Great Basin - off the beaten path...path to great times

Friday it was get out there time again.  We wanted to head off the beaten path because of the Labor Day week end crowds. We got just what we wanted...few people and a great get out there place.  It takes about three hours to get over there.  We stopped at a cool old mining town - Cisco - to stretch our legs and ended up spending quite a bit of time there. 

This graveyard was such a forlorn place with many graves being children or very young people.  So sad and lonely in the middle of nowhere.  Reminded me of pioneer graves along the trail.  I read about it and people have come in to restore broken headstones, etc., but it is still just falling to pieces.  

The one picture shows the nest of a really big bird in the rafters.  Nobody but varmints has lived here in quite some time.  

We decided to camp out in the boonies since it was getting dark.  About 25 miles from Great Basin National Park there's a road to the boonies and to Lexington Arch.  We took that one and after about 11 miles of dirt (our Jetta handled it) and full dark we camped at the trail head to the arch.  It was a beautiful night with a full moon.  At about midnight all that changed and a huge storm of rain, wind, thunder, lightening and hail blew in full force, but we were snug in our tent.  We watched Extremely Close Incredibly Loud  before we zonked out.  It's a good 9/11 show.  In the morning we breakfasted in the tent (sprinkles here and there) and cleaned up.  A Vietnamese lady and her husband drove up.  He didn't hike, but she was pro.  She left just a few minutes before we did and we met her up there and took pictures of each other and visited quite a bit on the way down.  The arch is amazing - very rare to find an arch made of limestone.  Loved the hike!  We had some sprinkles on the way up, it was beautiful at the arch and most of the way down.  About a half mile from the bottom the sky opened up and just as we got to the car it started to hail.  We were glad when we got off the dirt and back to the highway, but it was covered with about an inch of hail. 

Then we headed to the park.  It was sunny there - about 75.  We had planned to hike to a lake where there are the ruins of an old mining operation, but the weather over that way looked pretty iffy, so we opted to do several shorter hikes in the park.  We were not disappointed.  We hiked the Bristlecone Pine, Glacier and Alpine Lakes Trails and a couple of interpretive trails as well.  It was so beautiful with intermittent rain and a little hail.  It was about 54 up there.  Wheeler Peak peeked in and out of clouds and looked like it was having some real weather on top.  After our hikes (we ate lunch by Stella Lake) we checked out a campground for future reference and then headed out.

The little Golden Mantled squirrel came running right up hoping for his share of our lunch, but when we just took his picture, he made a quick exit.