87 West: Great birthday in Great Basin

I've legitimately forgotten how old I am several times since I turned 21. For some reason that was the last age I cared much about, ha! Now life is just life and I've got Ryan and we're just chuggin along and age doesn't really cross my mind ever. Weird.

For my 24th (had to think about that for a sec) birthday this year, we decided to plan a camping trip to one of our favorite national parks, one that's made several appearances on this here journal of mine. Great Basin National Park in Nevada was a discovery we made just a couple months into our marriage, and we were so happily surprised with how wonderful it was. It does get busy on holidays and during the summer, but when you go on the shoulder season, it's dead, and it's so awesome! October was a great time to go.

We haven't been able to get up to the bristlecone pines in our past visits, which is a travesty considering how I worked in dendrochronology for so much of my time at BYU! So that was our main goal with this trip, aside from having some birthday fun in a pretty place. We took off on Friday night after work and while we drove, I opened my birthday cards from my family (blushie smile emoji). Loved them! I have the best family ever. Including my youngest sister whose card was smothered in pictures of babies and a "subtle" message to have some nieces and nephews for her right quick. Ha! Sarah... [:

We got in late at night and found an open site in one of the newly redone loops of Upper Lehman Creek campground, which were super nice! New picnic tables, fire rings, and bathrooms, and really quiet. We woke up on my birthday to crisp, chilly, gorgeous sunshine and started up the backpacking stove for some pancakes.

The itinerary for the day was simple: bristlecone pines, alpine lakes, and later a dinner/dessert combo of beef stroganoff and a Cinnabon. Stellar day in my book!

(We had a great site! We had good sun, good shade, perfect seclusion, and a little family of deer nearby that kept its distance but was always around for us to watch.)

We packed our daypacks with PB&Js, bundled up (it was around 34 degrees!), and headed up to the trailhead.

I love hiking with Ryan!

The trail was a bit treacherous in places because of ice and packed snow. In a couple areas I started getting worried that we'd have to turn back for safety reasons, and it didn't help that we passed several parties coming our direction who didn't make it to the bristlecones because it was too icy for them! Props to Ryan for keeping me going, worrywart that I am. We took it slow and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery around us, slowly moving from dense fir forest to the telltale talus and more sparse trees that meant bristlecone territory! I was getting a little crazy excited at this point. Ask Ryan.

And then suddenly we were T H E R E!!

These trees. They are just so amazing. They are thousands of years old. Like we're talking germination dates in the before-Christ range! They are evolutionary geniuses, and just plain gorgeous to boot. They were seriously more like sculptures than trees and I wanted to stand by every single one and just look at it, wishing it could tell me its stories!

It was fun to see some signs of increment borers and dendrochronologists at work. Made my heart happysad. Such a fun time of my life. I had cored bristlecones before, but they were barely 100-200 years old. Just babies compared to these!

Wheeler Peak and its surrounding cliffs towering above us were just gorgeous. We wandered the interpretive trail and read the plaques about each tree with jaws dropped.

The rad bottlebrush needles of bristlecones. So fluffy looking. Their form is forever burned into my brain after spending a whole weekend scrambling up and down red canyon walls in Utah lookin for these guys. [: And these needles themselves can be up to FORTY years old before they fall off! Incredible.

^^^ This guy has been around for over three thousand years! His first growth ring? 1,230 years before Christ. Think about what he's lived through. The first Olympic Games, the Roman Empire, Confucius, Alexander the Great, the Vikings... Can you imagine?!

And then there was this guy. HE WAS AMAZING. And there wasn't any sort of plaque or anything to tell us about him! Honestly, I thought maybe they didn't want to draw attention to him and risk any damage or sneaky business... He had every telltale sign of insane age, which often doesn't include size, though this one sure had it! Windworn skin, incredible twists and turns, a crazy root system that had obviously been effected by erosion, signs of fire, lots of different leader branches from over time. He was a sight to behold.

We hung out with him for awhile and we're good friends now. [: Seeing him seriously made my day.

So, so pretty. The air was so clean and cold, and the sunshine was lovely. It was perfect weather.

I love my hiking partner.

I take pictures of him while he's talking to me. Teehee. He's the cutest.

Had to hug one. ^^

We eventually spotted the perfect lunch spot in the sun, but it was already occupied by some other hikers, so we sat a little further down the trail and legitimately waited just for the purpose of nabbing that lunch spot once they were done. ;] #worthit

We spent a couple hours just wandering around, and it was heaven. It was everything I dreamed and wanted it to be!! I've officially been in the midst of some of the oldest trees in the world. The pilgrimage is complete. [: Then we (mostly I) sadly waved goodbye to the bristecones and we headed back toward the main trail to continue on to the alpine lakes.

First Theresa Lake, which was beautiful but tiny this time of year. It was more like a pond, but of course a super pretty one. [:

I heard pecking above us and eventually spotted this pretty guy! A Clark's nutcracker finding some lunch in a dead tree. We just stood and watched him for awhile. It was great. [:

Then on to Stella Lake!

Wow. So stunning.

Ryan working his runway walk.

A few miles later we completed the loop, practically RAN for the trailhead bathrooms ;) and then headed back to our campsite. Perfect birthday hike.

Thanks, Wheeler Peak! Thanks, bristlecones!

Driving back we spotted a little group of wild turkeys. We'd seen several on the trip, and previous trips as well. They're so fun to watch! We'd hear them randomly gobbling to one another off in the distance, especially in the area of our campsite. It always made us giggle, and usually call back to them with our best turkey gobbles.

And the colors! Holy cow. They were toward their tail end for the year, but there were some gorgeous patches of aspen scattered throughout the park that were just on fire.

Back at the campsite, we took a fantastic nap (Tent naps are the best kind of naps! A cozy sleeping bag, birds singing, sun shining, bugs buzzing - it's heaven), and then woke in time for a quick snack and a fabulous star-gazing program at the visitor center. Through the giant telescopes we saw a couple star clusters, examined the gorgeous moon, and learned about our incredible universe! Let me tell you - we've been so impressed with GB's star parties. They've got stargazing down. Glow in the dark paint and red lights everywhere to help you keep your night vision while you navigate the parking lot and stuff... They know their stuff!) With it being the shoulder season, there was probably only about thirty people there, a stark contrast to the almost 100 people we were with during our last summer visit! It was awesome. Hardly any line to wait in at the telescopes.

It was pretty freezing once the sun was down, so once we got "home," Ryan built a fabulous fire, I started up the backpacking stove, and soon we were sitting in our camp chairs, soaking in the warmth and eating one of my favorite meals in the world - beef stroganoff from Mountain House. Haha. Don't judge me for deeming dehydrated backpacking food as some of the best in the world. I blame my upbringing. [: It was the best birthday dinner!

And of course, cake! We toted a Cinnabon along with us for my birthday cake. Best substitute ever. As long as we don't think too hard about the calories. ;)

The next night was probably on of the coldest nights I've ever camped through! We didn't sleep so well, with how many times we decided to get up and put more layers on, but we were able to sleep in in the morning to make up for it. Oh sleeping in is so lovely.

The next morning was so still and quiet. It's one of my favorite things about camping. So serene. We walked around a little, made breakfast, and then started packing up.