Liberty Lake

Lake Peak rises above Liberty Lake

8.5 miles round trip, 2000 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Moderate
Access: Paved road to trailhead, no fee required

The great pyramid of Lake Peak rising above Liberty Lake in the Ruby Mountains is one of the most iconic alpine scenes in the state of Nevada. The day hike from Lamoille Canyon across Liberty Pass to Liberty Lake is one of the very best day hikes in the state, ascending out of a dramatic, glacier-scoured valley and past numerous alpine lakes to a high pass over what is arguably Nevada's most beautiful mountain range, before descending to an absolute gem of a lake in a jaw-dropping setting. The hike is understandably popular but is still far less crowded than hikes in California and Utah that are close to major metropolitan areas and on top of it all, the grades on this hike are quite moderate, although at its highest point it does reach about 10500 feet. While Wheeler Peak and the Snake Range may be the most popular hiking destination in Nevada's Great Basin after being bestowed national park status, the hike to Liberty Lake easily challenges the scenery of that more heralded region. If you've only got time to do one hike in the Great Basin, this would be an excellent choice.

I hiked Liberty Lake on an early October day during an autumn road trip through Nevada. While Lamoille Canyon is a long drive from any major metropolitan area- it's a 4.5 hour drive from Reno and 4 hours from Salt Lake City- it is still one of the most popular mountain destinations in the state of Nevada and is about a 45 minute drive from Elko, the largest town in the state outside of the Las Vegas and Reno-Sparks-Carson City metropolitan areas. To reach the Roads End Trailhead from Elko, I followed Highway 227 (5th St) east from downtown, crossing the Humboldt River and then the Elko Hills. I took Highway 227 east for 19 miles from downtown Elko, passing the suburbs of Spring Creek and then turning right at the sign for the Lamoille Canyon Recreation Area. I followed Lamoille Canyon Road south for about 12 miles as it entered the Ruby Mountains of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest until the road dead-ended at the Roads End Trailhead, where there was a large parking lot.

Three trails issue from the Roads End Trailhead: the Island Lake Trail leaves from the north end of the lot, while the stock trail up to Lamoille Lake leaves from the west end. The Ruby Crest Trail, which is the hikers' trail to Lamoille Lake and Liberty Lake, starts at the southeastern end of the lot, near the vault toilets; a black placard at the trailhead lists distances and times for hiking to Lamoille Lake, Liberty Pass, and Liberty Lake. I headed out on the Ruby Crest Trail, which was badly eroded in its initial stretch as it crossed through open subalpine meadows with gentle elevation gain for the first 0.3 miles. There were nice views to the head of Lamoille Canyon, which was lined by Liberty Peak and a number of unnamed but still impressive mountains.

Liberty Peak and Liberty Pass rise at the head of Lamoille Canyon

After the initial 0.3 miles through open meadows, the trail entered a forest, crossing a fork of Lamoille Creek as it started heading uphill for another 0.3 miles with a more aggressive grade. At 2/3 of a mile from the trailhead, the trail made a sharp left turn and continued to climb at a steeper, more sustained grade as it crossed another fork of Lamoille Creek and then began to tackle the eastern walls of the canyon. As the trail began switchbacking up the side of the canyon, the trees thinned out, providing progressively improving views down Lamoille Canyon to Verdi Peak and across the canyon to sharp Snow Lake Peak.

At 1.4 miles, the trail leveled out, having ascended about 800 feet since leaving the trailhead. I soon reached a flat upper basin surrounded by rocky alpine peaks. Soon after crossing a dried-out creekbed, I spotted the waters of Dollar Lake to the left of the trail. Making my way over on social paths, I found myself on the shores of a small, calm lake that reflected the nearby mountains. I arrived early on a Sunday morning and had the lake entirely to myself.

Morning reflections in the lower of the Dollar Lakes

Continuing past the lower of the two Dollar Lakes, I passed a small, marshy pond as I continued through this alpine basin. Soon after, the trail passed by the second Dollar Lake, which was just slightly larger than the first one and had more or less the same mountain backdrop. 

Evening light over the upper of the Dollar Lakes

Ascending just slightly as it left the second Dollar Lake, the trail soon came to an intersection with the stock trail from Roads End at 2 miles from the trailhead. Here, I took the left fork, continuing along the Ruby Crest Trail. Just meters past the junction, I arrived at Lamoille Lake; here, I took the spur trail off to the right to explore the lakeshore.

