Great Basin National Park

The Great Basin, what an interesting HUGE part of America I never knew about. Driving highway 50 towards this part of our country. the highway is called "The loneliest road in America" !! Miles of basin desert and grazing lands. There are salt flats here as well and the vastness of the flat basin is overwhelming. (Flatter than Kansas, lol)
Driving the loneliest highway we stopped for lunch in Eureka. Such a desolate area with a lovely town (at least the few shops that are open) We had lunch at a cute little coffee shop and the owner popped in , greeted us as out of towners and gave us some town history. They found gold just out of town. A huge amount. Now 2500 people are employed. I will try to post the newspaper article later.
As we left town we came upon this area being mined. It was like a patchwork quilt. If you zoom in you can see all different piles of earth.






We arrived in Baker just outside Great Basin National Park. The campground office was also the only town bar and the grey shack is one of 2 "restaurants" it was closed because their meat went bad and they were waiting for a new shipment...not making this up. The other "restaurant is a Mexican food truck with a little seating shed that is only open sporadically. 


We had a beer in the bar and met the nicest locals ever. I sat next to a school teacher who has been there for over 30 years. she teaches one class grades 3-6, 12 students!!! She was passionate and vibrant and LOVED what she did. the next day we stopped in the general store /bookstore and saw this coloring book below, Made by her students. Of course I had to buy one. The cover page give a nice little description of the area and Nevada.

Below an example of many town communities. nice houses and junkyards on top of each other because there is no way to get rid of old cars etc. Humbling to see how differently many people live.

Did a hike in Great Basin.so beautiful. indulge me with some colorful rocks and so many beautiful wildflower finds!!!









Cool little bug surprised me because it was so camouflaged!


now that is some colorful birch or aspen bark!! lol

Came back to camsite made a yummy dinner of some scallops we bought in Nova Scotia last fall!! Still so yummy

tomorrow on to Capital Reef National Park, one of our favorites!!






 

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