September 2019 - Great Basin National Park

Off on a birthday adventure! We left on a Saturday morning to drive to the middle of nowhere to explore Great Basin National Park for a few days. Great Basin is one of the least visited National Parks, and it's got some of the darkest skies in the USA. We just missed the annual astronomy festival.

The park is just outside Baker, NV, population 68.

The campgrounds at the lower levels were full when we arrived, so we drove to the top of Wheeler Peak to find a spot for the night. Then we were off to explore.

This place is famous for the bristlecone pines, some of the oldest trees anywhere.

There are big elevation changes in the park, from roughly 5000 feet up to 13000 at Wheeler Peak, so there are lots of micro-climates and a variety of flora and fauna. I'm up in the green trees and look out to see barren flat desert with red dirt below (the basin, ha!).

Then there was a glacier! Did you know there is a glacier in Nevada? I had no idea. This place is full of surprises.

Home for the night.

The moon was pretty great. And that's a pretty not great photo.

The next morning we drove down the mountain and checked out the Osceloa Ditch. It was meant to carry lots of water to support gold mining, but it didn't really work out very well. You can see remains of it along the trail.

Then we attempted the Baker Lake trail, planning to spend most of the day here.

Parts of it were quite steep. There's another way we could have gone that wasn't so steep, but we didn't know.

We hoped to get to Johnson Lake, but we were not quite halfway and it was really windy. We cut the loop right there to head back down.

Saw a flock of wild turkeys.

We left the park and tried to go to the actual old abandoned town of Osceola.

We didn't have clear directions, barely any cell service, and it was all backroads and twists and turns, without a 4x4 vehicle, so we turned around.

Decided to stop in Baker for maybe a cold drink at the gas station. But this was the gas station.

Instead we found Kerouac's! A little oasis in the middle of nowhere. And how awesome it is. The owners have an interesting story of how they ended up here.

We were pretty gross since we were camping/hiking all day, which I expected of most of the clientele. However, many folks were quite dressed up - they're regulars from the big town a few miles over, and they come every week for the great food.

New sleeping spot down at Baker Creek.

Birthday morning breakfast.

Monday morning we had reservations for the Lehman Caves, another big draw of the park. The caves are full of bats, so we had to decontaminate ourselves before going in, in order to prevent diseases like white nose syndrome from getting to them. Anthony especially, since he is often in caves.

It's a pretty cool tour. Definitely recommend doing it, and you will need reservations in advance! And there you have it, my birthday trip.

Archives - September 2019

September! The best month!

So many kitty photos.

On Labor Day we met up with cousin Julie and Jesse, and after much searching, we found a Mexican restaurant that was actually open and laboring. Then we drove up to their house, where wildfires had just burned. They were woken up in the middle of the night by neighbors, and luckily didn't need to evacuate, but close. Sad to see the black hills.

Enjoying their cat tree. I hoped it would stop Leo from climbing up window screens. It kind of helped.

My high school reunion was coming up, and since mom and dad drove all my stuff out to Utah in August, I shared this photo with my class. Sadly, I missed the reunion since I had prior travel plans.  My signature is on there somewhere.

Sharon van Etten and Bon Iver rolled into town. It was glorious.

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I don’t even have words for @boniver just that I love love love them and wish I could follow them around this tour. @sharonvanhalen rocked our socks off opening. Magical night.

A post shared by Lauren Williams (@laurenhoya) on Sep 5, 2019 at 11:19am PDT

The next night, 80% of the same crowd went up north to Ogden for The National.

And then the next night I went south to Provo for their very last Twilight Concert ever. Ten years, and they called it a good run. The Moth & the Flame were headlining, so it was a nice way to see it all wrap up.

Time to watch the kiddos in soccer again. I don't think either of them really wanted to play that much. It's all about those snacks.

But this guy was a happy camper.

She wasn't into soccer much that morning, but she was really into washing the car.

Babies.

My former coworker Florence throws a grand party every fall - I ate and ate and ate.

More babies.

Updated my hair again. Probably the last time I'll do this color. I should settle down or something.

Made enchiladas for the first time ever, I think? Auth Ruth Ann rolled into town that night to be our house guest, and I could happily feed them to her.

Stormy outlook from the office.

Some birthday sparkle.

I finally got into Normal ice cream. The first time I tried it I wasn't wowed. But with the almond dip on top of the salted vanilla, it's pretty solid.

Birthday gifts! It was lots of cat stuff. How creepy are these socks?

Trying to figure out how to make our house feel like our house. First up, paint!

These are excellent. The pumpkin is subtle and delicious.

We had a gathering at our house for my birthday, and I made a cake. I certainly can't decorate one like those fancy Instagram accounts, but it tasted really good.

Dropped a ton of $ at the Pie, but it's the best.

Cousins!

After it got cold.

Hoya Saxa! It's so rad that J took a job based here and moved to SLC for a few months. She's moving back home (east) in early 2020, but for a few months I get a college BFF here!

Getting ready for Halloween.

Jacinda took me to the symphony for my birthday - the music of John Williams!

Another birthday gift :)

These came in the mail - wahoo!

Family photo.

Rufus du Sol - finishing out the Ogden Twilight series for the year. I really dig these guys.

And Waffle Love was still open after the show!

Miriam is the best lap cat.

Then it was Heather's birthday! We also had dinner at this new place - Strap Tank. It was alright and the forks are too big.

And that's most of September, except my birthday trip, coming up!