Great Basin

Wh ee ler Peak Text by Jeremy Schmidt Mountains in a Sea of Sagebrush We call it the Great Basin, a vast area of sagebrush-covered valleys and narrow mountain ranges. The name comes from a peculiarity of drainage: over most of the area, streams and rivers find no outlet to the sea. Instead, water collects in shallow salt lakes, marshes, and mud flats, where it evaporates in dry desert air. There is not just one basin here but many, all separated by mountain ranges running roughly parallel, north to south. The landscape plays and replays a single magnificent theme of alternating basin and range-broad basins hung between craggy ranges-from the Wasatch Mountains of Utah to the Sierra Nevada of California in seemingly endless geographic rhythm. At first glance (or even after many miles of driving) you might think of it as a monotonous On the Edge of the Desert asln The Great Basin Centered on Nevada bu t extending into ne ighboring states, the Great Basin stretches from California's Sierra Nevada Rang e on the west to the Rockies of Utah on the east. Th e region is one of high , silent valleys, numerou s mountain ranges, and few rivers . Great Basin National Park protects the South Snake Range, near the Utah border east of Ely, Nev. Park, established in 1986, includes much of the South Snake Range, a superb example of a desert mountain island. From the sagebrush at its alluvial base to the 13,063-foot summit of Wheeler Peak, the park includes streams, lakes, alpine plants, abundant wildlife, a variety of forest types including groves of ancient bristlecone pines, and numerous limestone caverns, including beautiful Lehman Caves. Bristl econe pine Tom Bean · The Snake Range provides a good example of biogeography, the relationship between living things and the landscape. As elevation increases, the climate changes, creating habitats for different plants and animals. During the last Ice Age, glaciers sprawled across the high peaks. The air was cooler, allowing forests of bristlecone and limber pine to grow on the valley bottom, along the shores of long sinuous lakes. The largest body of water was Lake Bonneville, of which the Great Salt Lake is today a shrunken remnant. About 15,000 years ago, its waves lapped a beach just 10 miles from the current park boundary. Hiking opportunities abound in the park. Easy to moderate trails lead to alpine lakes and bristlecone pine forest. More strenuous is a climb up Wheeler Peak, the park 's highest point. Rangers lead nature walks and tours of Lehman Caves. That changed around 10,000 years ago, when the climate turned warmer. Glaciers melted, lakes dried up, and the desert plants we see today invaded the desiccated valleys. The Snake Range became an island surrounded by desert, a refuge for temperate-climate dwellers. For many organisms with no means of transport, the desert basins present impassable barriers. These species are cut off from others of their kind, isolated, to develop unique adaptations, as surely as though they were on Islands in a real ocean. These were alpine glaciers, not the huge continental ice sheets that enveloped the northern part of the continent. Here, ice never reached the valley floor. Instead, ii melted at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. You can see this in the shape of the Baker Creek drainage. Above the melting point, glaciers plucked and carried bedrock, widening and smoothing the mountain slopes. Below the melting point, cascading streams cut sharpsided canyons. Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive provides good views of the range. Beginning near the park entrance, it leaves Lehman Creek to climb across a dry shoulder of the mountain, ending near treeline. In 12 miles, it gains 3,400 feet In elevation, passing through a variety of habitats: from pinyon-juniper woodlands, along a creekbed lined with aspen trees, through a zone of shrubby mountain mahogany and manzanita, into deep forests of Englemann spruce and Douglas-fir, to the flower-spangled meadows and subalpine forest of limber pine, spruce, and aspen at the Wheeler Peak campground. In the South Snake Range, 13 peaks rise above 11 ,000 feet. On those lofty exposed