This is the first in an installment of nine parks I did in one trip! Some posts will be long and short but they will all have stunning pictures.
I flew into Las Vegas, grabbed my rental car and headed out to the wilderness of Nevada.
The drive was pretty plain until I got close. I saw the promise of snow capped mountains off in the distance! My campground ended up being at a higher elevation than I expected. I have VERY slowly learned to check the elevation of the campgrounds. It was in the low 20s overnight! Needless to say I froze my butt off. But it helped keep me awake for some of the best Milky Way pictures I’ve ever taken. Unfortunately some of them are blurry but still very cool!
I woke up in the morning and drove up to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful! These mountains were right on the edge of a valley and you could see for miles!
The day I got there the pass was closed because of snow. I was devastated because I had already picked out a hike to go see the Bristlecone Pine Trees. I have to admit, I was envious of the beautiful pictures I had seen – and I wanted to get a few for myself. After watching the sunrise the first thing I did was continue up the pass to see if they opened the road, which they hadn’t. But I did stop off and get some pictures on both days
I made an appointment to go on a tour of Lehman Caves, so I drove back down the pass and met with the tour group at the entrance to the caves. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic about the cave, and she has some interesting insights.
She announced as soon as we got into the caves, that they had just opened the mountain pass! I was so excited I almost left this tour immediately. Which I am sure would have been frowned upon. I am happy I stayed in hindsight, because it was good for some cool pictures and a few laughs. Our tour guide would introduce a new formation type and then ask everyone how we thought it would be formed. We would all guess, thinking when we got done she would enlighten us all – but how wrong we were! Her response was – “Those are all great guesses! We actually have no idea how they were formed” The first time she did it I laughed out loud. I kept my humor to myself after that though since I got a few nasty looks. It was interesting how much we still don’t know about caves and their formations!
Once the tour was finished I booked it up the mountain pass because I had a long drive ahead of me that afternoon! The next set of pictures needs very little explanation. They are so much fun to photograph! Also that was one of the first times I hiked in the snow. Was definitely thankful for my new hiking boots! These trees have been alive for hundreds of years and they thrive in these harsh environments!
And of course the most sighted wildlife in this park – the wild turkey! 
This park to me felt like some sort of hidden secret. You don’t see pictures of this park on the front of any national parks books – and it certainly hasn’t made it onto any top 15 lists, but it was certainly on my top 15! Great Basin exceeded all of my expectations, and it absolutely shouldn’t be overshadowed!! After my mountain pass hike I hopped in my car and headed to Utah to Zion National Park!
Kelsey's Climb to 59 (+4) 