While staying in southern Utah, we took a day trip to see the fall foliage. Driving up the canyon on Hwy 9, we caught some leaves turning beautiful colors.
We stopped at a county park where I hiked up a hill pathway to see where it might lead. I was rewarded with this beautiful pond capturing the reflection of the golden aspen trees.
A little town called Delta in the central western part of Utah was a nice little town where we stayed for a week. It was the closest we were going to get to Great Basin National Park on our 2020 journey, so we decided to take a day trip to add another National Park to our accomplishments. Even so, it was more than 100 miles to the park which is actually in Nevada. We packed a lunch and headed out in the morning. It was a pretty barren landscape until we got within 30 miles or so of the park. There’s a huge dry lake, Sevier Lake, that offers some views from the highway. It is an endorheic lake (a drainage lake with no out-flowing streams to other bodies of water).
Before we drove far inside the park, we stopped at an outdoor exhibit. In the field beyond was an old car. It you look beyond it, you can see part of the Great Basin that the park is named after. According to Wikipedia, “the Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Oregon and Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Wyoming and Baja California in Mexico.” It is a vast area. What is surprising is that the Great Basin National Park itself is mostly a road up a 13,000 foot mountain called Wheeler Peak, and the surrounding foothill areas. The park derives its name from the surrounding basin area.
View of Wheeler Peak
The drive up to Wheeler Peak was breath-taking. Right away you could look over the vast distances of the Great Basin below. The smoke from the summer wildfires in the west obscured our view somewhat.
As we traveled further up the mountain, the aspen trees began to show their fall colors.
The road took us over 10,000 feet in elevation. At the top are the bristlecone pines, some of which are hundreds of years old. Looking up close at the pine cones, I realized why they are called “bristlecone” pines.
Here’s a closer view of Wheeler Peak. At the end of the road is a parking lot where there are trailheads for hiking trails to see ancient bristlecone pines and even one trail to the top of Wheeler Peak. The high elevation and thin air would deter me from such an adventure. On the day we went the parking lot was full, so we turned around and headed back.
Other items of interest to explore would be the alpine glaciers, Lexington Arch–a natural arch, Lehman caves, and the many trails around the park. This park is a hidden gem that I recommend exploring if you ever get the chance.
A small town in the center of Utah was one of the most beautiful spots we’ve stayed in this year. This first photo is taken looking from the back of our campground. The mountains around us were red with fall foliage.
We took a drive one day to get a closer look. We drove up this road as far as we could go. We turned around when it became a dirt road. Many of the people in the campground had dune buggies or other off-road vehicles that they use to drive on these back roads. But we’re just fine driving on paved roads only.
From there, we drove north to Fairview and drove west on Highway 31 up into the mountains. The bright foliage of the trees was just beautiful. Unfortunately, there were very few turnouts where one could stop to get photos. As we got closer, the colors got even brighter.
At the top of the pass, we turned south on Skyline Drive which took us along the ridge of the mountains. We drove up over 10,000 feet in altitude. Looking down from there, we saw a lake in the valley below.
Looking back from where we came, we could see more colorful trees. Nearby forest fires made the horizon hazy.
As we drove further, we found this alpine reservoir.
Although it was September, these flowers were still blooming as if it was still summer.
While we were in this campground, we had a dead battery on the truck one day when we tried to start it up to drive into town. Fortunately, the campground handyman gave us a jump start. We had to drive for an hour to find a Walmart where we could get the battery replaced. The technician also cleaned the corrosion on the contacts of the other battery as well and tested it. We made it into a grocery shopping trip while we were waiting. We were blessed that this happened on a day when we weren’t towing the trailer! God is good!