Lamoille Lake is one of the two lake gems along this hike. The lake is quite large and its crystal clear waters lay at the base of Liberty Peak's steep north face. A number of hikers were camping in the flat areas near the outlet of the lake and along the lake's east shore, which is connected to the main trail by a well-trod social path. I picked out a spot by the lakeshore to enjoy the views of Liberty Peak rising imposingly above the lake and Verdi Peak and Snow Lake Peak rising above the lake in the other direction. In the mid-morning hours, the lake's waters was still a perfect mirror, reflecting the peaks that surrounded it. While there weren't any aspens along this trail, I did catch some nice fall color here as the low brush across the lake had turned a nice shade of red.

Liberty Peak rises above Lamoille Lake

Verdi Peak over Lamoille Lake

After a half hour break by Lamoille Lake, I returned to the Ruby Crest Trail. Many hikers visiting the area turn around at Lamoille Lake, but there are far greater rewards for hikers willing to put in just a bit more time and energy to reach Liberty Pass and Liberty Lake. The Ruby Crest Trail immediately began to climb as it left the shores of Lamoille Lake, but the ascent was luckily quite gentle and utilized many well-graded switchbacks; in fact, seasoned hikers may find these switchbacks too gentle, but everyone should stick to the trail and not cut switchbacks as this is a popular trail and erosion is a serious issue.

As the trail ascended, there were initially views of Lamoille Lake below with improving views of Lamoille Canyon, Snow Lake Peak, and Verdi Peak. As I continued to ascend, I left behind the trees and the views of Lamoille Lake to enter the rocky upper reaches of the Ruby Mountains; while the terrain was quite rocky here, the trail stayed in decent shape and continued the uphill with its gentle grade. Finally, as I approached Liberty Pass, Lamoille Lake burst back into view below. Mount Fitzgerald and the other peaks lining the south side of Lamoille Canyon were now visible to the west above the ridge over Lamoille Lake and I could now see over the top of the Ruby Crest to the deserts and mountains of the Basin and Range to the east.

Mount Fitzgerald and Snow Lake Peak rising over Lamoille Lake

After 700 feet of gradual ascent over 1.4 miles from Lamoille Lake, I reached Liberty Pass, a rocky notch between Liberty Peak and the main Ruby Crest that was 3.4 miles from the trailhead and 10450 feet above sea level. From this high point of the hike, there were views to both the north and south: in addition to the now-familiar views of Lamoille Canyon, I looked ahead to see Lake Peak and the Ruby Crest extending to the south.

View down Lamoille Canyon from Liberty Pass

The view to the south gave a glimpse of the many rocky alpine peaks that continued to make up the Ruby Crest beyond the Lamoille Canyon area. After its initial four mile long segment to Liberty Lake, the Ruby Crest Trail continues for another 30 miles or so along the high, rocky peaks of the Ruby Mountains, which are dotted with lakes that fill alpine cirques. This backpacking route ends at Harrison Pass to the south and is one of the more popular alpine backpacking trips in Nevada. The stretch of trail to Liberty Lake is by far the most frequented segment of the Ruby Crest Trail but by many reports it is also the most scenic.

Ruby Mountains from Liberty Pass

Leaving the pass, the trail initially followed a low ridge extending south from the pass. After entering the Ruby Mountains Wilderness, the trail began to descend a bit and soon came to the edge of a cliff overlooking Liberty Lake. This was the most stunning view of the hike: Lake Peak, which has the form of a lopsided pyramid, rose above the clear, blue waters of Liberty Lake, which was set in a rocky bowl with sparse trees about 350 feet below. Castle Lake, a smaller lake, could be seen nestled in the cirque under Lake Peak. The skies were unfortunately hazy on the day of hike due to smoke from wildfires in California, otherwise I would expect that I would've also been able to see past the shoulder of Lake Peak out into the neverending vastness of Nevada's Great Basin.

View overlooking Liberty Lake to Lake Peak

I stayed at this overlook for a while to soak in the incredible view before descending along the Ruby Crest Trail towards Liberty Lake's shores. The trail dropped through a set of switchbacks before gradually going downhill as it circled to the west around Liberty Lake; there were constant views along this descent of Liberty Lake's sparkling waters below and Lake Peak's noble form across Kleckner Canyon. 

Lake Peak rises over Liberty and Castle Lakes

At 0.7 miles from Liberty Pass and 4.1 miles from the trailhead, the trail came to a junction above the south end of Liberty Lake. Here, I took the left fork and then followed unmarked social paths to cover the final few hundred yards of the hike to reach the shoreline of Liberty Lake. The lake was placid and deep; in fact, Liberty Lake is one of the deepest lakes in the Ruby Mountains, at over 100 feet deep. There were a number of other hikers who had camped around the shoreline, but there was still plenty of room to spread out and find a spot to lunch and nap. I spent a few hours at the lake, enjoying the views of Liberty Peak and the unnamed peak on the crest to the east of Liberty Pass rising above the lake. 

