Great Basin National Park is where the South Snake Range rises out of the vastness of the desolate desert. Near the tiny ranching town of Baker, Nevada, it’s about 3.5 hours from Salt Lake City or 4.5 hours from Las Vegas. Great Basin is one of the most remote national parks in contiguous United States. I rented a car at the Salt Lake City Airport and did the 3.5 hour drive. Once you cross into Nevada on Highway 50, famously dubbed “The Loneliest Road in America,” there’s a Phillips 66 and a border casino with a slightly sketchy vibe, you become keenly awareness why it’s nicknamed that.
This was my first time exploring Great Basin National Park. It’s basin-to-range topography easily allows you to experience the heat of the desert and the chilliness of rocky summits within a couple of hours. Its remoteness means there’s hardly any light pollution. The park was designated as an International Dark Sky Park in 2016. If you want to see its limestone caverns, you need to book a ranger-led tour on recreation.gov. The Lehman Caves Tours run from 30-90 minutes. Lehman Caves is a single cavern running two miles underground. I originally was going to do one, but when I saw how stunning the above ground landscape is, I opted to do a drive and hike.
Driving Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive
Starting at just under 7,000 feet, the road climbs with an 8 percent grade over 10 miles. You quickly leave the sagebrush ocean of the desert as you follow Lehman Creek on the only paved road in the park through the pinyon-juniper woodlands. There are no guardrails, and in places the drop-offs are steep. At around 8,000 feet the temperature was a comfortable 77 degrees, but quickly dropped as I drover higher into the Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forest. The contrast is striking: dense evergreens on one side, vast basin-and-range desert stretching endlessly on the other. The 12-mile drive ends at 10,400 feet. I wanted to drive to whole road to hike the Bristlecone Trail to see the ancient trees, but the last part of the road to Wheeler Peak Summit Trailhead was closed for construction. Because of that and it being early afternoon, I shared with the twisty road with steep drop-offs with very few other cars.
Overlooks in an Ice Age Landscape
There are elevation markers every 500 feet. Shortly after I crossed 8,000 feet, I stopped at a small pull-out to enjoy an incredible view. It’s Mather Overlook, named for Stephen Mather, who was the first director of the National Park Service. From here, the story of the Snake Range comes into focus.
During the Ice Age, massive glaciers repeatedly expanded and retreated across these mountains. At their peak, glaciers filled much of the valley and extended nearly to what is now Upper Lehman Creek Campground. They transported huge amounts of rock, leaving behind moraines and carving out rounded bowls, known as cirques, that now cradle alpine lakes like Stella and Teresa in Great Basin National Park.
At around 9,500 feet, the road passes through a beautiful aspen grove. Shortly after, Wheeler Peak Overlook delivers sweeping views of Wheeler Peak, the park’s highest summit rising sharply above the forested slopes.
Hike to Stella Lake
The trailhead for Stella Lake and the Wheeler Peak Summit Trail sits at 10,161 feet. With about 1.5 hours to hike during my afternoon in Great Basin, I chose Stella Lake. The 2.6-mile round-trip trail has just 250 feet of elevation gain. It is one of the more popular hikes in Great Basin National Park.
About half a mile in, I paused at a viewpoint with a clear look at Wheeler Peak framed by a weathered, sculptural tree. Shortly after, I spotted two deer grazing quietly in a mountain meadow and some wild turkeys. The trail crosses through the aspen grove and opens into a wide meadow halfway in, where a junction splits toward Wheeler Peak or Stella Lake. Stella is just 0.1 miles off the main route.
When I reached the lake around 3:27 p.m., a couple of teenage boys were trying their luck fishing. Only one other hiker arrived while I was there. It’s pure bliss when you get a picturesque alpine lake pretty much to yourself.
On the return hike, I saw more deer moving through the lower meadows, then I stopped to watch a doe with her fawn. The baby instinctively flattened and camouflaged itself in the grass, nearly disappearing.
I accidentally added an extra mile by taking part of the Alpine Lake Loop, but it turned out to be a worthwhile detour. The trail eventually merged back in, and from there it was an easy mile back to the parking lot.
In one afternoon at Great Basin National Park, I drove from desert floor to alpine forest, traced Ice Age geology, hiked to a quiet mountain lake, and watched wildlife. The remoteness is what makes Great Basin special.
