Trip to Great Basin National Park

With our country’s 250th birthday fast approaching, I’ve thought a lot about the opportunities afforded to us as citizens of this “great experiment”. While there is always debate about how those opportunities play out across the economic, sociological, and political aspects of our lives, our nation’s natural wonders remain more accessible than ever.

Now granted, some are certainly more easily reached than others. I’ve spent my entire life making short trips to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, less than four hours from the busiest airport in the country. Yellowstone, while distant from most population centers, has a tourist community built around it that makes visits easy and fun for visitors of all ages and walks of life.

Great Basin National Park, situated off of Highway 50 in tiny Baker, NV, felt much more intentional. You don’t accidentally end up there.

Earlier this year, my longtime friends Gavin Jackson and Cory Mader decided to plan a photo trip to somewhere “different” than the American Southeast. We all had some experience doing night sky photography of some sort, but the chance to take a few days to intentionally plan out a “best case” scenario quickly became a challenge we wanted to tackle. That became the overarching theme as we plotted out different opportunities across the country.

Between work schedules, family obligations, and record-high travel prices, we were able to lock in a weekend that afforded us the darkest skies, thanks to a new moon, and coolest weather. Our destination was decided on by a review of the ratings of National Parks, and their place on the Bortle Scale. The Bortle Scale is a nine-level rating system that measures the darkness of the night sky and the impact of light pollution for any given location. As a Bortle Class 1 park, Great Basin National Park rose to the top.

To get to Great Basin, Gavin and I flew into Las Vegas, met Cory, who had driven down from his home in Santa Cruz, CA, and drove nearly 5 hours east into the Nevada desert. Our home base for the weekend would be the Border Inn Casino, a humble motor lodge situated along Highway 50, literally right on the Nevada and Utah border.

Respectfully, this felt like a place that had you visited in 2003, you might have commented “They haven’t updated this place since the 70s.” The rooms were clean, and their restaurant was better than it needed to be, but it wasn’t the Ritz.

During the day, we drove over to Great Basin National Park and mostly stuck to the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive. While there’s dozens of roads traversing the park, most are 4x4 only, and while Cory’s Sequoia could have probably handled the challenge, the Scenic Drive offered a surprisingly wide variety of ecosystems and trails to access them. There was plenty to do in two days without risking trouble in the desert wilderness.

I think the highlight of my trip was the hike to the Wheeler Peak Bristlecone Grove. This was a pretty moderate hike up to the base of Wheeler Peak, and offered some incredible views and up-close time with the famous bristle cone pine trees. These trees are the oldest living things on Earth, and truly provided some great opportunities for introspection and unique natural beauty.

The original purpose of our trip, however, were the night skies. Still feeling the rhythms of the East Coast Time Zone, staying awake long enough to take advantage of the blackest skies was the hardest part. The last light from the sun disappeared around 10:00pm, and the shots we wanted didn’t really rotate into view until a couple hours after that.

And then we had to deal with the clouds. The crux of all of this planning was that a few clouds could really ruin the whole thing. On Friday night, we posted up in the valley, cameras pointed to the Milky Way, as we watched a group of neverending clouds roll right into our shot, blocking out much of the dramatic span of the impossibly bright Milky Way galaxy and surrounding stars. We got some cool shots, but nothing to write home about. While we probably could have waited it out, the cozy amber-lit wooden walls and springy mattresses of the Border Inn Casino beckoned. We’d have to try again on Saturday.

On Saturday night, we decided to post up higher along the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive for our second and final attempt at Milky Way shots. Gavin had used a night sky app during our time in the park earlier that day to determine the best spot. We arrived early, catching the tail end of sunset, and waited it out with conversation.

All of Saturday had been cloudy, and while that was beneficial for hiking, and allowed for some dramatic daytime photography, we were worried that the blessing would outlive its welcome. We set up our tripods, dialed in our settings, and waited as the clouds rolled across the night sky from right to left. We’d see a gap, and announce to each other that we were only a few minutes away from the perfect shot. That gap would come, but the shape of the clouds would change in such a way that it just wasn’t it.

Eventually, around 1:00AM, the last of the big clouds moved out, and the entire span of the arch was visible across the desert sky. There is an underlying tension between awe and frustration, that despite nailing the time, the location, and the equipment, there’s still no adequate way to really capture what you are seeing.

While the colors in the photos are admittedly more saturated, the majesty of what your eyes see versus what the sensor captures is diminished in a way that is understandably and obviously out of reach. With all of our work, the best I could do was a facsimile of the experience. I found myself resting in that failure. Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Great Basin National Park is a tough place to visit. There’s no “we’ll do the park on Friday, and then a day in Gatlinburg on Saturday”. There’s no true sit-down restaurants within an hour of the park. There’s no grocery store. There’s no Ripleys believe it or not. There’s hiking, camping, off-road trails, a little new age General Store, and there’s the Border Inn Casino. Take it or leave it.

But I hope to return. I want James to see the bristlecone pines and wrestle with the fact that the trees were soaking in sunlight long before the oldest stories he’s heard. I want him to stare into the night sky and be humbled by the majesty of creation. Great Basin National Park is a place that humbles you, and for that, I’m grateful to the Creator.

Equipment Used:
Nikon ZF
Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S
Thypoch Simera 28mm f/1.4 ASPH
Voigtländer Nokton 75mm f/1.5
Peak Design Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod

Full Gallery of Images