On Labor Day weekend, Dan and I drove across Nevada to the Great Basin National Park! We made plans with Janine and Dylan (Dan's sister and brother-in-law) to meet up for the weekend at the park! It was an incredible weekend full of the great outdoors and quality time with loved ones. I'm so excited to recap it for you here.
Dan and I left around 7am Saturday morning for a 6.5 hour drive to the park! We intended to leave earlier but unfortunately, I had a bout of the stomach flu the last couple days which slowed us down with packing. The drive went really well and we arrived by 2pm to our campsite that Janine and Dylan had grabbed the day before. We set our tent up and then drove over to the visitor center for a tour of the Lehman Cave! Shoutout to Janine and Dylan for securing our tickets earlier in the day. They sell out fast!
The Lehman Cave tour was so cool! If you visit the Great Basin National Park, I highly recommend going on a cave tour! It was about one hour in length and very informational. It is the longest cave system in the state of Nevada and millions of years old. The tours have been going on since 1885.
After the tour, we went back to camp and made dinner and hung around the campsite. Dylan and Janine brought ingredients for pesto gnocchi and it was delicious!
Later on that night, we headed back to the visitor center because they were holding an astronomy program that night. They gave a presentation on light pollution and then once the clouds cleared, the rangers showed us the various constellations in the night sky. This was perhaps the most impressive part of the Great Basin National Park. It is an International Dark Sky Park. It is home to some of the darkest and clearest skies in the U.S. which makes it a prime location for stargazing. Along with the constellations, the rangers had brought telescopes. We were able to view Saturn and see its rings! It was an incredible experience.
After the astronomy event was finished, we went back to camp for s'mores and drinks around the fire! I slept so good and the next morning I woke up feeling a million times better (no more lingering stomach flu!). We made breakfast and headed out shortly after.
We drove around the park a bit and stopped at a few lookouts. We were hoping to hike to Wheeler Peak and/or the the Bristlecone Grove. However, once we drove up to the trailheads, the parking there was completely full. The park currently has limited parking because of construction that is happening near the trailhead. We were disappointed but headed down the mountain a bit to hike part of the Lehman Creek trail. We ended up having a great hike! We stopped at the meadow for a little break before turning around.
After the hike, we stopped back at the visitor center for more water and ran into these cuties!
We went back to camp for a quick bath in the river and another meal. We relaxed and played some games before heading back up toward Wheeler Peak. At this point, it was around 7pm so we knew we couldn't do the full hike but we had a lot of fun checking out the area now that there was parking available!
The last picture I'll share is this one of the night sky. Both nights gave us the clearest, most beautiful skies. We saw several shooting stars and the milky way too! The next morning, we all packed up, said our goodbyes, and then drove home. Overall, this trip was a great one. I'm so grateful for the time spent with Janine, Dylan, and Dan. If you ever happen to be thinking about visiting Great Basin, I would say go for it! I thought it was a great park and we made some special memories there. Stay tuned for our next national park trip- Yosemite in October! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend too.
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