Snowshoeing in Great Basin
Eric won a private cave tour at Great Basin and he was kind enough to invite Jacqueline and I to go with he and Izzy. We left Springdale after Jacqueline got off work on Wednesday. Eric drove, which was nice because I did not know how the roads would be. They turned out to be fine, but it was a long 3 hour plus drive through the darkness to get to Great Basin. As we approached, we watched closely the temperature reading in Eric's car. It was dropping slowly, hovering around the twenties. As we drove into the park and up to higher elevation, we saw the thermometer continue to drop. When we got out of the car at our campsite, it was 14 degrees. We decided to put up the tent on the asphalt because there was too much snow on the rest of the site to give us a spot to sleep. We were not able to stay up long because of the cold and were forced to retreat to our bags. It took us some time to adjust to the cold, but with my sleeping bag and a bivy sack, I felt fine. Jacqueline was cold through the night, but she chose to sleep on top of her second sleeping bag instead of in it. Eric and Izzy slept in the car and they both slept fine. We started our day by driving down to the visitor center and making plans with the person who was taking us on the cave tour. We made plans to meet her after she got off work. Then we headed up to the Upper Lehman Campground where we would pick up the Lehman Creek Trail. The trail went up hi
ll the entire hike. Someone had been on the trail just the day prior, so it made it easy to find. Izzy was struggling a little bit because her snowshoes were definitely inferior to the three of ours. We were in the forest most of the way. Eventually, the broken trail became unbroke and we were stuck trying to find the way. This became a more difficult task than we originally thought it would be. Where we thought the trail would be lead us into a river valley. The trail was obviously not there, so we decided to head up to the ridge. This was a tiring prospect, but we were helping each other out by switching off the lead. Jacqueline and Eric were doing a much better job than I was with the lead, because I lead us up to nothing. Eric lead us back down and we still did not find the trail. When I took back over, I stumbled upon the meadow we had been lookin
g for. We got some great views of the peaks, including Wheeler. We found the trail from there and we kept going. When it was getting close to time to turn around, Eric and Izzy turned around first. Jacqueline and I continued both feeling well. When we ran out of trail, though, I was disheartened and we decided to turn around catching up with Eric and Izzy before too long. We moved much quicker on the way down, of course, and were back with plenty of time. We briefly stopped by the campsite before heading down to the visitor center for our cave tour. We were taken into Lehman Caves for our private cave tour and it was a treat. We asked if we could do it with headlamps and Marie, who was our guide, was all for it. It is incredible how much more we could see with headlamps on. The most striking advantage was that we were able to see all the inscriptions on the cave ceiling. There were many and they were rather historical. I
t was easy to see dates in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they used to use the candles given them to burn their name into the ceiling. The first people who ran the cave used to let people take whateve
r they wanted when leaving the cave when it came to cave formations, so it was just amazing how unnatural the cave remains. We were able to go to a few spots others don't go and the nice part was that we got to do the tour much faster than others. We also got to stop and enjoy the formations a bit more and take different pictures than people usually get. We left from there and went into Baker to get some dinner. We went to a local place. I got a burrito and a beer. Marie met us there and invited us to stay at her house. Eric and Izzy took her up on that because Izzy was not feeling well. Jacqueline was excited about it also. I was the only one left unhappy with it. I appreciated the gesture, but I feel much more comfortable in my own tent than I do in someone else's house. Eric and I had to drive up to the campground, take down the tent in the dark, and drive back to Marie's house. It was not until about 2am until I got to sleep. The bed was too short and there was cat hair everywhere. We enjoyed talking to Marie and hanging out, but I would have been much happier in the cold. The next day Eric, Jacqueline, and I took the road out to Lexington Arch. I was pessimistic about actually seeing the arch because I thought the road would be snowed out. As we got closer to the mountains, the snow did increase. Eric kept going, though, and got us within a mile of the trailhead before we had to p
ark. We walked the rest of the way on the road until we ran into the trailhead. From the trailhead, it did not take long before we lost the trail. We wandered around until we picked a trail up. It lead us to an old cabin. From there we lost the trail and began to head up the ridge looking for it. It was nowhere to b
e found, but when I looked up, I located the arch. It was huge. I never had the urge to go see Lexington Arch, but after seeing it, it was impressive. It dominated the whole canyon area. I looked across and realized, the trail must be on the other side of the canyon. Everyone was convinced that we did not want to continue trying to find the trail, so we turned around. I was happy with the great view that we got of the arch. We left there and on the way back had our car chased by three large sheep dogs protecting a herd of hundreds of sheep. We went back to Marie's place and picked up Izzy. From there, we made the journey home, but we enjoyed our weekend in Great Basin.
