Traveling in Eastern Nevada and the eastern part of the Great Basin can become pretty boring, and its a lot of driving. It's hard to imagine for us Europeans how few people live in this neck of the woods. Out of Ely we drove into the Snake Range with Wheeler Peak (13.063 ft/almost 4,000 m, on pics above and below) as its highest peak and the focal point of the Great Basin NP. The old rusty car belongs to a "ranching exhibition" in the National Park.
Because of the season, Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive was closed, but we got a 1-hour-tour of the Lehman Caves on the eastern slope with a young and very knowledgeable and sharp park ranger by name Becca Miller. These caves were already used by prehistoric indians, besides all sorts of animals, of course. They were rediscovered accidentially 1885 by a rancher/cowboy/miner by name Absalom Lehman, who explored and opened the caves as a tourist attraction. The caves, full of stalagmites, stalagtites, popcorn and draperies as well as the seldomly discovered "shields" and other rock formations, were used for a long time as a "playground" and for parties and "suffered" correspondingly.
In 1986 the National Park was created by the U.S. Congress and since then the caves are protected. Nevertheless,about 40.000 visitors annually leave their tracks for sure. Which raises the question: how do you protect and how do you use natural wonders like this one? General thinking is, that the National Parks were created for all citizens and can be used by all. On the other hand there is an obligation to protect nature,,, what now?
We drove from Great Basin NP back west to Ely and then along the Great Basin Highway north to Wells; crossed the famous Pony Express Route (see pics) and passed by several small Native American Reservations of the Goshute Tribe. From Wells I-80 brought us into Elko, our headquarters for the next 5 days (!) during National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. More on that tomorrow (hopefully!).
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