This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Nevada Theme Month

Nevada Has a Glacier

As we’ve learned over the past month, Nevada boasts remarkable natural splendor. With huge mountains, spectacular canyons, world-class lakes, and expansive deserts, the state has more beauty than its reputation might suggest. Visiting the Silver State, one leaves with the notion that this area is an unheralded jewel.

Following this trend, Nevada contains just one National Park. Near the border with Utah, Great Basin National Park does not adorn many best-of lists for the (currently) 63 capital-N-capital-P units. The Mighty Five in neighboring Utah receive many plaudits; the California parks to the west often sit near the top of opinion polls. And rightly so, these places are spectacular. But Great Basin rivals any National Park I have yet visited. Its breadth is stunning, especially for a lesser-known park.

This place is a hidden treasure.

Part of the reason for Great Basin National Park’s lack of recognition comes from its remoteness. It’s the fourth-least visited National Park in the contiguous United States and the tenth-least visited overall. Many of Alaska’s parks require private airplanes to reach, and two of the Lower 48 parks with fewer visitors need a plane or a ferry (Isle Royale and Dry Tortugas). Just south of the Loneliest Road in America, Great Basin is 3.5 hours by automobile from Salt Lake City and 4.5 hours from Las Vegas. Looking at the map above, this place sits in the middle of nowhere. Fewer than 150,000 people visit it annually.

Those who venture there are treated with an array of beauteous landscapes.

Driving through the basin-and-range province, the first thing that sticks out – literally – is Wheeler Peak, the crown of the Snake Range. Wheeler is the second-highest mountain in Nevada, topping out at 13,065 feet (3,982 meters). This elevation already makes Wheeler a high peak, but its prominence is something to behold. It starkly juts above the surrounding basins, featuring 7,563 feet of prominence; this figure is good for second place again in Nevada, behind only Mt. Charleston. Wheeler’s prominence is the 12th-highest in the contiguous United States; its topographical isolation is also the 12th-highest in the Lower 48. To find a higher mountain, one needs to go 230 miles to Mount Lovenia in Utah.

Wheeler, nearby Doso Dayabi, and the rest of the Snake Range are gorgeous rocks.

Visitors can summit Wheeler on a non-technical trail, but one doesn’t need to get high to get a taste of this wonderland.

Trails wander through magical forests to two alpine lakes, Teresa and Stella. These lakes are so high, so clear, and so serene that one would swear one was in the Alps or Alaska instead of Nevada.

With a little extra effort, the Great Basin explorer can see why the water in the lakes is so clear. Despite its overall hotness, Nevada has a glacier!

Wheeler Peak Glacier is a unique feature. It’s one of the southernmost in the United States. As you can see in a few of the pictures above, Wheeler maintains some snow throughout the summer. The ice is a relatively small alpine glacier; based on the white imagery, one might conclude the glacier is either extraordinarily tiny or disappearing quickly. Though current warming trends could eliminate the glacier within two decades, it is actually much larger than it appears in the photos.

This fact stems from the composition of Wheeler Peak Glacier. Instead of the normal rivers of ice that adorn many high peaks, this one is a rock glacier. In a rock glacier, ice mixes with rocks to form black tongues that might not appear to be a glacier at all from a distance. The formation of rock glaciers is not a settled science. Some researchers believe they form like regular glaciers, but somehow become covered in rocks; others speculate that ice and water seep through rocks already present, forming a moving conglomeration.

The rocky nature of Wheeler Peak Glacier is partially what allows a river of ice to exist in Nevada at all. The rocks shield some solar radiation, allowing the ice to remain cool. Further, the impressive headwall of Wheeler Peak, carved by ancient glaciers, faces the northeast. Since Nevada is in the Northern Hemisphere, this orientation blocks the sun for much of the year. Combined with cooler temperatures at high elevation, the ice is hanging on in a warming climate.

On the way to the foot of the glacier, a trekker will encounter a tree lover’s heaven.

Great Basin National Park is home to some of the planet’s oldest trees, bristlecone pines. These incredible beings can live to be 5,000 years old, and they grow only in a few spots in Nevada and California. The National Park was home to the world’s oldest known tree, named Prometheus, which met an unceremonious and tragic end in the 1960s.

The flanks of Wheeler Peak and Doso Dayabi are dotted with these wizened plants.

As if this variety weren’t enough, at the base of the mountain, Great Basin offers an entirely different type of terrain.

Lehman Caves are the longest cave system in Nevada. Tours can provide explorers with a bit of the grandeur of other units, such as Mammoth Cave National Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Jewel Cave National Monument.

This mixture of mountains, glaciers, trees, lakes, and caves is likely unmatched in the National Park System. It feels nearly criminal that so few people venture to Great Basin. The logistics of going there are not easy, but the payoff is enormous.

And, just when you think the park has finished giving its gifts, the visitor does not need to be done with nature after the sun sets. Great Basin National Park is an International Dark Sky Park. Some of the darkest skies in the Lower 48 transpire in the park, making the cosmos gazing some of the continent’s most spectacular.

Great Basin touts some top-notch natural attractions, on par with or exceeding some of the country’s top National Parks. Its remoteness makes it one of the few great places that remains free of crowds.

Make this destination one of your must-visits.