Some of the campers here were fishing in the lake, which is home to a number of stocked trout species and one native trout, the Lahontan cutthroat trout. You might wonder how there are any trout species native to an alpine lake in an endorheic watershed, where the flow from this lake ends up evaporating in the middle of a desert basin. The trout arrived in these alpine lakes after having earlier inhabited the prehistoric Lake Lahontan, a massive inland sea covering much of the western Nevada Great Basin during the last ice age that was fed by the Truckee, Walker, and Humboldt Rivers. In cooler climes, this great lake connected many of the watersheds of today's Great Basin and supported a population of cutthroat trout. However, as the climate changed and Lake Lahontan gradually shrank until its only remnants were the modern Pyramid and Walker Lakes, the trout adjusted by migrating to mountain streams and lakes, each surviving population isolated from the others.

Liberty Lake

If you find that you have extra time once you reach Liberty Lake, there are options for further exploration: Favre Lake is 1.2 miles farther to the south and 500 feet lower in elevation at the top of Kleckner Canyon. Even if you don't choose to add a couple of extra miles to your hike to visit the shore of Favre Lake, you can catch a glimpse of it lying at the base of Lake Peak by just hiking a couple hundred meters further along the Ruby Crest Trail with minimal elevation loss.

I stayed at the lake for a few hours and got a glimpse of Favre Lake from above before I returned to the overlook above Liberty Lake to photograph Lake Peak in late day lighting. I returned to the trailhead just after sunset and had an excellent dinner at Monkey Sun, an underrated Chinese restaurant in Elko.

This was a beautiful hike and one of the highlights of my trip to Nevada. Once you've exhausted visiting the country's better known national parks, you can find more beautiful scenery with no tour bus tourists by visiting the Ruby Mountains and Lamoille Canyon, and you can see some of the best that this range has to offer by day hiking to Liberty Lake.

Thomas Canyon

Fall colors in lower Thomas Canyon

4.5 miles round trip, 1250 feet elevation gain

Difficulty: Moderate

Access: Paved road to trailhead, no fee required

Thomas Canyon is an outrageously scenic offshoot of Lamoille Canyon in Nevada's Ruby Mountains where, depending on the season, hikers can find a paradise of either waterfalls and wildflowers or vibrant fall colors surrounded by high alpine peaks. If you thought Nevada was nothing but desert, visiting the Ruby Mountains- and Thomas Canyon in particular- will prove that notion wrong. This half-day hike packs in beautiful scenery as it ascends along the cascading Thomas Creek into a high alpine bowl at the foot of craggy peaks. While lacking the alpine lakes of the more popular hike to Lamoille and Liberty Lakes, it delivers similar alpine scenery with far fewer crowds.

Fall foliage here peaks around the last week of September on most years, though you'll still be able to catch some nice color if you come in the first week of October. Come earlier in the summer (July or so) to catch wildflowers in bloom in the meadows of the upper canyon and see snowmelt-fed waterfalls tumble off the surrounding high cliffs into the canyon. The Ruby Mountains still aren't really widely renowned; while it's known in hiking circles, casual visitors usually don't make the trip out to these mountains that are hours away from any major metropolitan area. That said, the Rubies are still perhaps the best known of Nevada's mountain ranges after the Snake Range of Great Basin National Park and you won't find the same quiet here as you might find in the Toiyabe or Schell Creek Ranges. On a Saturday afternoon at peak foliage, I ran into about 15 other hikers on the trail over the course of about three hours; so while you won't find solitude here, the canyon is still unlikely to be overrun with visitors.

I hiked Thomas Canyon on an early October day during an autumn road trip through Nevada. While Lamoille Canyon is a long drive from any major metropolitan area- it's a 4.5 hour drive from Reno and 4 hours from Salt Lake City- it is still one of the most popular mountain destinations in the state of Nevada and is just over a half hour drive from Elko, the largest town in the state outside of the Las Vegas and Reno-Sparks-Carson City metropolitan areas. To reach the Thomas Canyon Trailhead from Elko, I followed Highway 227 (5th St) east from downtown, crossing the Humboldt River and then the Elko Hills. I took Highway 227 east for 19 miles from downtown Elko, passing the suburbs of Spring Creek and then turning right at the sign for the Lamoille Canyon Recreation Area. I followed Lamoille Canyon Road south for about 8 miles as it entered the Ruby Mountains until I reached Thomas Canyon Campground, where I turned right to enter the campground. There is a signed day-use parking area on the far left corner at the four-way intersection upon entering the campground; do not park in the campsites in the rest of the campground if you're just here for a day hike.

