Great Basin National Park Fun Facts: 6 Things You Didn't Know

Looking for some Great Basin National Park fun facts to inspire your next adventure? In this episode of Exploring the National Parks, we’re diving into the wonders of Great Basin—a place where history meets the stars and ancient trees tell stories of resilience.

From Nevada’s last glacier to the darkest night skies, join us as we uncover what makes this lesser-known park truly unforgettable.

Podcast Episode Overview

Happy Thanksgiving! For this episode of Exploring the National Parks, we’re heading to Great Basin National Park to share some fun facts about this amazing place!

Great Basin is a destination where you can connect with the past and dream about the future, and we’re so excited to show you why. Join us as we explore what makes this park so incredible and its surprising connection to Pokémon—the original Pokémon, that is!

Here’s what we’ll cover:

The three ways that you can define Great Basin
Why and how this park is twice as wide as it should be
The most fascinating thing about the rain and snow in this park
A crazy fact about the last remaining glacier in Nevada
The rare phenomenon that you can find in Great Basin
What makes the Bristlecone Pines in this park so special
A bonus fun fact about something Great Basin has that other national parks don’t

We hope you enjoy this episode all about Great Basin! We want to hear from you— which Eevee evolution (or fun fact) excited you the most? Head over to the Dirt in My Shoes Facebook or Instagram page and let us know!

And don’t forget, it’s Black Friday season at Dirt In My Shoes! This is the only time of year our itineraries go on sale, so if you’re planning a trip to a national park next year, this is the perfect time to snag one. Join our email list to be first in line when the sale begins!

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode:

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1. Great Basin National Park is twice as wide as it should be

Both Great Basin National Park and Nevada are twice as wide as they should be! How did that happen?

Simple: Great Basin National Park sits in an area of land that is relaxing after millions of years of tectonic plates pushing and colliding against each other. Imagine a sponge after you squeeze it. That unfolding is the same kind of force creating Nevada’s unique geography. The Great Basin impacted by these forces extends outside the national park boundaries; technically, the Great Basin refers to the area between the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

These are the same forces that have made Nevada the most mountainous state in the United States. Yes, you read that correctly! You may not think of Nevada when you think of high elevations, but it does, in fact, have more mountains than anywhere else in the United States. Most mountain ranges run north to south across the state.

Because this area is stretched out, the tectonic plate under the Great Basin area is thinner than anywhere else in the contiguous United States. The thin land gives way to the hot magma of Earth’s mantle, pushing up and up like a hot air balloon. That force has caused Nevada’s average elevation to be 5,500 feet above sea level! As if that weren’t cool enough, 26% of all the geothermal electricity produced in the United States is made in Nevada.

2. None of the rain or snow that falls in Great Basin will ever reach the ocean

This fun fact defies everything we learned in middle school science class! The Great Basin, which encompasses Great Basin National Park, is 200,000 square miles where everything either drains internally or evaporates.

The Great Basin area does not receive much precipitation, but when it does, it doesn’t leave! That means a drop of water in here won’t drain into the ocean.

Nowhere else in the United States does water not reach the ocean. The Great Basin is truly a unique region of North America!

3. Great Basin National Park is home to Nevada’s last glacier

Just like you wouldn’t expect Nevada to be the most mountainous state, many people don’t know Nevada has a glacier. You can hike up to the Wheeler Peak Glacier on the Glacier Trail, a 4.8-mile hike through a Bristlecone Pine forest to this awesome rock glacier.

The water leaving Wheeler Peak Glacier stays in the area, forming things like the nearby Lehman Caves.

The glacier resides on Wheeler Peak, which is the highest point in the park. As you drive up here to start your hike to the glacier, you’ll notice that the ecosystem changes from desert to alpine as you scale the dramatic elevation change this park encompasses.

We dive into the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive and all the amazing hikes you can do from the Wheeler Peak Campground in Episode 96: Exploring Great Basin National Park: Best Tips + Activities.

4. Lehman Caves has over 500 cave shields in just a two-mile cave system

Great Basin is a great place to experience some of the most unique cave formations in any national park. In just two miles, you can see 500 cave shields poking out from the cave walls. And they do look exactly like shields sticking out from the wall!

Lehman Caves formed when water seeped into limestone, dissolving pockets in the bedrock with the power of carbonic acid – essentially soda water. Geologists still aren’t quite sure how the cave shields formed, but there is no doubt that water from the surface, which couldn’t escape to the ocean, found its way into the ground and created an incredible cave system.

Absalom Lehman discovered Lehman Caves in the late 1800s. Today, you can stop by the Lehman Caves Visitor Center to learn more and kick off your guided cave tour with the National Park Service.

In addition to the cave shields, Lehman Caves features stalactites, stalagmites, and helictites. Helictites are formations that twist and turn and defy gravity, a rare sight in any cave.

5. Great Basin National Park is home to the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, the oldest non-clonal organism on Earth

Great Basin Bristlecone pines are some of the oldest trees on the planet, and they make their home right here in one of our very own national parks. There are multiple types of Bristlecone, and Great Basin has its own dubbed species.

Unlike Pando, a giant Aspen that clones itself, Bristlecone pines are one tree that ages. Great Basin Bristlecone pines can live more than 5,000 years! Let’s take a moment to picture just how long of a life that is. We’re talking about plants that have lived through almost all of recorded human history.

Bristlecone pines thrive best on almost pure limestone, breaking it down slowly to get the necessary nutrients. These trees don’t live nearly as long when they have plentiful water and nutrients. Go figure!

There are three groves of ancient Bristlecone pines in Great Basin National Park. They are absolutely worth seeing. Bristlecone pines stand as a testament to what it means to be hearty and persistent in the face of challenges. We rank these pines up there with seeing the granite cliffs of Yosemite and the bubbling volcanic activity of Yellowstone.

6. Great Basin has the first and only research-grade observatory ever built in a U.S. national park

The Great Basin Observatory sits at about 6,800 feet and is partnered with the University of Nevada Reno and Southern Utah University. They have several cool ongoing projects.

One project is the study of double stars. Researchers are trying to figure out if stars that appear close together are orbiting each other, if one is a black hole consuming the other, or if all sorts of theories could explain their appearance together from the perspective of Earth.

The Great Basin Observatory also leads research on exoplanets, which are other planets that orbit stars and could someday hold life, including humans. We love the possibilities of what this observatory could find!

Great Basin has some of the darkest night skies in the United States. If you love gazing at the Milky Way, Great Basin is the place for you! The park rangers lead programs throughout the year, including the Great Basin Astronomy Festival.

We hope you enjoyed these Great Basin National Park facts! Even though Great Basin is one of the least visited national parks, we think it’s worth making the trip to see Nevada’s last glacier and the resilient Bristlecone pine trees.

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Great Basin National Park Fun Facts: 6 Things You Didn’t Know