Visiting Great Basin National Park is a must-do if you are driving along the Loneliest Highway (US 50) through eastern Nevada. It is a lush oasis in the middle of the desert!
Visiting Great Basin National Park
Amazing green oasis in the middle of the desert!
| Location | Off Highway 50 in Eastern Nevada |
| How Long for a Visit? | A few hours up to a day |
| Worth a Visit? | Yes — well worth a stop if you are passing by |
| When We Visited | June 2020 |
We spent a few hours exploring the Lehman Creek area. In our research it seemed like the Lehman Caves are the main highlight of the National Park. But unfortunately the caves were closed during our visit due to restrictions because of Covid-19 precautions.
If we are ever in the area again, we will definitely stop by to see the cave. Even if the caves aren’t open, it is well worth a stop just to break up the long desert drive with some lush beauty.
Highlights of Visiting Great Basin National Park
Lehman Caves
As we mentioned, we didn’t get to visit the caves due to Covid-19 restrictions. However all of our research pointed to the caves being a main highlight of any visit to Great Basin National Park. We will definitely visit the caves in the future. Until then we don’t have any firsthand information to share.
Lehman Creek
We spent all of our time in the park exploring Lehman Creek — particularly in the area of the campgrounds. This was a great experience! We were visiting in early June and the creek was flowing with lots of water. The aspen and evergreen trees all looked lush and beautiful. And there were plenty of wildflowers in the lush green meadows.
We highly recommend some time exploring the Lehman Creek area — especially if you are there for a cool, sunny morning in early June!
Stargazing
Since Great Basin National Park is located in a remote area of eastern Nevada, it is a great dark sky location for stargazing. We spent our night in Ely, NV so we didn’t get the stargazing experience. But if (when) we come back, we will try to stay either in the park or somewhere near to get a great stargazing experience.
Need to Know
Access to Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park is in a quite remote part of eastern Nevada. The primary access is a bit south of US 50 from the very tiny town of Baker. There is a visitor center just on the outskirts of Baker that has good RV parking. When we were there the visitor center was closed but it was still very handy to leave our truck/rig in the parking lot and all pile into Greg’s parent’s motorhome to go into the park.
Links and Resources
Great Basin National Park NPS Site
The is the official information page for the National Park Service. It has comprehensive information about the National Park and is the best resource for planning a visit.