Great Basin National Park is a little chuck of the larger Great Basin region, hidden away in Nevada near the boarder of Utah. In the heart of this place a 13,000 foot mountain (Wheeler Peak) dominates the skyline and is home to both ancient trees (Bristlecone) at the top and mysterious caves (Lehman Caves) below. Those things: Wheeler Peak, the Bristlecone Pines, and Lehman caves were the 3 reasons I wanted to explore this park. All three proved to to have "hurdles" for us to jump over in order to do so though.
First and foremost (and a reoccurring trend) is that were were visiting in the "off" season. Less people is the upside while limited access to tours and road closures due to weather were the downside.
Let's start with the weather. It was beautiful to be honest, but a nice dusting of snow had fallen recently at the higher elevations. Apparently when any accumulation of the dreaded white stuff appears, the roads close. So the beautiful scenic drive to Wheeler Peak that everyone recommends was barred from us by a large metal gate. Keep in mind that the famed oldest trees only grow that the most unforgiving locations and higher elevations... a.k.a. in the area that we were no longer allowed to drive to. But I'll get back to the trees later.
Let me tell you a story about the tour of the cave. Notice that I said tour... as in singular... as in not plural as in there would be only one per day. No big deal, we don't really have a "schedule" so we just picked a day and booked a tour in advance. I loved my cave tour experience in past parks/monuments so it was no question that I wanted to do another one. But with the other major attractions for the typical car visitor to the park closed, the tour was the only option of what to do in the park. I normally would welcome a full tour, nothing wrong with company but we were paired with some of the most obnoxious groups I have ever encountered on a paid tour. I do not intend to be mean, but when I leave a paid excursion with the most prominent memory being that the people sucked, something is wrong. Let me give you a quick breakdown, on the tour of Lehman cave with Karl and I were 4 other groups which included the following:
-A group of foreign tourist that even though they confirmed in English that they understood the rules of the cave tour, kept touching everything. Seriously when the ranger tells you not to touch the delicate cave formations because they could break and the oils from our hands could impede further growth... that means DO NOT TOUCH. Yet, whenever the ranger was not looking, HANDS on everything.
-A married couple. The husband, because he has been to the cave once before as a kid, knew everything there was to know about the place and kept interrupting the ranger and insisting that he was right and knew more than her. While the wife was terrified of everything from the dark, to small spaces, to things that go bump in the night. She didn't want to be there, while he thought is was funny to try to scare her every few minutes (that is when he wasn't talking over the ranger, that is).
-A family that included mom, grandpa, and three young kids. I am all for kids being exposed to the National Park and becoming Junior Rangers and getting them interested in the outdoors. But, these kids were on my last nerve after the other groups previously mentioned. It started with sibling quarrels that turning into full out fights, shouts, and pushing matches. In small confined spaces of a cave, pushing and stepping on siblings led to also doing the same to stranger that were in the group. I never had me feet stepped on so many times in my life. Also, while we were stopped in one room, a crunching noise begins... The oldest boy snuck snacks into the cave! I thought the ranger was going to loose it there, but after a few deep breathes told the kid to keep all wrappers and any morsels of food tucked away. Repeating the rule of no food or drink in the caves (not even water bottles) due to the need to keep the unique environment as pristine as possible. Then IF the poor ranger who was just trying to do her job by telling interesting stories and sharing facts about the cave formations like the "cave popcorn" got a word in over the know it all husband previously mentioned, then she was hampered by the youngest boy who would interrupt over and over again with loud exclamations of things like "Did you know I like popcorn". The mom attempted some lack-luster control but was out numbered, and the poor grandpa kept attempting to maintain order by physically pulling the kids apart but was looking almost as annoyed as I was by the end.
There was also one other young guy in our group who kept his mouth shut and rolled his eyes with Karl & I a few times at the other happenings. He was a cool dude, even if I never heard him speak.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, us having a "bad tour", it is just law of averages. But, the disrespect these particular people had of the space and we were in and the other people we were with was appalling. If you are in a paid tour with others, be aware of what you are doing and don't be "that person" please. With that all said, I guess it was a cool cave, but I can't tell you much more than that because the memory of my experience was tainted. Hopefully the pictures I inserted between the rant about the people is enough to inspire some of you to try to visit Lehman Caves on your own one day and tell me how much better is it without annoying company.
We could not leave this park with such a "bad taste", plus I was still determined to see those Bristlecone Pine Trees. When the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive was still closed to any vehicle traffic, we decided we didn't need a road. Hiked it, we did. Loved it, we did.
