, you can see the mirages of the infamous desert oasis.  Off in the distance, you can see little dots moving up and down a large pile of sand resting against a mountain, known as Sand Mountain.  The little dots, as you get closer, are people riding on their ATV's.

Every once in awhile, you see little buildings with air conditioning and large pipes coming out of the ground, reminiscent of secret military underground bases hiding UFO's and alien bodies.  I bet Groom Lake looks like this?  Hmmm....maybe I've been watching too many movies?

We did come across a man jogging alongside the highway with a walkie-talkie in his hand.  I thought he might be in trouble because I wouldn't expect someone to just be jogging along in the middle of the loneliest highway in America, but then over the hill, we came across an RV and man videotaping the guy that was jogging.  On the side of the RV bus, there was a banner that said Stevesrun.com.  I'll have to check it out later. I'm curious how far this guy is running and why.  I'm also glad I didn't stop and ask the man if he needed any help because I'm not sure if that would have screwed up his run?

Along the way, we encountered our first little town, Austin, NV.  A gold miner's town, you can see old mining cars and even a gold miners museum, and oddly enough, a bar owned by Serbians who proudly display it is a Serbian bar.

Continuing onward, we saw a small little recreation area called, Hickison Petryglyph Recreation Area.  It has a small 1/2 mile trail where you can see some petroglyphs of animals and people.  Every once in awhile, you run across small lizards too.  It is a shame though that some people can't respect history and have to etch their own initials next to the petroglyphs.  

There is also a campground here which is completely free.  It offers covered picnic tables which remind me of covered wagons, and a fire bit and grill.  I recommend this place if you aren't here in the middle of summer.

One last town before getting to Great Basin NP.  Ely, NV ( pronounced E-lee)  has a great railroad museum for all you train fans.  You can even ride on a steam locomotive with the engineer.  I highly recommend a visit if you a ever nearby.

After a beautiful drive through the Eastern Nevada countryside, we encountered an interesting gate made of horns.  Www.horns-a-plenty.com, hmmmmm. I'm kinda scared to look at what else they make out of horns.

Finally, we arrived at Great Basin NP as the sun was beginning to set.  We did see two more unexpected roadside attractions, a train coach car converted into a house and a dead cow driving a very old car.

We faced our next disappointment.  Even though the campsites said there were spots available, we could not find any, not even in the offroad campsites.  We did see that the Lehman Caves Visitors Center had an astronomy program going on at 8 pm so we knew there would be a park ranger there.

Ranger Kelly was really nice and told us that if there were no spots available, we could any road outside of the park property because it is owned by the Bureau of Land Management and they allow people to camp anywhere.  He also told us about looking for a place on Home Farm Road.

We hung around and watch a fabulous astronomy program and even got to see Saturn, two galaxies, and the Hercules start cluster.  The skies above GBNP are some of the darkest in the US, making this the perfect place to see the stars.

We learned that the moon was made from a collision of another planet it the earth and the particles that where in the gravitational pull of the earth joined together in one month to form the moon.  We also learned the GBNP has the oldest living thing in the world, the Bristlecone Pine trees, dating to some 4500 years ago.  Finally, we learned that the Big Dipper actually has 8 stars in it and learned out the constellation called Cygnus which contained two stars close to each other.  We spotted several satellites moving through the sky. We also learned that the meteor showers we see in the night sky are really just the size of a grain of sand.  It was so much fun! 

We headed out to Home Farm Road which was all gravel and just parked Moby there. It was in such a remote spot that were didn't even bother pulling the curtains down for privacy.  We just went to bed and watching the beautiful, almost full moon light up the surroundings and the sound of the indigenous animals that came out at night.

Day 2: Weed, CA. to Fallon, NV

Stops:

Mt. Shasta, CA

Cassel, CA

Hat Trick, CA

Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

Reno, NV

Fallon, NV

We stayed overnight at the Pilot Truck Stop.  It's a fabulous place to park your RV, car, or truck for free.  They have showers you can rent, but we didn't need that quite yet.  The bathrooms are actually quite nice.  

It was quite cold in the morning, waking up to 27 degrees.  Brrrrr.  However, we also woke up to the sunrise behind Mt. Shasta.  It's quite a site to see such a giant mountain lit up by the morning sun.

We headed out from Weed, CA and had a quick stop in Mt. Shasta, CA to get some coffee.  It was about 7:30 AM but after going down their Main st., almost nothing was open. There were a couple of coffee shops, but most of them were closed, except for Yak Coffee house.  Good cup of coffee, but an interesting environment with business-like up front, and a bunch of hippie-looking people in the back.  

