We resumed our journey once we were able to get the car packed. The Meisters left much earlier to try to find a Mercedes Benz dealer to fix their RV's air conditioning. We got the pleasure of driving down some of the quietest mountain roads. We were often the only car for miles until we pulled into Susanville to refill our gas. We hit Reno a little before noon where we met up with the Meisters at the Patagonia outlet. I worked really hard to finally buy something there and we left them after that to have a very suburban lunch at the Olive Garden given that we had a gift certificate to there. Then it was hours and hours across Highway 50. We were hoping to stay in Austin, NV because of the community swimming pool. When we got there, the pool was closed and the rooms were few. We continued on to Eureka, where we were able to find a room, but we weren't able to find one for the Meisters.
The best we could do was a parking lot near the hotel and a restaurant with comfort food. They enjoyed a not so restful night with all sorts of characters coming in, but I was jealous that they saved $100 where we got a cramped hotel room. Still, the showers were nice and we got a more leisurely start in the morning. They were out of there to the destination of the day, which was Great Basin National Park. Luckily, they were ahead of us because they found an excellent campsite up at Wheeler Peak Campground. It was large and had a creek going right through it. Now this is what I would be looking for on a vacation.
We set up the tents, had some lunch, and then were off on our hike. This would be pretty similar to other trips to Great Basin. Our plan today was to go on the Alpine Lake Loop. Everyone was enjoying the cooler air, the greenery, and the abundance of plant and animal life. Everyone enjoyed skipping some rocks at Stella Lake. The wildflowers around Teresa Lake were out and Will was even brave enough to take a dip in the lake. This loop took us a better part of a couple of hours to complete with the kids. We took it at a relaxed pace enjoying the fact that there was actually water. The rest of the day was spent lazily around camp with a high dose of the Homeless Game for the kids.
We were able to enjoy one of those amazing Great Basin sunsets which included about 100 pictures of the kids in the large open field near the bathroom. The night was cool, but comfortable, though the wind was pretty active. I had considered getting up really early and hiking Wheeler Peak, but when the wind was whipping us at camp, I could only imagine what it would do to me once I was on the ridge. Instead, I enjoyed the camping life and once again had a relaxing start to the day. Eventually, though, we were all up and ready to go. A trip to the glacier was in order today. I had been many times but only for a view. Today, I intended to go farther.
This included a visit to the Bristlecone Pine forest. I think everyone was excited to see these ancient trees. Laurel is an ecologist at the University of Oregon and she brought great depth to our visit with these trees. They are rather amazing in their ability to look barely alive at times, but still hang on for hundreds of years afterwards. The cones were out and so were some blossoming parts of the trees which was fun to see.
We continued up the trail until we could finally see the glacier. There was not much snow left from our vantage point. Still, it was a pretty spot filled with a bunch of rock debris. We continued on for a little further than usual until the girls and Conrad decided to drop out and hang back. Will, Brent, and I continued on ahead and we made it quite a long ways before Will said that was enough for him. I continued on to see what was ahead. You could hear the stream running from the melt right under the glacier, but for the most part, all it took from me was a little bit of effort to pick my way up the boulder field and get to the base of the glacier that was actually more like a permanent snowfield.
I had a wonderful view down the valley and you could really tell that at one point this was probably a pretty formidable glacier. Now the only formidable aspect was the large amount of loose rock that looked as if it was going to tumble down upon me at any second. I got a good view of the permanent snowfield and it looked like the surface of the moon with all the craters made into it from the rockfall. Still, this was a highlight of the trip for me as with kids around it is tough to get away and see something new. We had visited Great Basin so many times and the goal of this trip was to show our friends just how awesome it actually was. They were appreciating it which was great, but it was awesome for me to do something new. I took a circuitous route back and just was able to catch up to Will and Brent around the end of the trail. Brent picked himself up some pure glacial water and we continued down to the rest of the group. While we were up there, they saw a rockfall, so they were happy to see us when we returned. From there, it was back down to camp to hang out. The highlight of this night was that we allowed the kids to stay overnight in a tent by themselves. This was no issue for them, but Jacqueline felt the need to check on them frequently. When we awoke in the morning, our only goal was to make it to our house in Utah to show the Meisters around Southern Utah in the broiling heat.
The best we could do was a parking lot near the hotel and a restaurant with comfort food. They enjoyed a not so restful night with all sorts of characters coming in, but I was jealous that they saved $100 where we got a cramped hotel room. Still, the showers were nice and we got a more leisurely start in the morning. They were out of there to the destination of the day, which was Great Basin National Park. Luckily, they were ahead of us because they found an excellent campsite up at Wheeler Peak Campground. It was large and had a creek going right through it. Now this is what I would be looking for on a vacation.
We continued up the trail until we could finally see the glacier. There was not much snow left from our vantage point. Still, it was a pretty spot filled with a bunch of rock debris. We continued on for a little further than usual until the girls and Conrad decided to drop out and hang back. Will, Brent, and I continued on ahead and we made it quite a long ways before Will said that was enough for him. I continued on to see what was ahead. You could hear the stream running from the melt right under the glacier, but for the most part, all it took from me was a little bit of effort to pick my way up the boulder field and get to the base of the glacier that was actually more like a permanent snowfield.
I had a wonderful view down the valley and you could really tell that at one point this was probably a pretty formidable glacier. Now the only formidable aspect was the large amount of loose rock that looked as if it was going to tumble down upon me at any second. I got a good view of the permanent snowfield and it looked like the surface of the moon with all the craters made into it from the rockfall. Still, this was a highlight of the trip for me as with kids around it is tough to get away and see something new. We had visited Great Basin so many times and the goal of this trip was to show our friends just how awesome it actually was. They were appreciating it which was great, but it was awesome for me to do something new. I took a circuitous route back and just was able to catch up to Will and Brent around the end of the trail. Brent picked himself up some pure glacial water and we continued down to the rest of the group. While we were up there, they saw a rockfall, so they were happy to see us when we returned. From there, it was back down to camp to hang out. The highlight of this night was that we allowed the kids to stay overnight in a tent by themselves. This was no issue for them, but Jacqueline felt the need to check on them frequently. When we awoke in the morning, our only goal was to make it to our house in Utah to show the Meisters around Southern Utah in the broiling heat. 
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