summits, winter is never far off. Snow can fall during any month, even in July. At night, freezing temperatures are common. To survive, plants must cope with a short growing season , poor soil, thin air, and intense solar radiation. High winds also buffet the peaks, punishing anything that rises above the horizon-including transient visitors such as hikers. Whatever lives here must keep a low profile. Lichens cling to rocks like paint. Dwarfed plants grow tight to the ground, firmly anchored in crevices. Shrubs appear pruned by a careful bonsai gardener. Trees exist in small cavities or hollows. but slow-growing bristlecone wood has a high resin content, preventing rot. Instead, the wood actually erodes, like stone, from wind and ice crystals. Even dead wood endures and is of scientific value; a piece 9,000 years old has been found.At lower elevations, where conditions are less extreme, bristlecones grow faster and larger, but they die at the tender age of 300 or400 years. Climbing Wheeler Peak Not all bristlecones live that long. Ironically, the old, est trees are the ones growing near treeline where survival is most difficult. Adversity, it appears, promotes long life. These ancient trees grow slowly, one branch at a time. Even their needles can liveup to ·40 years. Often, a tree will appear nearly dead, with only a thin strip of living tissue clinging to a gnarled, naked trunk. Ordinary trees would decay under those conditions, springs and other water sources. They gathered and hunted a variety of wild foods, but their dietary mainstay, especially important in winter, was the pinyon nut. Descendants of these peoples still live In the area and share this harvest with other residents: pinyon jays, rock squirrels, wood rats, and other small animals. The Underground World What we see today began millions of years ago. The climate then was much wetter than it is now. Rain water, turned slightly acidic by seeping past surface vegetation and humus, found its way into hairline cracks deep in the native limestone. Trickling downward, the water dissolved the stone, enlarging the cracks, eventually reaching the water table. There it collected in sufficient quantity to create whole rooms. At one time, an underground stream flowed here, leaving behind tell-tale ripple marks. Lexington Arch Illu stration by Robert Hynes Prehistoric peoples, known from archeological evidence, lived in this area along the shores of ancient Lake Bonneville. Later Native American residents lived In small villages near the present towns of Baker and Garrison from about AD 1100to1300. Known as members of the Fremont Culture, they irrigated com, beans, and squash in the valley and hunted in the mountains. Numerous rock art sites in the park remind us of their presence. Shoshone and Paiute peoples lived in the area from about 1300 until recently in small kin groups near Tom Bean The trees found highest in the Snake Range, limber and bristlecone pines, appear between 9,500 and 11 ,000 feet. While both species are obviously hardy plants, bristlecone pines are the stuff of legend. True masters of longevity, they endure not centuries but millennia. On rocky slopes near the end of the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, you can walk among trees that have kept their grip on life for between two and three thousand years-some much longer than that. A bristlecone pine found here was determined to be the world's oldest living thing : 4,950 years of age. Close beneath the summit of Wheeler Park, a bit of the Ice Age exists in the form of a small glacier, the only one of its kind in the Great Basin. A mere token, it calls to mind the powerful glaciers that capped the Snake Range only a few thousand years ago. Evidence of glacial activity is easy to find. Plies of glacial debrisboulders, sand , gravel-form mounds and ridges. Sparkling Teresa and Stella Lakes occupy hollows gouged by ice. Go lden Eagle landscape-nothing out there but sagebrush, a vast sea of pale green shrubs. Appearances are deceptive. As in the ocean, there is much life not immediately apparent. And above the valleys, rising thousands of feet from the sagebrush sea, mountain ranges form a sort of high-elevation