Opposite to the tour the day before, we had it to ourselves. The road being closed was a blessing, because other than a trail running group near Wheeler Peak Campground we were the only crazy people willing to find a way around the road closure.
Trails blanketed in glittering snow, untouched by any footprints but ours were beckoning us to trek further and further. And Oh, to sit amongst the gnarled oldest living organisms in the world in silence and just be... is beyond words.
Story time: Did you know that a graduate student in the 60s came to the area to study the trees and take tree core samples. Well, his increment borer (the device used to extract a section of wood tissue from a living tree with relatively minor damage to the plant itself) got stuck in one of those particularly stubborn plants.
Getting permission to fell the tree to rescue his tool and obtain more research data seemed like a great idea until the information they obtained confirmed that he just cut down the oldest living organism in the world... Now known as Prometheus, the downed tree's ring count put its age at at least 4,862 years old. Talk about hiking amongst your elders.
From Great to Grand, we headed south to the Grand Canyon! The parks are by no means neighbors, but when friends are flying into Arizona for a wedding and ask if they can hang out with us in a National Park before the event, we say HELL YEAH!
Arriving in Grand Canyon four days before our scheduled meeting with Kirk and Julie equaled the perfect opportunity to take our time to backpack into the canyon before spending time with them. Many people take on the Grand Canyon by doing a Rim to Rim hike, going down one side to the Colorado and the ascending up the other. We are no different, except we changed it up by doing a Rim to the same Rim.
Our decision was made by 3 simple facts:
1) We are cheap and didn't want to pay for a transfer service to take us back to Ele if we came out on the other side
2) The North Kaibab Trail was longest mileage wise and we had four days to enjoy
3) We knew were going to explore the South Rim with Kirk & Jules later in the week, so we'd wait to enjoy that side with them.
I've contemplated for a while now how to put into words what our days in the Grand Canyon were like but all I can think of is a quote I read by J.B. Priestly about the Grand Canyon, "There is of course no reason at all in trying to describe the Grand Canyon. Those who have not seen it will not believe any possible description. Those who have seen it know that is cannot be described."
We would only spend three, maybe four hours hiking along the trail each morning, set up camp and then use the rest of the day to wander, relax, photograph, and just be in awe.
The switchbacks, the surprisingly green plant life thriving on the higher elevations of the North Rim, the bridges...
The thought that a misstep on the trail would not only be a terribly long fall but an extremely painful one with all the cacti around, the changing colors of the canyon walls as the light moves, the churning of the Colorado...
The friendly rangers, the even friendlier rangers, and Oh my...
The most gorgeous (and green) waterfall I have even seen...
So much so, I took the plunge into the cold waters, just to get closer to Ribbon Falls.
These things, these experiences cannot be described.
Another hard thing to describe is how excited we were to have friends making a special trip to join us in a National Park. Like levels of extreme here. We already knew we were going to have an awesome time because we had people to run around (or jump around)
and play with.
But we wanted to make sure (especially since it would be Julie's first camping trip AND first time in a National Park) that is was epic. All the stops were pulled out... Kingdom living, camp fires, mountain pies, and as many adventures as we could pack in.
I'll let some photos do the talking and maybe try to convince a special guest writing appearance to occur on the blog to see if Kirk & Julie can put the Grand Canyon/camping with Starl Krenbic experience into words from their perspective... :)
Since Kirk & Julie still live in the "real world" and had other obligations in Arizona, they had to leave us, so we all said Good Bye to the Grand.
Our aim was to head straight west to the Channel Islands in California, but storms along the coast were raging and weather patterns thwarted original plans yet again only to lead us to "seasonably warm" weather else where... Mukuntuweap. Have you heard of it?
Mukuntuweap (pardon my shortened history lesson here) is in sorts the Paiute's term for canyon and their historical Indian name for the place, and the whole area was Mukuntuweap National Monument for a while. The area had a long history of settlers, most of which were Mormons and they had their own name for the land, a biblical word meaning a place of peace and refuge or sanctuary: Zion. If the LDS community did not make such a fuss and the thought that people wouldn't visit a place they didn't know how to pronounce, the original name would have stuck. Honestly, by their definition Zion seems appropriate. Even if in its popularity today it is more difficult to find the level of peace and sanctuary some seek, it is still there. We found it, more than once.