From the day use parking area, it's necessary to walk through the south loop of the campground to reach the actual trailhead. After parking, take the road that continues straight from the road entering the campground; this road immediately splits apart into a campground loop. You'll reach the trailhead faster by taking a left here and going around the loop clockwise. The campground loop crossed Lamoille Creek; after a short walk, I spotted the Thomas Canyon Trail, which was unmarked but obvious as it split off from the campground loop and headed uphill into Thomas Canyon.

Crossing Lamoille Creek in the Thomas Canyon Campground

Leaving from the trailhead, the dirt trail immediately began a steady ascent. Although initially slightly removed from Thomas Creek, the trail soon followed the creek closely, running just above the gorge that Thomas Creek carved out. There were plenty of aspens in this area, which were all displaying bright yellow foliage during my visit. Thomas Creek dropped through many small but beautiful waterfalls as it made its way down its hanging upper valley to the floor of Lamoille Canyon. In places, there were lovely pools at the bases of the waterfalls that would surely make nice swimming holes on hot days.

Small waterfall amidst the fall aspens

Waterfall and pool on Thomas Creek

The trail climbed steadily through the first 2/5 of a mile, ascending about 300 feet. Towards the top of this inital ascent, the trail passed through an extraordinary beautiful stretch: Thomas Creek flowed through a series of pools in a small gorge below the trail while the impressive pyramid of Mount Fitzgerald, its slopes still snowy, rose in the distance and a grove of extraordinarily colorful aspens exploding with yellows, oranges, and reds covered the nearby canyon slopes.

Aspens displaying fall foliage in Thomas Canyon

The trail flattened out after 0.4 miles as it passed through an initial hanging valley; there were a few ponds in this flat part of this canyon across the creek. The trail closely paralleled Thomas Creek through this stretch of the canyon, where there were few trees but a mix of sagebrush with bushy vegetation more common to alpine meadows. Mount Fitzgerald rose ahead of the trail, providing beautiful mountain scenery; this flat stretch of trail continued for about 500 meters. I took time while hiking here to note the remarkable U-shape of the valley, with a flat bottom to the valley and steep cliffs on the surrounding mountains. This is a classic sign of ancient glaciation: indeed, past glaciation is responsible for the dramatic scenery in the Ruby Mountains, including the steep walls of both Lamoille and Thomas Canyons. In fact, the Ruby Mountains may have been the most extensively glaciated mountain range in Nevada during previous ice ages; with the exception of the South Snake Range in Great Basin National Park, no other range in Nevada exhibits so many cirques that must have once cradled glaciers. Lamoille Canyon itself was gouged out by massive alpine glaciers that may resemble the great valley glaciers that can still be found today in the Alps, Himalayas, and polar regions.

At the end of this lower hanging valley, the trail embarked on a second ascent. This much more extended climb involved nearly 800 feet of elevation gain as the trail climbed up from the lower hanging valley to the alpine upper canyon. The trail largely stayed nearly Thomas Creek through this ascent; the trail was steep in parts although the terrain was generally gentle enough that even switchbacks were not needed. Mount Fitzgerald kept me entertained through the ascent along with more tumbing cascades along Thomas Creek as it made its steep descent from the higher reaches of the Ruby Mountains. Beautiful fall colors decorated the valley floor: many bushes had turned their leaves yellow, providing for nice color alongside the golden aspen that clung to the slopes of the canyon. At times, I turned around and found incredible views of aspens painting the canyon below with color, with the impressive cliffs of unnamed peaks of the Lamoille Creek-Talbot Creek divide rising imposingly to the north.

Mount Fitzgerald and a small waterfall on Thomas Creek

Aspens on the floor of glacial-carved Thomas Canyon

At 1.7 miles from the trailhead, the second ascent of this hike finally ended as the trail entered the broad, flat, glacial-scoured upper Thomas Canyon. Here, the terrain opened up into a beautiful alpine bowl surrounded by the high peaks of the Ruby Mountains. Thomas and Onthank Peaks rose to the east and west of the valley here, presenting as imposing rock walls, but the most impressive part of the view lay ahead: meadows and aspen groves stretched down the remaining length of the canyon to the foot of the sharp, rocky, alpine forms of Snow Lake Peak and Mount Fitzgerald. This view was most impressive from the very entrance of the upper canyon, as the view here encompassed the two peaks rising at the head of the canyon more fully.

