Great Basin National Park

A panoply of stars dazzles overhead on clear nights while bristlecone pines grow older by the century on rugged mountain slopes in Great Basin National Park – a gorgeous place to ponder your insignificance. The range reaches its zenith with Wheeler Peak, a 13,063ft ice-sculpted horn, which shelters a tenacious glacier. Hiking and camping opportunities abound, as well as spelunking and snowshoeing, well into summer. You’ll find stone arches and thousand-year-old wall paintings, as well as mountain canyons tickled by burbling brooks, quaking green-and-white aspens and shy mule deer and marmots.