On the way to Great Basin, we had scattered showers. That favored us since the van got a natural wash plus the national park was temperate, though chilly at 10,000 feet.
Crackling wind sounds, chilly, swaying green, yellow and red aspen tree leaves, cloud-crowned mountain ranges – these are all a surprise for me at 10,000 feet elevation, called Wheeler’s peak.
11 miles uphill drive to two peaks, Mather and Wheeler. Mather peak is named after Stephen Tyng Mather, one of the Park’s founders. Metamorphic boulders exist near Wheeler Peak, whose campground was closed this season.
“Great Basin NP covers >77,000 acres of the Southern Snake Range and offers a particular fine sample of the region’s character. It …features a row of wind-raked summits, jagged alpine cirque, a rock glacier, groves of ancient bristlecone pines, flower-spangled meadows, a richly ornamented limestone cave, and the full range of life zones…from nearly 8,000 feet of elevation change between valley floor and mountain peak. The sounds are natural. The air is clear. The night skies, glittering with stars, are among the darkest in the country. Continents cruising around, smashing into each other, piling up mountains and opening new seas. The Great Basin is one of the Earth’s more recent remodeling projects.-Western National Parks Association
The next morning, a sighting of two does, two young deers with a beautiful light brown skin, galloping so fast that only hubby got the photo, as I was making coffee and oatmeal. What a gift plus this early dawn, a very dark night sky full of shining stars. God is with us!
