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Great Basin National Park

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Official Instagram of Great Basin National Park. Home to ancient bristlecones, dark night skies, and Lehman Caves. #greatbasinnationalpark

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You packed for the hike you planned...but did you pack for the hike you might actually have?

Just because the summer is winding down doesn't mean that the park is closed--we still have many trails to explore and sights to see, but with the changing seasons comes a myriad of variables to predict and plan for while you hike. When you get ready to set out on your next adventure, ask yourself: You packed for the hike you planned, but did you pack for the hike you might actually have?

At Great Basin National Park, being prepared starts with a few “What if?” questions.

🗺️ What if the trail becomes hard to follow?
Navigation helps you stay found. Bring maps with you and consider even bringing a compass if you're venturing into the backcountry.

🌙 What if you're out longer than expected?
A headlamp can make an unexpected late return much more manageable.

☀️ What if the high-elevation sun is stronger than you expected?
Sun protection matters—sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat, and protective clothing.

🌧️ What if the weather changes?
Extra clothing and emergency shelter can become important quickly in Great Basin's mountain environment.

💧 What if you need more water than expected?
Carry extra water and a way to treat water when appropriate. Great Basin's dry air makes dehydration easy.

That's the idea behind the 10 Essentials:
🗺️ Navigation • ☀️ Sun protection • 🧥 Insulation • 💡 Illumination • 🩹 First aid • 🔥 Fire • 🔧 Repair tools • 🥨 Nutrition • 💧 Hydration • ⛺ Emergency shelter

But there's one more question:
What does THIS trip require?

Distance, elevation, weather, terrain, time of day, your abilities, and the needs of your group can all change what belongs in your pack.

The 10 Essentials aren't just a packing list. They're ten ways to prepare for “What if?”

Before heading out, check current conditions, tell someone where you're going and when you expect to return—and make sure you're Pack Ready. 🎒

Photo Credit: NPS Photo Two people with day packs making their way down a rocky trail surrounded by pine trees and mountains. They are both wearing hats, hiking boots, and have trekking poles. One hiker is wearing sun sleeves and has a visible water bottle on their pack. by @greatbasinnp

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3 days ago

Due to expected inclement winter weather, the park will have a series of upcoming closures. These closures are as follows:

The park dump station as of 12:00 PM on Friday, October 9, 2026
The Wheeler Peak Campground as of Saturday, October 10, 2026
The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive as of 6:00 PM on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

Please factor these closures and the weather into account as you plan your trip out to the park. To learn more about what's open and what's closed, check our alerts page for the most up-to-date information: https://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/conditions.htm. Snowy mountain peaks rising up into a cloudy sky. Below them are trees with orange leaves and naked branches. by @greatbasinnp

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4 days ago

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 A wide shot of a patch of desert under an open sky. The ground is covered in rocks and desert scrub plants, while the sky above is a gradient of different sunset colors--blue, yellow, orange, and then finally purple. The sun is setting behind some mountains in the far distance. by @greatbasinnp

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12 days ago

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 A young black rosy-finch. Its feathers are entirely brownish-black and it doesn't have the light gray cap or rosy breast. by @greatbasinnp

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14 days ago

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 A wide shot of a patch of desert showing many rabbitbrush plants growing amongst other plants across the valley. Mountains rise up into a clear, blue sky behind them. by @greatbasinnp

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16 days ago

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 Bright yellow aspen trees grow above Stella Lake. The rocky faces of two mountains loom behind the lake, with one of them being lit up by the afternoon sun. by @greatbasinnp

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19 days ago

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 A photo collage showing four images. The first, in the top left, is of a white tent filled with people. A banner is displayed out front that reads "Great Basin National Park Dedication August 15, 1987." The next image, in the upper right, is a black and white photo of a ranger at a podium giving a speech. On the bottom left is a photograph of some of the features inside the cave, including some stalactites and flowstone. The last image, on the bottom right, is of a ranger leading a group of visitors into the cave through a concrete-lined entrance tunnel. by @greatbasinnp

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22 days ago

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 by @greatbasinnp

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24 days ago

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 A person wearing a helmet, gloves, and headlamp crawling through a narrow space between two large sections of rock. by @greatbasinnp

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a month ago

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 A close-up on the end of a bristlecone pine tree's branch. Two, small dark purple pinecones are growing out from its tip. Behind it there are many other branches covered in green needles, as well as the main trunk of the tree. by @greatbasinnp

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a month ago

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

#astronomy #darkskies by @greatbasinnp

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a month ago

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. by @greatbasinnp

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a month ago