archipelago, islands of cooler air and more abundant water. Here we find a rich variety of plants and animals that could not survive in the lower desert. Great Basin National Cover pholO by Jeff Gnass Lehman Caves (a single cavern despite the name) extends a quarter-mile into the limestone and low-grade marble that flanks the base of the Snake Range. Discovered about 1885 by Absalom Lehman, a rancher and miner, this cavern is one of the most richly decorated caves in the country, a small but sparkling gem. Eventually the climate turned drier; water drained from the cave, leaving smooth walls and hollow rooms. Then came the second stage of cave development. Small amounts of water still percolated down from the surface. But now, instead of enlarging the cavern, the mineral-rich fluid began filling it once again. Drop by drop, over centuries, seemingly insignificant trickles worked wonders in stone. The result is a rich display of cave formations, or as scientists call them, speleothems. Lehman Caves contains familiar structures such as stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies, and flowstone, along with some interesting and delicate rarities. Lehman Caves is most famous for the rare and mysterious structures called shields. Shields consist of two roughly circular halves, almost like flattened clam shells. How they are formed remains a subject of controversyanother of the pleasant mysteries to be found in the underground world. The Parachute (right) and other formations make touring Lehman Caves an unusual experience. Helectites look like forests of chow mein noodles. Aragonite grows clusters of snow-white needles. Cave popcorn, looking like it namesake, adorns many walls. -t.- GP0:1995 - 3a7-03S/00254 Reprmt 1995 / \ 4 Kilometers 4Miles ~ HU~BOLDT 'j___ ,_ ,,\J \ I I NATIONAL I 2 0 I I I 2 E::'.J Unpaved road I I / ( ~ Overlook L___J area Picnic area m Primitive trail A Interpretive trai l r---, Bristlecone Pine Primitive campsite CiD Restaurant / .J"°· CJ Weaver 6 Creek ~so~r---~-~ ~y I .3110m E:=J / 1 ' ,,. Windy Peak 10200ft i::=-=::J Four-wheel c::=..::::J drive road I / f:i1J Sanitary disposal station Ranger station ~ Campground / ,,. FOREST m E 3 rrail I / ,,. / / I The main park entrance rants, a small grocery Is five miles west of Baker,-- smre, limited motel acNev., near the Nevadacommodations, and gasUtah border. Driving disoline are available In lances In miles are: Las Baker. The nearest cities Vegas, 286; Salt Lake City, are Ely, Nev., 70 miles to 234; Reno, 385; and the west and Delta, Utah, Cedar City, 142. The vlsi100 miles to the east. tor center Is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. dally/ Information Maps, longer In summer. It is interpretive booklets, and closed Thanksgiving, other information may be December 25, and Janupurchased at the visitor ary 1. Entrance to the park center or by mall from the is free. Recreation fees Great Basin Natural Hisapply to cave tours, develtory Association at the oped campgrounds, and park address. Write for a use of the RV sanitary free price list and order station. form. For more Information, write: Superlnten· A concessioner operates dent, Great •••In a cafe and gift shop from National Park, Baker, April to October. RestauNV81311. / - uflNT l'l'{ON cl' iv11l.l- e Buck Mountain 10972ft 3344m. Bald Mountain 11562ff 3524m, r, ___ ,,...-.,,,.-\,.,, IDOOOft 3049m ,' I II / , Ti. ~ rrw I. el:%~ 1 g -Briatlecone Pine grove I \ I /-Rock glacier and moraine \ \ '\\ " l7S2ft . . 2362m ~ / Brown Lake I ' / .I Upper Lehman Creek . . 9886tt ~ 3013m '\.... _.... ef tSlel/a - , \ Lake 'I . ' /Wheeler Peak I I-' f'' ,,,. _/ / '1 Creek ' - ,_:______ "" Lehman I r'-{ ,---'\ - Glacier Wheeler Peak\ 13063tt 3982m CJ) Jeff Davis Peak 12771tt 3893m z I )> / / m Baker Peak 12298tt 12305tt .3751m 3748m. Mahogany Spring Baker Lak1 <. Sprin9 11540ft. )> 3517m r r ID249ft .3124m m ClaySpnng<>'t Briatleconegrove -<.. t-iOflSE HEAVEN GRANITE BASIN o..acJ To Minerva Lake 11775tt 3589m. Seeing the Park With one d•r to •pend: stop at the visitor center and take a tour of the cave. Drive the scenic road to the base of Wheeler Peak. From there, follow easy to moderate trails to alpine lakes and