Snow Lake Peak and Mount Fitzgerald rise over the head of Thomas Canyon

The final half mile of the hike followed the flat bottom of the upper canyon through meadows that alternated between grass, sagebrush, and subalpine-looking bushes. While Thomas Creek had ceased to flow in the upper canyon by this point in the season, there were still a few ponds left in the canyon, including one formed by a beaver dam with a beaver lodge in the heart of the resulting pond. A few snow patches still dotted the slopes of Mount Fitzgerald, the last remnants of the mighty glaciers that once carved in the canyon in the last ice age. As I approached the head of the alpine bowl, views of Mount Fitzgerald and Snow Lake Peak disappeared behind the upper ledges of the bowl. The trail ended shortly after coming to the boundary of the Ruby Mountains Wilderness, dead ending at the cul-de-sac of the canyon itself. In summer, I'm told that the meadows throughout the upper canyon bloom with wildflowers and even during my October visit, I spotted abundant lupine in the meadows that had since gone to bean. The cliffs rising above the alpine bowl had clear water stains in spots, suggesting that in early summer, there are probably high waterfalls that would tumble into the basin below. The scenery was idyllic and I had the upper canyon to myself at the late 5 PM hour.

Beaver pond and lodge in upper Thomas Canyon

I really enjoyed my hike up Thomas Canyon- I found the fall colors here to be the most spectacular that I saw during my weeklong trip through the Great Basin. If you're looking for a half-day hike out of Lamoille Canyon to enjoy the alpine, glacial-sculpted landscapes of the Ruby Mountains, the hike up Thomas Canyon is a highly recommended experience.

Baker Archaeological Site

Baker Village

0.3 miles round trip, 20 feet elevation gain

Difficulty: Easy
Access: Good gravel road to trailhead, no entrance fee

Baker Archaeological Site- or as its also known, Baker Village- is the former site of a village of people of the Fremont Culture, who built adobe houses here when they farmed the desert landscape of eastern Nevada around 1200. While there's not a lot to see at this site- just the traces of the foundations of the former adobe buildings here- a short walk through this landscape gives beautiful views of the surrounding mountain and desert and yields insight into the conditions in which human beings have been able to make a living. The site is just outside Great Basin National Park- Nevada's only national park- making it an easy add-on for visitors already in the area to see Wheeler Peak and the bristlecone pines. The hike is nearly entirely flat.

I visited the Baker Archaeological Site, which is run by the Bureau of Land Management, during my week-long trip through Nevada. Baker Village is only about 2 miles from the contemporary village of Baker, which is the only place with services directly next to Great Basin National Park. Ely- the nearest town and the biggest population center in this part of eastern Nevada- is an hour's drive away. I approached the site from Baker: starting from the Great Basin Visitor Center, I headed north on Nevada Route 487 for a mile until I saw a sign for the Baker Archaeological Site; following the sign, I made a right turn onto the paved Cut Off Road and followed it for a half mile before turning right again at a signed intersection for the Baker Archaeological Site. I then followed this unpaved road the final half mile to a parking lot on the left side of the road with a vault toilet and a picnic shelter.

A interpretive sign at the trailhead discussed the site and there were brochures at the site discussing various aspects of Fremont Culture. From the trailhead, it was an almost entirely flat 200 meter walk through the saltbrush desert to reach a set of footprints of the adobe buildings that once made up the village. There was a central, large, square structure that opened up to a small plaza space: the Big House. Surrounding the Big House were the footprints of multiple smaller pithouses and granaries. There are no visible structures left here, just the outline of the foundations: don't expect Chaco Canyon or Mesa Verde when you arrive. The structures here, having been adobe rather than masonry, have not survived the test of time.

The Fremont Culture is an umbrella term describing peoples who lived and developed villages and agriculture in the Utah Great Basin and on the edges of the Colorado Plateau contemporaneously with the more organized Ancestral Puebloan civilization that developed near the Four Corners and the Rio Grande Valley. The people who lived here at the foot of the Snake Range likely subsisted off growing corn and hunting; in addition to building adobe houses, people of the Fremont Culture also created pottery. The village was settled in the early 1200s and abandoned by the end of that century at a time when Fremont villages across the Great Basin were collapsing. The cause is not immediately clear- perhaps changing climate made agriculture less permissive (these desert flats are certainly not arable without irrigation in our current times) or the arrival of other peoples such as the Paiutes or Shoshone forced a change in how the people of Baker Village lived.

