Vacation Day 1

After working the day on Friday, we went to the airport and arrived in Vegas at 9:30 pm (11:30 pm Chicago time).  The airport was busy, but we got to the rental car facility and picked up our car without problem.  We then headed to our hotel in Henderson; we were able to save money and time by not staying on the famous Las Vegas strip.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, and started our way north to Great Basin National Park in Nevada.

First on the list was visiting the main visitor center; we inquired about what the availablility was on the upcoming cave tours...we were in luck for the 90 minute tour if we hustled to the Lehman Caves visitor center.  We also inquired about the Bristlecone Pine trail up on Mt. Wheeler...more to come on that.

We easily made it for the 2:00 tour - this was the longer of the two tours called the "Grand Palace" tour.  It was a fairly small, but decorated cave.  Below is one of the more famous formations in the cave (the parachute shield).

The cave walk was easy - mostly paved.  They created tunnels at the beginning and end to get the visitors in and out.

After the cave, we headed up on the scenic drive.  We took a picture of the rental Dodge Charger in front of Mt. Wheeler.  We pretty much had the mountain to ourselves as the road had just opened a few days before.

We really wanted to do the summit trail on Mt. Wheeler, but we were about a month too early for the snow was still around.   We did find the Bristlecone/Glacier trail head which we knew we wanted to do.

Right off the bat, we knew this was going to be problematic.  The GPS was not working, we did not have a compass, and we did not have a topo map.  Nonetheless, it seemed that a few others had tried this trail before us...so off we went.  Within the first five minutes, we had lost the trail...but quickly found it again.

It started out okay - preious footprints allowed us to move in the snow.  Snowshoes were not really possible because of the change from snow to rock so quickly.  The snow was more "drifts" where it would be 3 feet deep...and then nothing.  At this point though, we new we were still on the trail.

We made it to the junction point and found the trail marker that indicated we were in the right place.  It was after this trail marker that everything fell apart.  In the picture below, you can see how we became wet quickly...unstable snow ment we sunk in every once and a while...and this snow was pretty much all water (Rob is in the lower left up to his knee in snow).

At one point, my leg fell down so far, I couldn't get it out.  Well, I could of but I would have lost my shoe which would have meant one miserably wet sock.  Trying to get out, I managed to get my backside all wet...it was just becoming one miserable hike.  With not having the right gear, and it being later in the day - we called it quits and turned around.

When we got home, we looked on Google Earth and think we made the right choice...had we kept going, I don't think we would have gotten lost, but I don't think we would have seen the Bristlecone Pines either.

Well, all was not lost.  On the way back down, we stopped at an overlook.  Within a minute, we did see the bristlecone pine grove through the binoculars...

 

The view towards the basin was also beautiful.

I do think I would like to go back to this park...maybe in June or September.  Unfortunately on this trip, had we gone in June, Capitol Reef and Zion would have been hot and crowded.  Great Basin is fairly remote and the 9th least visited park; I think there is some nice alpine hiking that we would enjoy...after the snow has melted.