Great Basin: A Cool Cave, Ancient Pines, and WAR!

We’ve been dry camping for a solid month, so we made reservations at the Whispering Elms RV Park in Baker, NV for a couple of nights with full hookups. We arrived Tuesday, 5/30, and while the campground, and its wifi, left a bit to be desired, we were able to top off the batteries and get some housework and laundry done. The RV park was just a few miles outside Great Basin National Park and we enjoyed the creative, “found object” art and sculptures lining the fields on the way into the park.

Desert sculpture titled: "Horse With No Name"  Lol!

We had reservations for the Lehman Caves Tour on Wednesday at 1:00pm. We came into the park a little early to scout out the campgrounds. We found several open sites that should accommodate our rig and made plans to move the next morning. The ranger-led tour was 1 ½ hours of cavey goodness. While not nearly as large or extensive as Carlsbad, the smaller scale made it a more intimate experience. Many of the passages were narrow and we had to do a lot of ducking to avoid low hanging formations. Most intriguing were the colors! Several of the formations were pink/purple. I've never seen that before. Lehman Caves is also known for it's Shield formations which are relatively rare. And at a steady 50° it qualified as cool on many levels. Lol.

Love the intricate formations.

Check out the colors! 

The underlying rock and the formations are tinted pinky purple.

A variety of colors and formations.

The shield formations are the large flat disks, which then grow stalagtites.
This particular formation is called the Parachute.

After the cave tour we did the scenic drive to Wheeler Peak Overlook. At 13,063 feet Wheeler Peak still had plenty of snow and we decided to ask the rangers about the condition of the trails before getting too carried away. 😊  There are plenty of hiking opportunities at Great Basin, but you have to be prepared for a lot of elevation gain and the high altitude. The park encompasses five distinct environmental zones ranging from Desert (5-6,000 feet) to Alpine (10-11,000), each with unique plants and animal inhabitants.

Beautiful views from Wheeler Peak Overlook.

Jeff Davis Peak on the left, Wheeler Peak on the right. 

When we moved to Baker Creek Campground in the national park Thursday morning, 6/1, only our least favorite spot was still available. As is the rest of the park, the campground is on a distinct slope and we just could not get level. We drove around the campground again and found another site that was slightly better and after much jockeying, jacking, and not a little cussing, finally got the rig set up. After all that we called it good for the day and just enjoyed our lovely campsite and walked the campground loops.

Since we came north instead of going south to visit Death Valley, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, we have a couple of weeks to kill before we’re due in Sacramento on 6/16. While I’m bummed that we’ll miss those parks on this trip, we’ll enjoy a more leisurely pace. We’ll spend a couple extra days at Great Basin where the weather is perfect for reading in the shade and evening campfires. Life is good. Lol.

Shady trail through the woods connects to the group camping area.

Yes, life is good. :) 

That is not to say we aren’t doing some hiking. On Friday, we walked from the campground up the South Fork of the Baker Creek Trail. What was supposed to be a little walk in the woods to stretch our legs ended up being an uphill jaunt with about 2000 feet of elevation gain. Ugh! I guess when you’re perched on a mountain side pretty much everything has to go either up or down. Lol.

This Northern Pygmy Owl gave us his full attention.

Walking along the shady Baker Creek made for a lovely hike.

Another local who wanted to know what we were up to. Lol. 

So refreshing after weeks in the desert.

There was an astrology program Friday evening at the visitor’s center. After a nice presentation, we got to look at various celestial objects through a telescope. Great Basin is a designated dark skies park and it is truly beautiful to look up and see so many stars that just aren’t visible at home. You don’t realize what you’re missing with all the light pollution in urban areas until you get out to a dark skies area. A lovely reminder that “half the park is after dark.”

Saturday was our “big hike” day, or at least that’s how it ended up. We’d heard from some of the park staff that it would be two weeks before the trail to the Bristlecone Pine Grove was doable. But another ranger said that, while there was snow on the trail, people were making it there. We decided to do the Alpine Loop Trail, which was in the same area and see what the Bristlecone Pine Trail looked like. Much of the Alpine Loop Trail was also buried under snow and we wandered around hunting for the actual trail and doing a lot of blazing our own path through the knee-deep snow. Who needs a trail anyway?! Lol. Thank heavens for the hiking app on Rog’s phone, it kept us going in the right general direction until we finally found the trail.

Blazing our own trail through the snow. 

When we came to the sign for the Bristlecone Pine Grove (just .7 miles further, how hard could that be? HA!!) we decided to give it a shot. Again, much of the trail was completely buried. I’m sure ours was not the most direct route, but we slogged through deep snow, cut across steep hillsides, fell repeatedly on our butts, and slogged ever upward to the tree line. Although the snow was a couple feet deep you could walk across the top of it, at least until you hit a soft patch and then without warning you'd post hole. It was slippery too and a couple of times I slid downhill until I hit a treewell and then had to scramble back. Crazy fun. We finally found the trail and made it to the grove. And we had it entirely, totally, completely to ourselves! Not another soul. It was fantastic!!