The Baker Village site was excavated in the 1990s by a team from Brigham Young University. Following the excavation, the true foundations of the buildings were buried to prevent erosion. The footprints that I saw at the site cover the foundations are a modern attempt to stabilize the underlying structures and prevent erosion.

Footprints of the prehistoric Fremont village

Having arrived early in the morning, I watched the sun rise over this desert landscape, popping out from behind the mountain ranges of the Utah Great Basin to the east. The saltbrush plains stretched far to both the north and the south, although the nearby landscape to the south was punctuated by the irrigated fields of farms near Baker, where humans have once again learned to harness water from the desert to support agriculture.

Looking back to the west, there were beautiful views of the Snake Range illuminated by the morning sun. While Wheeler Peak- the crowning glory of the Snake Range- was not visible from this perspective, Doso Doyabi, Baker Peak, and Pyramid Peak were bathed in dawn alpenglow.

View of Doso Doyabi and Baker Peak from the Baker Village site

The ruins at Baker Village are not visually spectacular, yet visitors here can have meaningful time by learning about the history of the site and reflecting on the difficulty of building a community in this desert. This is a worthwhile though not spectacular stop if you're visiting Great Basin National Park.

Magic Grove Bristlecone Pines

The Quarter Tree, a bristlecone pine in Great Basin National Park's Magic Grove

12.8 miles round trip, 3200 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Strenuous, some route finding required

Access: Decent but narrow gravel road to trailhead, no fee required

One of the newest trails in Nevada's Great Basin National Park visits a spectacular grove of the oldest known tree species: Magic Grove, a windswept bristlecone pine forest on a high, rocky ridge. Referred to as the Mount Washington Bristlecone Pine Grove or simply the Bristlecone Pine Natural Area in park literature, this spot is known to locals as Magic Grove; therefore, I'll call it that. This grove has a far more spectacular setting than the bristlecone pine grove in the cirque beneath Wheeler Peak and contains one of the most iconic and recognizable bristlecone pines in the world, the Quarter Tree, which is featured on the Great Basin National Park US quarter. 

The destination is one of the highlights of Great Basin National Park and there are many nice views along the way, but for the moment this is still quite a challenging hike. Not only is the hike long with substantial elevation gain but portions of the trail are either incomplete, poorly built, or poorly marked. For the moment, this remains a hike for more experienced hikers with some route-finding experience; however, as the trail (or if the trail) is improved in the future, this will become one of the best day hikes in this park and in the state of Nevada. Upon completion, this hike would probably merit a moderate-strenuous rather than a strenuous difficulty rating. The hike utilizes the newly constructed Shoshone Trail in the Snake Creek drainage and then connects to the even newer and still incomplete Snake Divide Trail, which follows a long ridgeline west until coming to the grove on the slopes of Mount Washington near the crest of the Snake Range. The hike remains unmarked on most park literature, although it is displayed in some park maps displayed at the Great Basin National Park Visitor Center, as well as at the information boards at the trailhead.

A quick note on names: "Snake" is in just about every name related to this hike. Great Basin National Park is in the Snake Range; thus, references to the crest of Snake Range mean the primary, north-south ridge making up this mountain range. To reach Magic Grove, which is close to the crest of the Snake Range, I had to hike along the Snake Divide Trail; the Snake Divide, which is different from the crest of the Snake Range, refers to an east-west ridge running to the east from the crest of the Snake Range that separates the Snake Creek watershed from the North Fork Big Wash watershed.

I hiked to Magic Grove during a fall trip through Nevada, arriving during the first few days of October to see fall foliage on aspens in the Snake Creek valley. Magic Grove is in the Snake Creek area of Great Basin National Park, which is a remote region in a park that is already very out of the way. The closest town with full services is Ely, nearly a two hour drive from the trailhead, while the small village of Baker, which has little other than an excellent restaurant (Kerouac's), is about an hour away. The trailhead is also close to Garrison, a small populated area just across the border in Utah, but there are no services there.

From Baker, I followed Nevada Highway 487 south for 5 miles and then turned right at the sign for Snake Creek Road onto an unpaved road. I proceeded to follow this gravel road for the next 12 miles; while the first few miles were easy driving, the road became extremely washboarded as I entered Great Basin National Park, slowing me down considerably. I followed the road to its conclusion, 12 miles from the turnoff. Along the way, the road became progressively narrower and was just the width of a single car for stretches of a hundred meters at a time as it closely followed Snake Creek. The road condition was acceptable save a few potholes and a lot of washboarding and this road should be doable for any car with slow driving. The road ended at a large parking lot in a sagebrush meadow. It's clear that the National Park Service has been doing a lot of work here recently: the parking lot looked quite improved and there were brand new signs at the trailhead describing the multiple trails that set out from here.

