Great Basin National Park

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Great Basin National Park

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An ethereal landscape of ancient trees, deep culture, underground caverns, and vast night skies
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In the shadow of 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak, 5,000 year old bristlecone pine trees grow on rocky glacial moraines. Come to Great Basin National Park to experience the solitude of the desert, the smell of sagebrush after a thunderstorm, the darkest of night skies, and the beauty of Lehman Caves.

09/30/2026

On a cool September evening, sundown reveals the Great Basin one layer at a time: rock and rabbitbrush, sagebrush and pinyon-juniper, the broad basin below, and distant mountain ranges rising beyond it.

These isolated ranges are sometimes described as “sky islands”—higher, cooler habitats surrounded by lower, drier country. Each change in elevation brings changes in temperature, moisture, plants, and wildlife.

But this landscape offers something that cannot be measured by elevation alone.

Quiet. Distance. Room to breathe.

Great Basin National Park preserves not only mountains, caves, ancient trees, and dark night skies, but also opportunities to experience solitude. Sometimes the landscape’s quietest moments tell its story best.

What do you notice first when you look across the Great Basin?

Photo Credit: NPS/G. Zierdt

09/28/2026

Can you find roses on a glacier?

Sort of! Meet the black rosy-finch. This hardy finch lives in the high elevation areas of the park above the tree line where it feeds on the seeds of alpine plants. During the winter when the snowpack is deep, the black rosy-finch may descend to lower elevations where they can forage for food.

Because of their movements across elevations and ecoregions of the park, they can be difficult to spot. The next time you are up on the Glacier Trail near Wheeler Peak, we invite you to pause and see if you can see one of these feathered friends out and about doing their thing!

To help you out, here are two pictures of rosey finches. The first is a youngster who doesn't yet have the rosy coloring on their chest, while the next image is an adult who has their full plumage.

Photo Credit: Shawn Billerman/Macaulay Library and Jacob Drucker/Macaulay Library

09/26/2026

Almost overnight, the lower elevations of Great Basin National Park seem to have been painted gold.

Meet rubber rabbitbrush or chamisa (Ericameria nauseosa), a native shrub that spends much of the year quietly blending into the desert landscape—then bursts into brilliant yellow bloom in late summer and early fall.

Is it related to sagebrush? Yes—but not as closely as their names might suggest. Rubber rabbitbrush and sagebrush are different genera, but both belong to the sunflower family. Think of them as botanical cousins rather than siblings.

Is it invasive? No. Rubber rabbitbrush is native to western North America and well adapted to dry, sunny country. It often grows especially well along roadsides and in other disturbed areas, which can make it appear to be taking over. Instead, it is doing what hardy native plants do best: occupying difficult ground, holding soil in place, and providing habitat.

Those golden flowers also arrive when many other plants have finished blooming, offering an important late-season food source for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

And allergies? Any flowering plant may bother someone who is especially sensitive, but rabbitbrush’s conspicuous blossoms rely heavily on insects to move their pollen. Nearby wind-pollinated plants—including sagebrush—may be the less visible source of late-season sneezing.

So, as you travel through Great Basin country and suddenly find yourself surrounded by yellow—no, it did not appear overnight.

But it certainly knows how to make an entrance!

Photo Credit: NPS/G. Zierdt

09/23/2026

FALL FOLIAGE ALERT! 🚨🍂

Welcome to Fall, everyone! Late September brings shorter days and cooler temperatures to Great Basin's high country, and the trees have gotten the memo. Our park's aspens are busy breaking down the chlorophyll in their leaves, leaving behind carotenoid and flavonoid compounds (the same chemicals that make carrots orange and tomatoes red). The result is nutrient savings for the trees and dazzling golden colors for us!

Be-leaf it or not, aspens tend to form large clonal stands of genetically identical trees connected by a shared root system, and each group will change color on its own timetable. The result is that our park's upper elevations are starting to look like a patchwork quilt of greens and yellows!

Peak foliage is coming fast, so if you'll have to visit soon if you want to catch the golden aspens by Stella Lake before the leaves fall. Aspens grow over a pretty wide range of elevations in the park, though, and it will take the color change a while to propagate all the way downhill. Don't fall over yourself trying to get out here!

To find out where you can see the leaves, visit: https://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/visiting-in-fall.

Photo Credit: NPS/C. Murray

09/20/2026

This year Great Basin National Park observes two historic milestones - the completed restoration of the Lehman Caves Lighting System and the park's 40th Anniversary. Celebrate with us on Friday, October 23rd with a full day of free Lehman Caves tours (tickets first-come, first-served), special programs on park and cave history, patio talks with rangers, and more!

