Great Basin National Park is one of America’s least visited National Parks. Located in remote eastern Nevada, the Park is an example of a “mountain island” ecosystem and protects 77,000 acres. The cooler mountain environment allows forests of pine to persist in what is otherwise a harsh desert landscape at low altitudes.
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The road into the park climbs from the desert and ends in a subalpine forest of aspen, spruce, and even a few stands of rare Bristlecone pines. Bristlecones are the oldest trees on the planet, some almost 5,000 years old! A few stands of them persist in California, Nevada and Utah, but they are not common trees. So it’s nice to have a chance to see and study them.
We hiked the Bristlecone-Glacier trail which takes you into an impressive stand of ancient Bristlecone pines and ends at the glacier remnant near Wheeler Peak (who knew there was a glacier in Nevada)? The trail is of high altitude, starting 9,800 feet and climbing almost a thousand feet. It’s an in-and-out trail, totaling just under 5 miles, and you return the way you came.
The highlight of the hike was seeing the Bristlecone pines. These are found just below the tree line, where the effects of cold weather, wind, snow and rain result in interesting shapes — gnarly, twisted, and bent. They are quite photogenic. And they are old — some predating the Egyptian pyramids.