Time to go to Lassen Volcanic NP along Hwy 89.  The drive reminds me very much of driving through parts of Bend, OR near Mt. Bachelor.  It was a very pretty drive, and I recommend it.

Our first stop was  at Burney Falls State Park.  A short 0.3 mile hike to the base of the falls yields a breathtaking view of this waterfall, parts of the falls appearing halfway down the rocky surfaces.  It really is picturesque.  We managed to also spot Chibo's doppelgänger there.

Just after the tiny fishing town of Cassel, CA is a collection of junk art.  People, insects, and animals made out of scrap or junked metal and painted.  Finally!  Our first roadside attraction.  My favorite was the giant ant chasing B, but I think B's favorite might be between the weiner dog and the giraffe.

We also drove though Hat Trick which has a statue of a muffler man.  This one was painted like a rancher, complete with a branding iron, and named "Big Roy.".  The owners had it in their front lawn and we found them weeding around the statue.  They even setup a picnic table and had a guestbook for us to sign. Everyone should sign the guestbook, not only to let the owners know that someone stopeed to see it, but also to see where other people are coming from.  We saw one family that had come from Moscow, Russia.

Finally, we arrived at the first national park on our itinerary, Lassen Volcanic NP.  We entered from the north side, passing up Mineral and Reflection Lakes and stopping at the visitor's center at Loomis museum, where we caught a 20 min video of the park.  Lassen is the only place in the world that holds all 4 types of volcanoes.  I can remember three of them at the time of this writing, but I'm sure you can google the 4th one.  There are shield, cinder cone, composite, and the 4th type of volcano that escapes me.  

We drove through the Chaos Jumbles, large piles of volcanic rock, and then through the dwarf forest stopping at a giant polished rock known as Hot Rock.  It was warm to the touch, but probably because of the sun shining on it.  We were headed to our first short hike, Devastated Area.  This was an area where  in 1915, Lassen Peak erupted and drastically changed the landscape with it's wide mudflows, engulfing any trees and dumping volcanic rocks up to some 3 miles away.  Today, some 98 years later, you can see that the trees have come back but are not very tall, a small reminder how long it must take for trees to get large.

We stopped next at Paradise Meadows at Hat Lake.  We went into the meadows were we came across a small stream and a beautiful backdrop of trees and mountains.  For now, this is what I want to call my quiet place, the place you go in your mind when you are stressed.  You can hear the gentle flow of the water, the birds chirping, and the wind swaying the meadow grasses.  I even came across a large beaver dam.

Our main plan was to hike Bumpass Hell trail, so we continued there next.  However, within the park it went from being able to see the ground and rivers, to deep, snow-covered grounds with rivers carved out through the snow and frozen lakes.  This meant bad news for us though and we were right.  When we arrived to the trailhead, there was sign marked that it was closed and a ranger nearby.  I talked to the ranger about when the trail normally opens and she told me maybe mid to late June.  Guess we got there a month too early.  The ranger did show me part of the trail which wasn't snow covered and went along the edge of a mountain and then she pointed the large accumulation of steep snow that was basically impassable.  Ok, so another disappointment, but we can live with that.  Maybe we'll come back in the future in the summer.  The ranger did tell me that there was a trail by the Sulpher Works area that goes about a mile to Ridge Lakes, so we decided to go to Sulpher Works and try to hike it.

Sulpher Works was also pretty disappointing as we were only able to see one bubbling cauldron of mud and water and of course the sulpher smell.  We grabbed our packs for practice and started up the steep hike to Ridge Lakes.  About 1/2 mile in though, the trail was completely covered in snow again and we couldn't determine where to go.  It was a clear sign today, that were weren't going to be able to hike far today, so we decided to head out to Reno, NV.

I'd only every been to Reno once in my life and that was just in the airport as it was a stop on our flight.  When we arrived into Reno, we didn't exactly know where "the strip" was but I was able to look it up and determine it was S. Virginia Ave.  We took a drive down the strip and saw several of the casinos and the lights.  After parking, we walked up and down the strip, stopping by in Circus Circus and walking through to Silver Legacy, and finally through El Dorado.  I'd say that El Dorado was probably the best casino on the strip.    We did look at Harrahs and Cal-Neva casino as well.

Finally we headed out to Fallon, NV to sleep at the 24 hr. Wal-Mart Supercenter.  Now, there was part of me that though about getiting on my jammies and walking through Wal-Mart at night hoping that someone would take a picture of me and posting it to the People of Wal-Mart website, but then I realized those people aren't actually intending to be on that website and so I dismissed the idea.

Good night!