To learn more and read the full schedule of events for the day, visit the park website at go.nps.gov/GRBA40

09/18/2026

They see it rollin', they hatin'... because tumbleweeds are an invasive species!

Yes, this prickly round icon of the American West is actually not native at all. The tumbleweeds commonly found rolling through the Great Basin area are Russian Thistle, a plant which was first reported in the U.S. in the late 1800s after apparently stowing away on grain brought over from Russia. Tumbleweeds can grow as big as a small car and they "tumble" to disperse their seeds over a wide range. These invasives not only damage sensitive areas by outcompeting native plants, but they are also highly flammable and movable -- a nightmare for firefighters battling blazes in windy conditions.

The next time you turn to admire what appears to be a uniquely Western tableau, look a little deeper. You might find another story and another reason to admire and protect our native species!

Note: The video has no audio.

Video Description: A short film that opens on a dirt road leading through a patch of desert which is covered in sage and other scrub plants. In the distance, a range of mountains rises up into a partly cloudy sky. The video zooms in on the road as a tumbleweed bounces across and continues on through the sagebrush.

Video Credit: NPS/E. Unger

09/16/2026

Has your last cave tour left you wanting more? Maybe you want to see a cave in a more wild, rugged state? Or maybe you want to know what it’s like to “spelunk”? Then we have the tour for you!

On weekends from October 10 to October 25, we will be leading Intro to Wild Caving tours through some of the more difficult-to-access parts of Lehman Caves.

Please be aware that the tour is open to adults 16 and over. Participants should be prepared to take part in off-trail hiking and rock scrambling, and should be comfortable in dark spaces.

To learn more and reserve tickets, go to https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/251853/ticket/10253672.

Photo Credit: NPS/O. Ford

09/14/2026

They may be famous for looking ancient, weathered, and wonderfully twisted—but Great Basin bristlecone pines are very much alive.

Look closely among the green needles at the Bristlecone Pine Grove right now, and you may discover flashes of deep purple. These striking young seed cones are beginning a journey that takes about two years before they mature and turn brown.

And that purple color isn't merely beautiful.

High in the mountains, where the growing season is short and conditions can be harsh, the dark developing cones absorb heat from the sun—another small but remarkable adaptation of a tree exceptionally well suited to life at elevation.

Great Basin bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) are celebrated as the world's longest-lived non-clonal trees. Some have persisted for thousands of years through bitter cold, fierce winds, drought, and remarkably short growing seasons.

Yet perhaps one of the loveliest things about visiting them late in summer is discovering that these ancient trees aren't simply monuments to the past.

They're still growing.
Still changing.
Still preparing for what comes next.

As summer begins its slow turn toward autumn at Great Basin National Park, follow the trail to the Bristlecone Pine Grove—and remember to look closely.

Sometimes the smallest signs tell the biggest stories.

Photo Credit: NPS/G. Zierdt

09/10/2026

We are pleased to announce that today marks the first of three full days of out-of-this-world astronomy programming during our annual Astrofest! Come take in the stars, learn about the planets and nebulae, and find out what you can do to protect our dark skies.

To see what we have in store, check our schedule on our website at https://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/great-basin-astronomy-festival.htm.

We can't wait to see you here!

Photo Credit: NPS/T. Auchter

09/08/2026

It might not always rain in the desert, but if it will, there will be signs.

Monsoon season in the Great Basin typically runs from about Mid-June to end of September. July showed us what exactly those monsoons look like. For roughly 2 weeks, there were consistent electrical storms and rain showers in the afternoons. In this 7 second timelapse, condensed from a length of 42 seconds, you can see an example of what storm clouds look like as they are developing quickly overhead. If you spot a storm cell headed your way, the safest place to be is indoors. But if you are hiking and see a cumulonimbus cloud, spot lightning, and hear thunder, dashing below the tree line and getting to your vehicle is the safest option.

With this year's projected super el Niño, the weather can be variable and rapidly changing, even into the cooler months. Always check the weather when planning to visit Great Basin National Park, take shelter if you hear thunder, and keep an eye on road conditions, as roads can quickly flash flood and become impassable during storms.

Video Credit: NPS/S. Diaz

Video Description: A timelapse video of storm clouds growing over a line of pine trees shot from the perspective of looking up towards the sky from ground level. Blades of grass as well as loose twigs and other debris from the trees rests in the foreground. The is no dialogue or sound in the video.

Address

100 Great Basin National Park
Baker, NV
89311

Telephone

+17752347331

Website

https://www.nps.gov/grba/index.htm

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