Well, here is the update of the next part of our trip to
California (AKA Mt. Whitney hike).
After we finished the hike, I headed back to Cedar City to
pick up Debra. She had been staying with her mom while we were hiking. When we got to Cedar, it was nice to finally have a shower and clean up. We debated if we should just stay in Cedar and do a local picnic or something but in the end we decided to go with the original plan to go camping. We went to town and stocked up on a few camping supplies and headed out to Nevada to
camp at Great Basin National Park. We left early in the morning and it was a long drive through the middle of
nowhere to get there. I think we might have passed 6 cars driving over 100 miles but in the end it was worth the drive. Great Basin is an island of mountains in the middle of the desert. Once we got to the higher altitude the temperatures cooled off enough that it was very pleasant. We picked up our tickets to Leaman's cave for later in the afternoon and then found a campsite. After setting up our tent we rested a bit and then headed back to take our turn going through the cave. The cave was typical with lots of fun things to see.
Waiting our turn to go in the cave
Once inside the temperatures were just right
Lots of fun stalactites
Fun tunnels
and caverns
Something that looks like a giant wedding cake
Working our way through the passageways
finishing up in the grand ballroom
Once we were finished with the cave tour, we did the scenic drive up the mountain side to take in the views. At the end of drive we did a 3-mile hike to a Bristle Cone Pine forest of trees that were 3,000-4,000 years old where we saw some of the oldest living things on the planet.
Hiking up to the top of the mountain
Debra inspecting the forest
Taking a rest in the shade (After Mt. Whitney, I do admit I was still a bit sore)
this is what a 3,000-4,000 year old tree looks like
Waking up in the morning inside our little tent.
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