Great Basin

The Great Basin got its name from explorer John Fremont who thought that the streams in the Nevada area, between California's Sierra Nevada and Utah's Wasatch mountains, stay in this region forming lakes or sinking into the ground. This "basin" (or bowl) actually comprises about 90 basins separated by more than 160 mountain ranges (which, seen from above, look like "an array of caterpillars crawling toward Mexico"). The Great Basin, 210,000 sq miles, covers most of Nevada and also parts of California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. It is 880 miles long and 570 miles wide. Las Vegas is not in the Great Basin.

Great Basin National Park, which attracts 80,000 a year mostly between Memorial Day and Labor Day, is about 250 miles north of Las Vegas. The Lehman Caves, one of the three main attractions, are named after Absalom Lehman, a local rancher who discovered the 32 caves in 1885. In 1922, President Harding proclaimed Lehman Caves a national monument. The other two attractions are Mt Wheeler (13,063 ft) and Snake Range's bristlecone pine trees, some dating back 5,000 years and are considered to be the oldest living things on Earth.

The Visitor Center is located five miles west of Baker, Nevada, on State Route 488. (755) 234-7331.