Great Basin National Park

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12 April, Easter Sunday - For some reason I thought it would take five hours or so to get here but leaving at 0915 we were at the Great Basin National Park visitor center around 1215 (PDT). From Bryce we drove through scenic Red Canyon, Panguitch (with its locally-made-brick houses) and over the pass to I-15 and on to Beaver (where almost everything was closed except an expensive gas station). Then we headed west into the Basin and Range geologic province. Several of the basins we crossed had once been part of ancestral Lake Bonneville. Crossing into Nevada we had to finally put away our Roadside Geology of Utah, and turn our clocks back to PDT. At the GBNP visitor center we picked up a map and brochure, talked to the rangers about hikes and declined a tour of Lehman Cave because the weather was too good to spend underground. We decided to try hiking up the Lehman Creek trail which climbs from 7500 ft at the upper Lehman campground (open but with quite a few snow drifts) to 9600 ft at Wheeler Peak CG. The trail started off fairly dry but by the Osceola Ditch landmark at 0.6 mi, there were stretches of snow and by 1.5 mi or so (2 hours) it was all snow and we diverted to the south-facing valley slope where we got a great view of the Spring Valley basin to the east and Wheeler P:eak to the southwest. Coming down was much faster and we were back at the car in a little over an hour. Thank goodness our flying/hiking boots are waterproof; our feet never got wet and cold even in the sometimes sloppy snow. The visitor center was closed before we got back to it so we couldn't check on a map where we had gotten to; maybe tomorrow at the other center in Baker. But we did drive up to try to find the Pole Canyon trailhead and saw some pictographs, and a "wild cave" which could be explored with a permit. We are staying nearby in a four-room motel/restaurant run by one guy who seems to do everything. We had a good meal of Greek salad w/chicken, and several slices of pizza along with a local microbrew, Angel Creek Amber by Ruby (?), and an amaretto brownie with ice cream. We deserved it! Maybe we'll even have breakfast there instead of instant oatmeal again.