the bristlecone pine forest. With more time to •pend: cllmb Wheeler Peak; visit the glacier In its rock-bound cirque; or explore one of the other park canyons. Snake Creek flows all year through groves of aspens beneath wildly eroded limestone outcroppings. Or visit Lexington Arch In the wild south end of the range. At the park's north end, Strawberry Creek runs through stands of aspen trees and open meadows. All park roads except Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive are unpaved and Infrequently traveled. Along the way are many pleasant picnic sites with good views of the broad, sagebrush-covered basin to the east. Before going, get directions and ask about road conditions at the visitor center. Activities Rangers lead guided nature walks, present evening campfire programs In summer, and conduct tours of Lehman Caves. The oave toura %-mile walk on paved trail with stairways and Indirect lightlng-takes about 1Y. hours. Wear warm clothlng; the cave temperature Is S0°F year round. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Fishing requires a Nevada fishing license; state regulatlons apply. Hunting ls prohibited; all firearms must be unloaded and cased In the park. Horseback riding Is permitted but not on all trails. Mountain-biking Is allowed only on designated motor vehicle roadways. The park has miles of dirt roads; check with a ranger about which are open. All motorized vehlcles used on park roads, and their operators, must be licensed In their state of residence. CANYON ··...) Snake Creek \ Spring Creek Rearing Station Nevada Department of Wildlife (fish rearing station) GREAT BASIN NAt.IONAI!.. PARK sol( ............ .· ········...~ ·················. ?J)> .......... . . . .. 3318m .....···.........·······""··· .... __ ..... Non1 ..... ........ "o,,.~ ---Big - ..... __ · ··. ......./ '2: • 108ll5tt Jo/qS/] ' - , .... , '~ ~1159711 / / /// .~/ _;.</'/ 'o/' 11532fl 3515m. / /' I f!~~ Pruess \ Lake , llOOIN ,3353m ,3535m Camping Four developed campgrounds provide water (summer only), restrooms, fire rings, picnic tables, and tent pads. Primitive campsites along Strawberry Creek provide tables, tent sites, and pit toilets, but no water. Some sites have road access In summer only. The b-kcountry Backpacking opportunities abound, but there are few maintained trails. Routes generally follow ridge lines or valley bottoms. Plan ahead: bushwhacking through stands of mountain mahogany can be arduous-or lmposslble. Topographic maps, advice, and Information on current conditions are available at the visitor center. Backcountry registration Is strongly recommended. Snake 7680tt 2340m \ ~ To Milford 90mi 145km To Cedar City 142mi 228km ,if' -i:>if/ ""<> /#'~' / 0~ , _____ ~ Mustang Spring ~ ... - ' North Fork Lex1ngto .y IOOIBfl ,33e7m SWALLOW Granite Peak 11218tt 1CANYON 3419m. ,/ / Lexl~gton Arch • 8720ft 2658m (,~ •..... CANYON -,J',1-,_/c/ ' "'~ 10699ft 3261m. ol_-===============::::::::;::;;::::t::==:=::J '!z.-< 0 z ...-(o~" L~"" FOREST '-;- ~"' r ........ ./c~eq; 1..exmgton ------~ ~- -.............. -, Lexington --- I J Creek __....-High clearance Hiker Warnings Many park trans reach elevations above 10,000 feet. Avoid overexertion and be prepared for sudden weather changes. When storms threaten, and always when hiking above treeline, carry warm clothing and rain gear. Avoid ridges and exposed areas during electrical storms. Surf- water mar not be available In sum· mer; carry at least a quart ("'" I I v~;;;;;y- - - __ .--...- per person on short hikes and more If you plan to be out all day. Drinking water Is provided at the visitor center (year round) and all 4 developed campgrounds (summer only). Purify (by bolllng or other means) any untreated water before drinking. Wear proper f-tgear -hiking boots or sturdy shoes that provide ankle support. Loose and sharp ~/ ,,./, / I / ,, ...... rocks are common, especially off maintained trails. Mine shafts and tunnels, part of the park's history, are dangerous. Do not enter them. A •peclal note The alpine world Is ecologically fragile. High elevation plants grow slowly; their margin of survival Is thin. To protect these areas, stay on established roads or trails wherever possible. ) I