Great Basin National Park is an American national park located in White Pine County in east-central Nevada, near the Utah border, established in 1986. The park is most commonly entered by way of Nevada State Route 488, which is connected to U.S. Routes 6 and 50 by Nevada State Route 487 via the small town of Baker, the closest settlement.
The park derives its name from the Great Basin, the dry and mountainous region between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains. Topographically, this area is known as the Basin and Range Province. The park is located about north of Las Vegas and protects .
The park is notable for its groves of ancient bristlecone pines, the oldest known living non-clonal organisms; Lehman Caves; Wheeler Peak Glacier, below Wheeler Peak; and some of the darkest night skies in the contiguous United States.
President Warren G. Harding created Lehman Caves National Monument by presidential proclamation on January 24, 1922. The monument and its surroundings was designated a national park on October 27, 1986, following the advocacy of Congressman Harry Reid.
A number of developed campsites are within the park, as well as backcountry camping opportunities. The Highland Ridge Wilderness lies adjacent to Great Basin National Park. These two protected areas provide contiguous wildlife habitat and protection to of eastern Nevada's basin lands.
Natural history
Flora
Eleven species of conifer trees and over 800 species of plants are found in Great Basin National Park and the neighboring valleys.
The area around the Visitor Center is dominated by plants such as sagebrush, saltbush, single-leaf pinyon, and Utah juniper. Higher elevations are home to mountain meadows, white fir, quaking aspen, Engelmann spruce, and large Ponderosa pine. At treeline is an alpine area of low, delicate plants and rocky outcroppings. There are several endemic species of plants that are found in the park, some of which include Mt. Wheeler sandwort and Holgrem's buckwheat.
The oldest nonclonal organism ever discovered, a Great Basin bristlecone pine tree at least 5,000 years old, grew at the treeline near Wheeler Peak in the national park. It was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and U.S. Forest Service personnel for research purposes. It was given the nickname Prometheus, after the mythological figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.
Fauna
Sixty-one species of mammals, 18 species of reptiles, 238 species of birds, two species of amphibians, and eight species of fish are in Great Basin National Park and the neighboring valleys.
Mammals
An abundance of wildlife has taken advantage of the habitat zones in Great Basin National Park. Jackrabbits, pygmy rabbits, mountain cottontails, ground squirrels, chipmunks, and various mice live in the low-elevation sagebrush desert. Pronghorns, coyotes, kit foxes, and badgers are less common inhabitants.
In the more rugged areas on the slopes of mountains and in the valley areas nearby, cougars, bobcats, marmots, rock squirrels, and bighorn sheep can occasionally be seen throughout this park. Other animals that can be found here include elk, mule deer, spotted skunks, shrews, ringtail cats, and ermine.
Fish
The Bonneville cutthroat trout is the only fish native to Great Basin National Park. It arrived in the mountain waters naturally and was eventually isolated by changing climatic conditions. Other trout species, such as Lahontan cutthroat trout, rainbow, brook, and brown trout, were stocked in the lakes and streams of the South Snake Range until the park's incorporation in 1986.
Birds
Many species of birds can be found in Great Basin National Park, including Canada geese, hawks, sparrows, bald eagles, tundra swans, barn owls, snow geese, killdeer, golden eagles, woodpeckers, mallards, wrens, greater roadrunners, chickadees, great horned owls, ravens, magpies, and swallows.
Amphibians
Only two species of amphibians have been positively identified in the southern Snake Range and adjacent portions of Snake and Spring Valleys: the western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii) and the leopard frog (Rana pipiens).
Geology
Many of the rocks formed during the Cambrian, when the region lay at the edge of a continental landmass called Laurentia. These rocks include the Cambrian strata. As the Paleozoic era progressed, several intensified geologic events occurred, including repeated episodes of faulting, and in turn, orogenies which involved upward lifting of a metamorphic core complex, creating mafic and rhyolitic dikes and sills.