Hiking: 1 mile
Part 5 of 5 of our 10-day trip. Check it out from the beginning or maybe from DAY 7 NATURAL BRIDGES AND CAPITOL REEF – DRIVING & FLASH FLOODS.
As the ranger over the counter hands us our 6th junior ranger packet. Will and I are pretty burnt out of these activity books and realize that 6 parks in one trip is too much. But we are here in the middle of nowhere, miles from anything, and know we need to see what is here. We arrived early in the morning and found our campsite. Luckily the day was warm and there was no sight of rain (thank goodness!).
We knew very little about Great Basin National Park and figured we would figure it out along the way. The only thing we did know was that the park contained Lehman Caves. Everyone was excited to see the caves, we had seen the Rock the Park episode, where Jack and Colton squeeze through a small cement box to visit some of the cave areas and we were excited to do it ourselves.
We bought our tickets for the next day, set-up camp, and then started up the mountain to hike a short part of Wheeler Peak. We drove up the long and winding road and when we got to the top, we realized we had left all our stuff back at the camp and it was cold and windy at the top. We piled back into the car and down we went. Back at camp the kids worked on their junior ranger books and everyone decided this would be the last time we try to visit so many places in one trip. We were on sensory overload of all the different wonders we had seen.
As I started dinner, Noah asked if he could start a fire and I said sure, thinking he would get everything together in the fire pit, mess around with his fire starter from Saturday market for a little bit, and then when I was ready he would ask for help getting the fire started. I continued to merrily make dinner when I smelled the smoke and began to panic, when I turned around Noah and a perfect fire started! It’s amazing how quickly our children learn through observation and mimic our actions. I couldn’t have had a bigger smile on my face and been a prouder mom.
That night we joined the night sky ranger talk and learned so much about Great Basin National Park and their night sky program and night rangers, we want to go back, even though it’s in the middle of nowhere.
The next day, we went through Lehman caves. Everyone liked the cave, because it felt more intimate than Carlsbad Caverns, but was lighted similar, so it was almost like a private tour of the cave. We finally saw the cement block from the Rock the Park episode and we all went through. Will again, had to conquer his fear of tight spaces.
After, we drove to my sister’s house and then finally made it home the day after. Six national parks in 10 days is quite a feat and really the sensory overload. We discovered from this trip 2 days are needed in smaller parks and 3 days are needed in larger parks. It was a great indicator trip of what we like and what we don’t like and how much is really too much.