Zion, was one of the parks that we had visited a few years before so our goal this time around was all new hikes and experiences, both for the fact that we didn't want to repeat something and the fact we were now a bit more "seasoned" and trusted our abilities more than we did before so were willing to take on some new challenges.
We did a few new hikes that we did not see the first time around, one of which I would certainly recommend: Hidden Canyon. A dry slot canyon that if you are willing to hike a few switchbacks, hold onto a few chains, and then scramble past were most people stop... you get a world all to yourself.
Another "new" thing was a hike that is famous and usually quite popular. Also is it one that we have done before... but this time we did it by the light of our headlamps so as to see sunrise from the top of Angel's Landing.
Luck was with us on this timing wise because the buses that usually take visitors throughout the park stopped that very day. With the public transport system shut down for the weekdays in the off season people are allowed to drive their private vehicles into the park, yet their are only so many parking spots. Basically, we were allowed to drive in (as long as it was after midnight) and once we secured a parking spot, we were set. With only so many spots, only so many people can hike... Not that their were many other groups keen on hiking in the dark when it was cold but still.
We weren't the only crazy ones though and not even the first (one other group got to the top of Angel's Landing before us) for sunrise and a few other committed hikers joined as the day began. It also happened to be the night of the supermoon, and a cloudless night... Honestly, even with my love/hate relationship with headlamps and night hiking, this was not a bad way to start a day. There is something about seeing the sun slowly making its mark on the landscape around you. Better yet, the first sunbeam that touches your face is an amazing feeling (especially in the cold).
Funny though that when your main planned activity for the day ends before it is even 10AM, one has many options. More driving through the park (since we were allowed to!) and finding nice nature hikes (both on trail and off) to explore consumed our day. Also, we secured our backcountry permit for the next day... and the excitement for that (even if the Ranger attempted to scare us away from the hike) was an adrenaline rush.
So what did that backcountry permit give us access too? The Subway!
No, not the sandwich chain, but a not-really-talked about semi-technical slot canyon in the Park. No were near as well known or well travelled as the Narrows are but that is the point! Permits limit the number of people so it is more secluded and they also ween out those who aren't up for the challenge. There are only two ways into the Subway. One either does the "top-down" which requires canyoneering experience and equipment or the "bottom-up" that to complete the hike you will wade/swim/scramble/climb along the stream (which is the trail for most of the route). Since we didn't want to ruin any of our climbing ropes, we went with the "bottom-up" hike and soaked our boots and clothes instead.
I will not compare it to the Narrows, as that is an experience all its own and I would not discourage anyone from missing out on that... but since we did all of the Narrows before, The Subway was exactly what we were looking for and more. It was an amazing hike.... no escapade as hiking does not cover all of what we did. In case you don't believe this escapade was that awesome, you should know there were fossilized dinosaur footprints.
And waterfalls to scramble over.
And the railroad, a crack of water cutting through the rock.
And then the actual Subway.
That is where the fun really began, and friends were made. Once you enter this tubular oval of wall, the light reflects off the weeping edges and blue and emerald pool glisten under your feet, you know the effort was worth it. Yet, this is only the lower Subway... many people turn around here but we are not most people and we had others who helped influence us to go further. It began with us meeting Klaas and Sharon (a traveling couple from Netherlands/Canada) who were also one of the crazy groups that joined us for sunrise at Angels Landing the day before (great traveling minds think alike). And Karl and Klaas were off without any further discussion. As Sharon and I enjoy the lower Subway and wondered where they ran off too voices called for us to join them. Telling us to brave the cold water that would be chest deep. I attempted to ignore the peer pressure, but it is hard to say "No, I'm not soaking myself just to see what is on the other side" when a stranger comes along and says, "I'll do it if you will." Thanks Ryan, and that is how we met Ryan. Peer Pressure. Sharon soon followed.
After wading to see a hidden waterfall in the "waterfall room" the lower Subway exploration ends. Most people get their fill there, but like I said before, we are not most people and our peer pressure friends weren't either. Fallen logs became makeshift ladders to let us up on the ledge above the oval walls of the lower Subway, and we skirted our way deeper and deeper into the canyon.
That I believe is where the true magic of the place existed for me.
And where we made friends to hike, soaking wet, out of the canyon with.
Hard to beat an adventure like that, but we had another day in Zion so we went rock climbing and tackled a pretty crazy crack climb (Karl insists it was 5.7++++++)!
Next adventure would be to California to spend Thanksgiving with Karl's family.
gobble gobble
<3 Stacy
