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Published: September 28th 2008
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Great Basin Camp
Here's our campsite at Great Basin... very nice! Campsite
Last night we looked around at the sites that had water and toilets and everything was pretty much full. There is an upper and lower loop campground but in between there is a somewhat hidden middle campsite (only visible from one direction on a far access road). We grabbed that site and it was great. We had our own water pump and the bathrooms were a short walk through the woods. A brook went within 15 feet of our tent so the white noise was nice at night. The campsites were primitive (no showers, pit toilets) but this is about the same level of accommodations that are found in the nearby town. There is 1 phone at the park office and another 6 miles away in Border, NV (which is on the border between Utah and Nevada).
During our breakfast oatmeal this morning we saw a deer appear about 50' away from us. It looked like it expected to wander down to the stream for some water but we were in its way. Instead it decided to cautiously munch on some of the vegetation which is very dense near the brook. We later found out that the small stream is one of
Loneliest Road
The view from the road heading into Nevada. the few continuously flowing streams in the entire Great Basin so animals come from all around to drink and eat. Note that the basin is from California to the Wasatch mountains in Utah and goes from Oregon south to Mexico. A very large area!
Lehman Caves
We originally came to this park because it has accessible Bristlecone pine trees (the oldest living organisms on Earth) and it's one of the darkest places in the U.S. at night (zero light and you are at 10,000 feet... great for star gazing). There are a number of caves in the area and the park gives a guided tour (similar to Carlsbad Caverns... hand rails & electric lighting are in the cave). It turns out that this cave has the most shield formations in the world and the density of features (stalactites, stalagmites, shields, etc.) are one of the highest in the world as well. The cave was very beautiful but the history behind the cave was even more interesting. Absolom Lehman was the person's name who found the cave on his ranch but he was originally a miner. After some exploration he discovered that there was no gold but he realized that he could
Big stop sign
This was the stop sign after a 10 mile straightaway. still make a buck. He advertised in the papers during the late 1800s and people came across the desert on their horses (180 miles from Salt Lake City) to see the cave for $1 (which was a lot of money). Lehman cave you a candle and lowered you down the hole on a rope. Women went down as well in their bustle skirts and heels. Once word got out, more and more people started to show up and Lehman did quite well for himself (sold his ranches and lived off the cave income). During this time he had a policy that you could keep whatever you could carry out. A lot of the formations in the entrance rooms are broken but it is still very pretty. The damaged areas have given geologists a lot of insight as to how certain elements grow (you can see the crystal cross-sections). In the 1920s the government took over the land because Lehman did not have a will and it turned out that he never owned that area of land to begin with! A couple with the last name of Rhodes became the custodians of the cave during this time and they were quite
Cave Formations
Note how packed in all the formations are. The calcium in liquefied and then slowly drips into the cave. Some of the formations were formed when the cave was underwater. the entrepreneurs. They had large parties deep in the cave which included dances with live music. They also conducted weddings for a large fee. For an additional fee they would play the drape formations like a xylophone (the crystal evidently resonates when struck). You can still see the chip marks from where people beat on things with a hammer to make this music. In the dance hall area they broke off all the stalactites with hammers so the guests could fully stand and dance. In this room there are some signatures written in pencil. Purple bacteria has started to eat the lead deposited by the pencil. There is a good bit of dust on the various formations and this is all caused by humans going through the cave. Each year the park service and a number of volunteers come through with small brushes to clean everything in the cave. Human oils in the skin severely damage the formations so no touching is the rule. I can't imagine people going as deep as they did in the cave with just a candle. Lehman had a promise that he would come down and find you if you weren't out in 24 hours.
After
Cave organ
Here is a quick shot of the 'pipes' that they used to beat on with hammers to make music. the cave tour we did a short hike around the visitor center to see some of the vegetation (fruit trees were planted there over 100 years ago). We saw some rabbits and the old cabin that was used by the Rhodes family for paying guests. On our way back to the camp we saw a large group of deer by our camp eating the grass and leaves. There were some babies and adults and we managed to get a few pictures without scaring them off.
Bristlecone Pines
Our campsite was at 7500 feet and we drove up the road toward Mt. Wheeler which is at 13,065 feet. There is a good trail to the top that does not require mountaineering gear but we elected to just hike up to where the pines are (just under 11,000 feet). The valley floor is at 5000 feet so Mt. Wheeler is over 8000 feet off the valley floor... the views were incredible. Since you can see for 100+ miles you can see the afternoon thunderstorms roll across the valley and the sun poking through the clouds... it's all very pretty. Anyway, during the drive up to the pine trail parking lot (at 10,000 feet)
Typical formation
These formations are everywhere in the cave. you drive through multiple vegetation zones. Fall was starting at elevation and all the Aspens were changing color (lots of reds and yellows). This is more Fall then we see in Portland. During the hike we had intermittent showers and the trail was very rocky. The elevation did not bother us at all and we were able to climb quickly up the trail. Along the way we saw a few birds and a golden mantled ground squirrel. The quartz stones had all sorts of colors; greens, purples, yellows, and reds were spread throughout the rock formations. We got up to the bristlecone grove (which is one of the largest in the world) and were able to see trees that were 'born' before 2000 b.c. The ice and wind rips the bark off these trees so they are just bare wood with very thick trunks and large root systems. There is just a little bit of vegetation on each tree. The extreme slow growth makes the bark ultra-dense and is therefore very resistant to fire and other damage. Bristlecones that find good soil grow and die in just 200 years or so. If the soil is very poor then they die
Parachute formation
This is the famous formation in the cave and is an example of a shield (the top part of the parachute). off. The old trees need just the right combination of bad soil and poor conditions to achieve the slow growth. These variations can occur within 5 feet so some of the big trees were very young and some of the smaller trees were very old. The park service bores out a small hole to look at the ring structure of each tree to determine it's age. The tree fills the hole in quickly with sap so the procedure does not harm the tree.
After the trees we headed back to camp and heated up some spaghetti for dinner. We have been cooking up a big batch and then storing the leftovers in Ziplock bags so we just need to reheat. It makes for a quick dinner when you don't want to cook or do a lot of cleanup. Other popular meals have been pre-made and seasoned rice (bought in the grocery store) + meat & veggies and when we want a super fast meal we've had a few instant soups (ramen).
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