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Photo: Ken Lund / CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Mountains

Great Basin National Park

Baker, NV · Eastern NevadaFreeFree to enter; Lehman Caves tours from $8 adults, $4 youth

About

In eastern Nevada's Great Basin National Park, a bristlecone pine cut down in 1964 turned out to have 4,862 rings. Its stump is still there. The Wheeler Peak grove where it stood is a 2.8-mile round trip from the Bristlecone Trailhead, at the end of a paved road that climbs more than 4,000 feet in 12 miles. That road usually opens by Memorial Day weekend, and the first heavy snow generally closes it by November 1. In summer, rangers set up telescopes at the amphitheater by the Lehman Caves Visitor Center a few nights a week, and on a clear moonless night the Milky Way is easy to see. There's little to no cell signal, and map apps can route you somewhere remote, so set yours for Baker or that visitor center.

Highlights

13,063-foot Wheeler PeakRanger-guided tours of Lehman Caves and its marble formationsBristlecones, the oldest non-clonal speciesWheeler Peak Glacier, the only glacier in NevadaInternational Dark Sky Park with summer astronomy programs

Getting there

Great Basin National Park, 100 Great Basin National Park, Baker, NV 89311

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