Worth every step!

Bristlecone Pine Tree - born 1150 BC. Looking good!

I found the bare skeletons as beautiful and fascinating as the living trees.

All the trees were unique and many were sculpted works of art.

Rog enjoying the grove. It was a perfect day for hiking.

This was our lunch spot. Can't believe we had it all to ourselves.

Bristlecone and Limber Pines march to the tree line at 11,000 feet.

Bristlecone pines are some of the oldest living organisms on earth. We saw ancient trees that were over 3000 years old and still living! In spite of poor soil, arid conditions, a short growing season, thin air, and high winds the trees survive. Seeing how these beautiful, contorted trees have persevered in the toughest conditions all I could think was… nevertheless she persisted. 😊 In fact, the Bristlecone Pines in the harshest conditions live the longest! While they grow faster at lower elevations they typically die at the tender age of 300-400 years old. Each tree is just so unique, I want to show you pictures of every one! Even the naked skeletons are amazingly beautiful. Because the wood is so dense and the climate so dry, the trees can stand for thousands of years even after they die. They don’t decay, but erode like stone from the wind and ice crystals. Seeing them was worth every step!

Over 3200 years old and still kicking! Wow. 

Bristle...cones. :)

Just gorgeous colors and textures in the old trunks.

And finally, a Bristlecone selfie. :) 

After we made it back down to where we’d left the Alpine Lake Trail we had just a short distance to get to Lake Teresa. It was lovely with snow still bordering much of the lake. We’d heard that Stella Lake was even prettier. Hmmm… two miles forward to see Stella and complete the loop or one mile back to the car. Onward of course!  Stella Lake was very pretty but by the time we got there the clouds had settled in and the skies were gray.

Lake Teresa, elevation 10,230 feet. Yep, we're up there. :)

It looked inviting, but a little on the chilly side. Lol.

Stella Lake.

Very pretty, as promised.

The trail from Stella back to the parking lot crossed lovely alpine meadows and dense thickets of aspen trees. At the lower elevations the aspens have leafed out, but here they’re still silvery trunks with the barest hint of green showing. There was less snow on this section of the trail, so you’d think it would be easier going. Maybe, but I managed to twist my ankle on some loose rock. We had close to a mile left and by the time we made it back to the car, I was one hurting puppy and felt nauseous and light headed. I’m going to blame the altitude for most of that though, we were doing some strenuous hiking at 10-11,000 feet of elevation!

The aspen groves are leafless here.

I spent the rest of the day with my foot propped up with an ice pack. In fact, I was still ensconced on the couch, foot up, book in hand, after Rog had gone to bed when I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral vision. I turned and saw a small field mouse staring me dead in the eye. He paused, motionless, and I could hear his tiny thoughts, “Oh, shit! She’s supposed to be in bed!” before he turned and ran under the driver’s seat. I got up but couldn’t find him and settled back on the couch with my book. Just a few minutes later, I heard an all too familiar skitter and there sat another (or the same one?) mouse on my kitchen counter – again, looking straight at me and frozen in place for a brief instant before beating feet. I got up again, but he’d disappeared. Then I heard it. Scrambling in the ceiling. Noooooooo. We were under attack!

I told Rog we had mice in the ceiling. Can’t be, he says, it’s a closed system. He gets us and listens. Damn, they are in the ceiling. We’ve been invaded before when camping in the scrub, so we check the traps. The peanut butter we usually use as bait had been delicately licked off all the traps without springing a single one. We’re up against a wily foe. We rebait the traps with bread, hoping it will be harder to remove and set them around the coach. I go back to the couch to read. SNAP! It took less than five minutes for the first casualty. Rebait and return to couch. SNAP! SNAP! Two of them! It was ridiculous! Before I finally made it to bed, we’d killed nine mice! What a night!

We spent Sunday around the coach, patrolling the perimeter and alert for more enemy activity. I could just envision them arranged in little platoon formations outside the coach, waiting for us to relax our guard. Ok, Red Squad ready – go, go, go! By the time we pulled out on Monday morning, we’d trapped a total of 13 mice! We’re hoping a change of venue will put a stop to the invasion and we can mop up any stragglers. (6/8 Update: The number of recruits is slowly dwindling, either that or they're getting wise to the traps. We're up to 19 now and hoping that's the end of it!)

Our new jello plan has us hitting a couple of BLM campgrounds, some mountain biking for Rog, and spending a few days in the Mono Lake area in California. And maybe, if the pass opens, we’ll sneak in the back way on Hwy 120 for a day trip to Yosemite. We’ll see.