Sacramento Pass, Nevada
August 20, 2022
Our next stop was a short drive from Ely to a BLM campground at Sacramento Pass. This campground was fairly close to Great Basin National Park which we wanted to visit. The drive was pleasant, and we discovered that while in Nevada, you are always within sight of mountains.
The iconic lonely western road that disappears into the horizon
Passing through the first mountain range
Approaching the next mountain range and wind farm
The free campground had very nice designated sites with covered picnic tables and a pond in the middle. The pond was an unusual feature out here.
Wheeler Peak is the distant mountain at the top center of this picture
We were surprised to find a pond in the middle of a Nevada campground.
We were sure not to hang any of our game from the shade structure.
And we didn't discharge our firearms in the shade structure-- honest.
Hope springs eternal, but there was no internet to be had here.
We decided to take a "short walk" up the hill a mile to check out the other campground. The campsites were fine, but we liked our site better. There was a trail off that campground leading into the forest that wound down the the hill, and we decided to take it back to our campsite, but we got a bit lost. Due to the way the trees were spaced out, everything (and nothing) looked like trail. We eventually found our way back, but the "short walk" turned out to be longer than expected.
Wednesday was looking to be the nicest weather day, so we took off for Great Basin National Park, one of the least visited national parks in the United States. It is famous for a few things: Lehman Caves (we've seen caves before, so we skipped the tour this time around), bristlecone pine trees (the oldest living things in the world), and Nevada's only glacier (although we saw a sign pointing out a glacier when we were in the Ruby Mountains, so not sure this absolutely true). The drive into the park was a twisty road leading from the dry, dusty valley up to the forested mountain top, complete with many switchbacks and grand views.
Up and up and up we went
We hiked a trail which passed by some lakes and an old bristlecone pine tree grove and ended at a glacier. The hike was 7.5 miles roundtrip.
The beginning of the trail at 9960 ft. Only about 1000 feet to climb to the end!
We saw quite a few deer on this trail.
One of several bristlecone pines we encountered. These trees are over 3000 years old!
Even the dead ones hang around for hundreds of years!
This one reminded us of a Christmas tree...
...complete with ornaments! It doesn't show very well in this picture, but there were drops of sap on the pinecones that sparkled in the sunlight.
This one is half dead and half alive.
We named this one "Baby Yoda". Apparently, it can take 200 years for a bristlecone pine to reach 4 feet tall.
Look around - As the trail went higher there were more and more rock falls.
Look around - Most of these trees are Bristlecone pines
Getting closer to the end of the trail.
ALook around - as we got near the top it turned to all rock
Wheeler Peak in the background...
...And the opposite view
The glacier is hidden under the gravel, so it's not super impressive. There's only a little snow left from last winter.
After visiting the glacier (Julie hiked down to touch the snow still remaining), we visited two alpine lakes--Teresa and Stella.
Teresa Lake
Not a super amount of water this late in summer, but pretty nonetheless.
We passed by a bunch of chunks of slate that looked like a poorly executed patio.
We lunched at Stella Lake.
We passed through a forest of odd-looking trees that resembled birch with yellow-ish bark.
Bambi and mom
Cute stump chairs...
Look around - First lake up was Teresa lake
Look around - Next stop was Stella lake
The car next to us in the parking lot
Winding our way back down the mountain
The next couple of days had good chances of rain in the afternoons, so we just opted for bike rides from camp in the mornings.
First up was taking Osceola road (ended up being 11.5 miles) which looked like it was the original road over the pass (gravel and not in great shape). We didn't end up taking it all the way to the old mining town of Osceola because the road suddenly started to go straight down the mountain (loose gravel and steep hills are not for us).
What??? Didn't look like anything was connected to it.
The road started going straight downhill, so we turned around. The wind farm in the distance is the same one we passed on the way to the campground.
Back to the campground
Look around - Nice views all around.
The next day we did another ride just following a bunch of gravel roads off of the camp - this ride was only about 6 miles but even more scenic than the last ride.
Look around - Near the camp the road was still pretty good with a good view of the basin in the distance.
Look around - At the top of a ridge there was a nice spot where obviously someone had camped before. What a great camp location!
One of the evenings we had planned to have brats on the grill, corn on the cob, and watermelon, but the sky decided to storm on us. So, we improvised a little.
The baby watermelon was surprisingly good and had an exceedingly thin rind.
$4 dollars worth of sweet corn - we are not in the Midwest anymore! It was quite good, though.
Overall, the campground was very quiet even through it was right off the main road--there just wasn't much traffic out here. One of the evenings, we were treated to a spectacular star show, as there were no cities anywhere nearby.
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