Three trails depart from this trailhead. The trail for Johnson Lake departs from the north end of the parking lot, while the Shoshone Trail and the Dead Lake Trail start by following a combined path south from the parking lot. I took this south fork: the first segment of this hike follows the Shoshone Trail. Just a hundred feet from the trailhead, the Dead Lake Trail split to the right; I continued following the Shoshone Trail, which was extremely broad and followed a road trace. A hundred meters later, the Shoshone Trail came to Snake Creek, a year-round stream flowing down this valley that supports a population of Bonneville cutthroat trout. There is a nice, new viewing platform here next to the creek and an interpretive sign about efforts to restock native trout in the stream.

The trail crossed Snake Creek on a well-built bridge and then shrank to a single track trail as it entered the aspen forests of the Snake Creek drainage. The initial 2/3 mile of the hike ascended gently while heading southeast as the trail passed through alternating areas of sagebrush meadows and stands of aspen displaying beautiful fall color. Each of the two sagebrush meadows had nice views, although the views were particularly nice from the second sagebrush meadow, where I saw Pyramid Peak's distinct profile rising above heavily forested slopes that included large patches of aspens displaying brilliant fall colors. Eagle Peak, a tall limestone peak across the valley, was another notable part of the view.

Pyramid Peak rising over aspens in the Snake Creek watershed

As the trail headed south through the open sagebrush away from Snake Creek, it passed above a drainage that was filled with particularly colorful aspens that were spectacularly lit by the morning sun.

Fall aspens on the Shoshone Trail

After following the Shoshone Trail for 0.7 miles of fairly flat hiking, I entered a forest of mixed conifers and aspens. Here, the trail passed a few aspens that exhibited carvings- while much of this was graffiti, some of the trees displayed Basque arborglyphs, which are sets of messages and drawings left by Basque sheepherders who tended their flocks in these mountains in the early and mid-twentieth centuries and used aspen trunks to communicate with one another and entertain themselves.

The trail began ascending at a steeper grade as it headed east along the slopes of the Snake Divide through the forest. Having hiked a number of other trails throughout Nevada's Great Basin, I was struck by the dense forests of the Snake Range and particularly of the Snake Creek watershed. While many other high mountain ranges in Nevada, such as the Toiyabe Range, the Schell Creek Range, and the Ruby Mountains, are only able to muster aspen forests with sparse conifers on their slopes, much of the Snake Range is densely coated with forests of juniper, pinyon pine, spruce, and fir. The extra thousand feet of height of this particular mountain range was enough to induce extra rain and snowfall that can support forests far more lush than anywhere else in the Great Basin. 

Fall colors in Snake Creek Valley

The Shoshone Trail became steeper as I continued along, eventually transitioning to a very aggressive grade for a stretch as the trail pushed uphill towards the Snake Divide.  At 1.5 miles from the trailhead, after 750 feet of elevation gain, the Shoshone Trail leveled out as it reached a saddle over the Snake Divide, which is the high ridge separating the Snake Creek drainage from the North Fork Big Wash drainage. Here, the Shoshone Trail intersected with the Snake Divide Trail, which had a shiny new sign marking the recently constructed trail that headed off to the right along the ridge. The conifer forest abruptly ended at the saddle, transitioning to open sagebrush meadows on the south slopes of the Snake Divide; thus, there were nice views from the saddle past a stand of golden aspens into the North Fork Big Wash drainage and out into the desert flats of the Great Basin.

Aspens on the Shoshone Trail at the pass over the Snake Divide

The Snake Divide Trail immediately began ascending as it headed west from the saddle. The trail climbed through a mixed forest of aspens and conifers, which was generally fairly dense and only occasionally opened up for some views to the east of the desert flats of the Great Basin. This early segment of the Snake Divide Trail was reasonably well built, with switchbacks to grade the ascent as the slopes steepened. The trail pushed through 900 feet of elevation gain in just over a mile to reach a knoll along the Snake Divide; this is the most extended ascent of the trail, though because of poor trail conditions later in the hike it is not the hardest stretch.

Reaching the first knoll, there were some partial views to what the hike would entail ahead: there were two more limestone knolls on the ridge up ahead and then a longer stretch of ridge that led up to the crest of the Snake Range. There were some nice views here as well into the North Fork Big Wash drainage, especially of the massive limestone cliffs lining the other side of the valley.

