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Great Basin National Park, located in Nevada, was our first National Park stop on our road trip across the United States. We stargazed, learned about the park at the visitor’s center, explored Lehman Caves, and hiked to the top of Wheeler Peak.
We rolled into Nevada’s National Park at about 7:15 pm, heading straight to the Visitor Center where we found out there was an astronomy event at 7:30 pm, in just 15 short minutes… We were all in! Loving stargazing, we decided to stop in at the event before figuring out where we would camp in the park. (Probably not the best choice, but it eventually turned out fine.) We quickly made some PB and J sandwiches, pulled out some chips and salsa and our camping chairs and had dinner and a movie.
Great Basin National Park Stargazing and Astronomy Event
Great Basin is well known for that amazing stargazing offered within the park. Being in the middle of nowhere, there’s little if any light pollution coming in, making the stars illuminate the night sky beautifully to the naked eye. Now, take that and multiply it by a billion, and you get the stargazing astronomy event in the park!
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The park rangers set up telescopes and the like to really get a closer look at the stars, and even have a little movie night about the Earth. — that we totes don’t agree with and you can read about why below! 😉
The movie that was put on was something else. It was all about the cosmic collisions that started the Earth. Wait, what??!! Hold the phone.. these people were dead serious, telling all 100 people that the Earth became Earth when two comets collided. And that dinosaurs went extinct because of another cosmic collision that made Earth how it is today. Now those of you who know Jason and I know that we were about to get up and set these people straight and give the ranger some Jesus talk, but we bit our tongues and let him continue with his program.
Staying the Night in Great Basin National Park | Our Camping Experience
After leaving the astronomy program, we went up the mountain to find a place to camp. This was quite the chore. Zippy (our car) started having issues due to the high elevation (we’re thinking) and we thought we could camp at one location, but it turned out we were wrong, so what did we do??
Drove till we found a bathroom pullout/overlook and camped literally right next to a bathroom.
{Traveler’s Tip…Don’t do this! haha.. While it worked out well for us, we wouldn’t recommend camping this way, and honestly, don’t even know if it’s allowed. Towards the end of this post, we give you more information on camping in the park… Read that for some better ideas!}
This was a HUGE blessing in disguise. The Lord totally had his hand over this! Where we camped I could call my grandpa and ask him questions about our car, and we met a man in the morning who rebuilds his own motors so he was able to look at Zippy for us. He checked the oil and all sorts of stuff and said we were good to go, that we just need to keep an eye on the oil during our trip–What a relief that was, and a total answer to prayer from the night before.
Hiking Wheeler Peak | Someone Give Me an Oxygen Mask!
Anywho.. once we were up and moving we hiked Wheeler Peak. This hike was near death for us!! 😉
When hiking Wheeler Peak, you start out at 10,000 feet (higher than Mount McLoughlin for you Oregon folk) and then gain 3,000 feet in elevation within three miles. That’s 1,000 feet gain every mile.
Or better… climbing 92+ stories of stairs every mile for three miles straight!
Talk about exhaustion.. not an easy hike, that’s for sure!
{Traveler’s Tip…Wheeler Peak is considered a strenuous hike. It has 3,000+ feet of elevation gain and covers 8.2 miles round trip. Pack water and snacks, and definitely check the weather forecasted in the park, as you don’t want to get stuck in a storm up top!}
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Wheeler Peak peaks out at a grand total of 13,063 feet in elevation. It is one of the highest mountains in the area, making the views absolutely unreal. While the hike to the top is difficult to put it lightly, the views are very much so worth it!
Holy smokes.. this was a hard hike, that ended in a nap once we got to the summit, which turned into a half sunburned face.. oops. Needless to say.. we conquered that mountain!!
After Hiking in Great Basin + Where to Next
Once we got back down the mountain.. we did a cave tour through Lehman Caves. Not exactly what we would suggest cramming into one day, but hey, if you’re on a time schedule it’s totally possible.
The Lehman Caves tour was awesome. We had such an awesome time learning about what can form underground — even with it being a bit creepy at times! Check out more about the cave tours and see loads of pictures in the post below!
READ MORE | Great Basin National Park Cave Tours
After the tours, we were really cramming our day. We made dinner in the parking lot — #reallife car camping! Getting a couple of interesting looks for the fact that we literally cooked at ate on the ground! But hey, gotta do what you’ve got to do! And dinner was bomb — Costco’s organic tomato basil soup with a little grilled zucchini and bread really hit the spot!
After wrapping up dinner – and dishes, also done in the parking lot with this all-natural soap, we made our way over to Zion National Park!
RECOMMENDED GEAR | This All Natural Dr. Bronner’s Soap
