Great Basin National Park.

Today we drove into Great Basin National Park and continued up the 12 mile Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive; at the end of the road we parked in the Bristlecone Trail parking area. We hiked the 2.7 mile Alpine Lakes Loop and took a 1.4 mile side trip up to the Bristlecone Pine Grove and back down again.

 

A view from the scenic drive, the Aspen Trees are just starting to leaf out up here.

 

The elevation at the parking area is 9,800 feet and we gained 600 feet as we walked the Alpine Lakes Trail past Stella and Teresa Lakes. Once we started we found that there is still some deep snow in places on the trails; we left our hiking poles in the CRV but the trail only had scattered slippery spots due to the snow and mud.

 

The trail still has some snow on it.

 

The scenery up there was worth the effort.

 

We stopped for a break when we arrived at Stella Lake, the elevation was causing some problems for Sandy so we took it easy as we continued on to Teresa Lake. Both lakes were beautiful and although it was a nice Saturday morning in June we had the trail and Stella Lake to ourselves.

 

John at STELLA!!! Lake.

 

Stella Lake.

 

Sandy at Teresa Lake.

 

Teresa Lake; elevation 10,230 feet.

 

The view down into the basin and east to the mountains.

 

After Teresa Lake John talked Sandy into the detour to the Bristlecone Pines, this trail had much more snow on it than the Alpine Loop but Sandy made it up to the point where she could see the trees across a valley, John continued up to the Bristlecone Grove for some images.

 

A Bristlecone Pine, some are as old as 5,000 years.

 

Five core samples dates this one at 3,200 years old.

 

We then walked back down to the Alpine Loop and then down to the parking area; there were plenty of wet and slippery spots on our trip down. At the trailhead we sat at a picnic table and ate our lunch before coasting down to the Border Inn and the mothership. We have enjoyed our visit to this area, it is quiet and remote but worth a visit; they could hold the wind down a little though! Tomorrow is a driving day, we will be traveling to Provo Utah.