ll the entire hike. Someone had been on the trail just the day prior, so it made it easy to find. Izzy was struggling a little bit because her snowshoes were definitely inferior to the three of ours. We were in the forest most of the way. Eventually, the broken trail became unbroke and we were stuck trying to find the way. This became a more difficult task than we originally thought it would be. Where we thought the trail would be lead us into a river valley. The trail was obviously not there, so we decided to head up to the ridge. This was a tiring prospect, but we were helping each other out by switching off the lead. Jacqueline and Eric were doing a much better job than I was with the lead, because I lead us up to nothing. Eric lead us back down and we still did not find the trail. When I took back over, I stumbled upon the meadow we had been lookin
g for. We got some great views of the peaks, including Wheeler. We found the trail from there and we kept going. When it was getting close to time to turn around, Eric and Izzy turned around first. Jacqueline and I continued both feeling well. When we ran out of trail, though, I was disheartened and we decided to turn around catching up with Eric and Izzy before too long. We moved much quicker on the way down, of course, and were back with plenty of time. We briefly stopped by the campsite before heading down to the visitor center for our cave tour. We were taken into Lehman Caves for our private cave tour and it was a treat. We asked if we could do it with headlamps and Marie, who was our guide, was all for it. It is incredible how much more we could see with headlamps on. The most striking advantage was that we were able to see all the inscriptions on the cave ceiling. There were many and they were rather historical. I
t was easy to see dates in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they used to use the candles given them to burn their name into the ceiling. The first people who ran the cave used to let people take whateve
r they wanted when leaving the cave when it came to cave formations, so it was just amazing how unnatural the cave remains. We were able to go to a few spots others don't go and the nice part was that we got to do the tour much faster than others. We also got to stop and enjoy the formations a bit more and take different pictures than people usually get. We left from there and went into Baker to get some dinner. We went to a local place. I got a burrito and a beer. Marie met us there and invited us to stay at her house. Eric and Izzy took her up on that because Izzy was not feeling well. Jacqueline was excited about it also. I was the only one left unhappy with it. I appreciated the gesture, but I feel much more comfortable in my own tent than I do in someone else's house. Eric and I had to drive up to the campground, take down the tent in the dark, and drive back to Marie's house. It was not until about 2am until I got to sleep. The bed was too short and there was cat hair everywhere. We enjoyed talking to Marie and hanging out, but I would have been much happier in the cold. The next day Eric, Jacqueline, and I took the road out to Lexington Arch. I was pessimistic about actually seeing the arch because I thought the road would be snowed out. As we got closer to the mountains, the snow did increase. Eric kept going, though, and got us within a mile of the trailhead before we had to p
ark. We walked the rest of the way on the road until we ran into the trailhead. From the trailhead, it did not take long before we lost the trail. We wandered around until we picked a trail up. It lead us to an old cabin. From there we lost the trail and began to head up the ridge looking for it. It was nowhere to b
e found, but when I looked up, I located the arch. It was huge. I never had the urge to go see Lexington Arch, but after seeing it, it was impressive. It dominated the whole canyon area. I looked across and realized, the trail must be on the other side of the canyon. Everyone was convinced that we did not want to continue trying to find the trail, so we turned around. I was happy with the great view that we got of the arch. We left there and on the way back had our car chased by three large sheep dogs protecting a herd of hundreds of sheep. We went back to Marie's place and picked up Izzy. From there, we made the journey home, but we enjoyed our weekend in Great Basin.
1 comment:
good times!
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