Great Basin National Park

“You can drive up to the trailhead to the glacier this time of year, but the trail itself is still covered in several feet of snow. So unless you brought snow shoes….” Baker campground at around 10,000 feet had just opened the day before but still seemed to be covered in snow. Lower Lehman Campground at 7,000 feet only had sites left that were too small, unlevel and rocky but Upper Lehman Campground at nearly 8,000 feet was BEAUTIFUL. So we pitched our tent in a huge site surrounded by aspens and pines, across the way from a rushing creek and multiple tiny bridges. Our kids opened the door to the bathroom and looked quizzically at the vault toilet, until Louisa said, “Oh! This is a cho with a toilet seat! No problem.”
One of the reasons we stopped to explore Great Basin National Park was the free 25 pounds of pine nuts campers could harvest here, but alas, the season was not until September! Sigh. Instead we explored our campground (a wonderful nature hike itself with rushing streams, rocks to climb and limitless paths to explore as we gathered downed dead wood for our fire). We did indeed go to the glacier trailhead where Kev surprised the older kids with an impromptu snowball fight. Great Basin also has one of the more beautiful caves in the nation. Who knew? We spent the afternoon touring the cave with a very helpful and patient Ranger. The cave itself was so ornamental that at several points along the way we had to slide sideways through the openings of stalagmites and stalagtites. Carlsbad Caverns had impressed us by its sheer size and large scale features. Lehman Cave captured our imaginations with its otherworldness. Plus, the kids had a real life Ranger almost all to themselves and spent the tour bombarding him with endless questions and comments. He in turn had questions for them, which they took turns answering while we fell back a few steps and just looked at everything with amazement. At one point in the tour all of the lights were turned out and we got to pretend we were explorers a 100 years ago, looking at the cave by candlelight. All very cool, and the stuff which causes dreams to be fuller and richer for years to come. The nights were cold, bright and clear. We had wondered whether the sky here could possibly show us more stars than in BGO. Both have little to absolutely no light pollution, but the altitude and the air quality at Great Basin really showcases the night sky. There were SO MANY stars visible that even picking out the familiar constellations was impossible for us. We just gazed in amazement.