After visiting Great Basin National Park last year for the first time (and hiking the beautiful lakes loop), we set our sights on hiking to the top of Wheeler Peak, Nevada’s highest peak (if you don’t count the debatable Boundary Peak near the CA border). We camped at Great Basin National Park and started the hike early to avoid any afternoon showers. We were hoping to camp at Wheeler Peak campground, but it was closed due to repaving so we settled for the Upper Lehman Creek campground. We drove up to the Summit parking lot to start our hike to the peak. From there, the distance is 8.6 miles round trip with 3200 feet of climbing. Luckily, living at 9,000 feet and exploring the San Juans all summer helped us to be prepared for the climb.
We started off hiking through mixed aspen forests with a few bristlecone pine trees mixed in, and enjoyed the views of Wheeler Peak and it’s bowl shaped glacial valley cirque. As we climbed the forests were replaced with rocks and scree, and we reached a saddle which allowed us to gaze over the other side of the mountain to the wilder west side of the park and the desert floor 6,000 feet below. The scree became intermingled with larger boulders as we neared the top of the peak. From the top at 13,063 ft., the 360-degree views spanned 100 miles across the Great Basin Desert and it’s many mountain ranges protruding like spines down the desert floor. Wheeler Peak dwarfed Doso Doyabi peak and the other nearby mountains that seemed so grand from the base. Even Wheeler Peak’s grand cirque and the glacier nestled in the cirque were below us. This year-round glacier is one of the southernmost glaciers in the United States and a stark contrast to the high desert landscape stretching for many miles below.
Any other recommendations for more incredible peaks to climb?
