The first full day we did a hike up Wheeler Peak, which is the 2nd-highest peak in Nevada at 13,063 feet in elevation. Most of the hike was above treeline and was steep near the top with a lot of false summits. There were rain clouds around, but we only had a few sprinkles along the way (thankfully no lightning).
Along the way we encountered high elevation birds like Clark's Nutcracker (below) and Red Crossbills, which are specialists at getting at seeds within cones. The nutcracker in particular is a major seed dispersal agent of limber and bristlecone pines by caching the seeds in various locations for later use, the seeds forgotten about or unattainable becoming new trees.
On the patches of snow in the alpine tundra above treeline, we came across several Black Rosy-Finches (a new bird for me). This species is really fascinating in that the male defends a moving territory around the female (he defends a radius around wherever the female goes). They forage on and around the edges of melting snow patches. Here is a shot of one:
The alpine tundra along the Wheeler Peak trail also had several wildflowers in bloom, including Parry's primrose. Although we didn't go up and smell them, I read later that their odor is similar to rotting flesh, which is a mechanism for getting flies to pollinate their flowers. These plants were found closer to the summit:
And finally we reached the summit:
View from the top of Wheeler Peak:
The next day we did a shorter hike up to Nevada's only glacier and a bristlecone pine grove situated below Wheeler Peak. Apparently Great Basin NP was the location where the oldest individual organism, a bristlecone pine that was determined to be almost 5,000 years old, was cut down back in the 1960's by a grad student who got his increment borer stuck in it and got permission from the Forest Service to cut it down!!! The Great Basin website states that there is a still-living one within the park that was aged at 4,600 years old, but obviously they are not divulging the whereabouts of that tree. On the short interpretive trail through the grove of bristlecones, there are living trees that are as old as 3,200 years. It's amazing that the wood of fallen trees has still not decayed from individuals that died as long ago as 1400 A.D. What's even more crazy is that individual NEEDLES on these trees can be up to 40 years old! Here are some photos:
Just up from the ancient bristlecone pine grove was the glacier, which was basically just a large patch of snow that doesn't melt and a bunch of rocks (still cool, even though it wasn't the iceberg I pictured in my head). The "trail" goes out onto the glacier where you can walk all around on top of it. We saw more of the Black Rosy-Finches here. Behold the mighty glacier:
In the afternoon after the glacier hike, we went on a 90-minute tour of the Lehman Caves, caverns that were the initial attraction to the area before the park was created in 1986. While parts of the caverns had been destroyed by earlier visitors (previous uses included a dance hall, a place for weddings, and for storing non-perishables during the "duck and cover" bomb shelter era of the Cold War), there are still cool formations that remain mostly intact. Even in areas where early visitors had written their names on the ceiling, bacteria is gradually eating away at the graffiti. The caves apparently have the largest collection of a formation called a "shield". All in all, a cool tour.
The following day we packed up camp and headed back for Overton. On the way, we stopped to photograph the unique entrance of a business that makes art out of deer antlers: "Horns-A-Plenty Antler Art".
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