Fun Times at 10,000 Feet

After our adventures in the desert and a short work week, we headed west to Great Basin State Park in Nevada. This park is in the middle of bum-F nowhere, but it’s pretty cool. Also about 3.5 hours away, the drive was easy and uneventful. Afternoon thunderstorms are a real threat here too, but we were fortunate not to run into any rain during our trip.

We camped at the Wheeler Peak campground, situated at 10,000 feet. Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas sit at about 5,000-6,000 feet, so altitude sickness was also a threat here. Fortunately again, we only experienced some minor wobbly legs early on in our hike and an overall sense of having a harder time breathing even just walking the campground loop.

This campground was a complete 180 from Goblin Valley the previous weekend. This was high up in the trees with tons of green. It was beautiful, and the pit toilets were so clean!

Our campsite had its own little grove. We set up our new camp shower and privacy tent here, and it was wonderful after a long hike (more on that later).

Not our campsite, but we thought the little bridge and the stream would be cool to camp next to if we ever came back.

You see that mountain on the right? Yeah, we climbed up there. It was hard.

Mentally preparing ourselves for climbing to the top of that the next morning.

Here we are again, psyching ourselves out for the big hike.

The other big difference between Goblin Valley and Great Basin was that there were no fires allowed in Great Basin due to extremely high fire danger (this is the case for much of the state right now because it’s so hot and dry. Not so much a concern in the desert where there’s nothing to catch fire).

It’s also about 30 degrees cooler up at 10,000 feet compared to regular Utah at 5,000, so we were back to our typical chilly camping. It was lovely.

No fires meant earlier bedtimes for most people, including us, which was just fine since we set out around 6:30 AM the next morning to tackle the behemoth of a hike called Wheeler Peak - 3,000 feet of elevation gain and overall just shy of 10 miles of out and back. That plus the altitude made this the hardest hike we’d ever done. With the trailhead located just a five minute walk from our campsite, it was also the most convenient.

Let’s get moving!

What a nice forest tricking you into thinking the rest of the hike won’t be hard.

Okay, here we go… destination is the top right mountaintop.

He always makes a point to take photos of the wild flowers.

At this point, things got insanely windy and cold. Temps dropped into the 40s. We had on jackets, hats, gloves, and neck gaiters like we were hiking in the middle of winter except it was July. It was insane.

Whoever made this trail is smart because they built in wind shelters. We took a snack break in this one to refuel before making the big climb up the mountain.

Up we go…taking frequent breaks so we don’t overdo it and get altitude sickness and pass out.

The flowers as we got closer to the top were the best ones.

The pink ones were a personal favorite, second only to the neon lime green lichens growing on the rocks (not pictured here, unfortunately - Ian is more into flowers than he is to fungus).

There were a number of wind shelters at the very top too. Here you can see a bit of the side wall of ours.

A nice man who was wearing a shirt Ian also owns took out picture. The woman with him also had the same exact backpack as me.

A marker for the top of the world (not really, but it sure felt like it).

Still looks daunting on the way back down too.

Hiking back down all that incline felt like it took forever after climbing up the mountain.

Next stop - find Robert Redford at Sundance Resort!

There Ain’t No Party Like a Sundance Party

Desert Adventures