Great Basin National Park
National Park · Baker, Nevada
Great Basin National Park protects the South Snake Range on Nevada's border with Utah, a single mountain island rising from sagebrush valleys at about 5,000 feet to the 13,063-foot summit of Wheeler Peak, the second-highest point in the state. It is one of the least visited national parks in the lower 48, about five hours from Las Vegas and four from Salt Lake City, and there is no entrance fee. Its four headline sights are close together: Lehman Caves, a marble cave famous for its rare shield formations and seen only on ranger-led tours; the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, which climbs to about 10,000 feet in 12 miles; groves of Great Basin bristlecone pines, among the oldest living things on earth; and a small rock-covered glacier beneath the peak's north face. The park is also an International Dark Sky Park, and on a clear moonless night the Milky Way casts shadows. Services are thin: the tiny town of Baker at the park gate has a few places to eat and sleep, and the nearest real town, Ely, is over an hour away.
100 Great Basin National Park, Baker, Nevada, 89311, United States
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the park itself is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The Lehman Caves Visitor Center is usually open daily from about 8 am to 4:30 pm, with longer hours in summer, and closed on a few winter holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day; cave tours run several times a day from the visitor center, more often in summer. The Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker is usually open only from spring to autumn. The upper Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive is typically open only from about June to October, depending on snow. The traps that ruin a day are arriving in summer without a cave ticket, planning the high trails when the upper road is still gated, running short of fuel, and trusting a phone clock that has switched to Utah time. Confirm current times before relying on them.
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