Nevada (Great Basin Nat'l Park)

I had an amazing past few days and today I would be passing through Nevada and end up in Mammoth Lakes. :-)

Isn't that a pretty sunrise? :-)  Great Basin Nat'l Park is the last park before Mammoth Lakes.  It's also the only national park in Nevada!  I didn't realize that there would be a time change, so I arrived at the park at 7:30 AM and I went up the scenic road to see all of the overlooks before the 9 AM cave time.  The picture is of Wheeler Peak.  Also, I went up to hike the Osceola Ditch hike.

You know when you park your stick shift and the parking brake might not be all the way up, you slide a little bit until you put the brake all the way up?  Well...  I walked down about 1/4 mile to the ditch (which was not very interesting, because the ditch was small and uneventful).  But...  I heard this sound, and after listening to it a few times, I could have sworn it was my parking brake not all the way up.  To prevent my car from sliding over the cliff, I raced up the hill in high altitudes terrified that my car was almost a goner, only to realize when I got to the top that it was woodpeckers. :-(  I guess I should be happy, but I was completely out of breath.  Yes, another way to try and keep me in shape.

There were a few overlooks that were pretty neat.  Some were of Wheeler Peak (which had clouds surrounding the top) and others were overlooks of the area.

I didn't realize there was an hour difference and arrived at the Visitor Center by 8:45 AM (actually 7:45 AM).  That meant I had an extra hour to burn.  I guess it was worth the wait...  Lehman Caves as I mentioned before made me very claustrophobic. I would have much preferred walking quickly through it, but we spent 1 1/2 hrs instead.  Here are some pictures from it.  There were cave popcorn, flakes, bacon, stalagmite, and stalagtites.

This is a stalagmite and stalagtite that are almost a column, but not quite. There is about 2 mm before they become a column. :-)  Maybe in another 50 years when I come back, this will be a column...

This was an entrance to part of the cave.  Back in the day, they used to have a candle and nothing else to walk through the caves with.  Hopefully, the candle wouldn't burn out or go out from a drip.  If they got through this tiny opening, they would burn their initials in the ceiling. :)

 

That is it!  The end of the Nevada National Parks.  LOL  From here I went on to see my buddy Ralphie.