Limestone ridges and cliffs of Mount Washington

Leaving the first knoll, the trail descended about 50 feet as the ridge dropped to a saddle. Fortunately, the trail did not follow the undulating top of the ridge, which would've packed hundreds of extra feet of elevation gain into this hike; unfortunately, it was at this point that the quality of the trail deteriorated significantly. The trail cut across the forested slopes on the north side of the Snake Divide, staying slightly below the main ridge, which was rocky and frequently rose and fell. However, this trail appeared unfinished: rather than being properly cut into the slope, it seemed more like a dirt scar, with the walking surface at nearly the same angle as the slope itself. The loose dirt and rocks along the slope made hiking on this path a bit treacherous; I was glad I had brought hiking poles for additional balance to avoid slipping and falling. I have to imagine that this is not the intended final form of this trail and that the Park Service means to build a more formal trail into this slope.

Unfinished, narrow, angled Snake Divide Trail

This rough trail continued for about a mile, with some spots where switchbacks in the trail had become an eroded, treacherous mess of loose dirt and no traction. This unpleasant stretch was only briefly punctuated by a spot where the trail came to a limestone outcrop with a sweeping view over the Snake Creek Drainage. The many colorful aspens in the valley below were complemented by the high summits of Johnson Peak, Pyramid Peak, Wheeler Peak, and Doso Doyabi, which all had rocky tops with densely forested slopes. Eagle Peak rose across the valley and looking down from the outcrop I could see the trailhead parking lot.

Pyramid Peak, Wheeler Peak, and Doso Doyabi rising over the forested Snake Creek watershed

The trail continued traversing the north slopes of the Snake Divide until it returned to the top of the ridge at 4 miles from the trailhead; at this point, the trail had passed all three of the limestone knolls along the Snake Divide. The rest of the ridge was a gradual ascent up to the crest of the Snake Range itself. While the incomplete/poorly built stretch of angled trail ended here, the defined path also briefly ended when the trail came onto the ridge. A few sparse cairns marked the route but were hard to follow; it's easiest just to head west along the top of the ridge itself. After 200 meters of trailless hiking with a very slight descent along the ridge, I came to a saddle in the ridge where a number of road traces intersected. I followed the road trace that headed west along the ridge for a few hundred yards before a somewhat defined trail marked with cairns peeled off to the right. It's easy to miss this turnoff: if you find yourself descending down the south side of the ridge, know that you've missed it and should turn back.

This faint trail continued following the ridge uphill and arrived at a clearing at 4.7 miles from the trailhead. The ridge began rising steeply across the steep talus clearing from here and was covered with bristlecone pines- the start of the bristlecone pine forest of Mount Washington. The first bristlecones were quite orderly looking, lacking the gnarled look of the more exposed, older trees, and the bristlecones were interspersed with many similar looking limber pines. Although I had arrived at the edge of the grove, I was still far from where the real magic happened. The trail joined another road trace once amongst the bristlecones and I followed this road trace west along the ridge for nearly a mile, with a few flat stretches interspersed with steep uphill climbs. The road trace faded out and the surrounding terrain transistioned from forest to an open talus slope as the ridge steepened for the last major uphill of the hike. 

As I approached the top of this last uphill, I began encountering a handful of truly spectacular trees that had twisted, half-dead trunks that still supported a few leaving branches. The views here quite spectacular, too: all of the Snake Creek drainage was laid out below me to the north, with the distinctive white limestone ridge of Eagle Peak rising to the east. Eagle Peak is home to the third major grove of bristlecone pines in Great Basin National Park, the first two being Magic Grove and the grove in the Wheeler Peak cirque. The views to the east also stretched out into the vast desert expanses of the Great Basin, which reached deep into the state of Utah from here.

Bristlecone pine and Eagle Peak

Bristlecone Pines of Magic Grove

Soon after passing these magnificent bristlecone pines, the Snake Divide leveled out as it ran fairly flat for its last half mile to join up with the crest of the Snake Range. I crossed a barren stretch of the ridge that had open and awesome views to both sides, reaching from Wheeler Peak and Pyramid Peak to the north to the now close and impressively massive Mount Washington. Past the barren part of the ridge, the trail entered the heart of Magic Grove, which was marked by a sign that simply read "Bristlecone Pine Natural Area."

There are some remarkably beautiful trees in this area. One massive tree was mostly dead on its western side but had intact bark and a sprawling crown on its eastern side. Some of the old trees nursed collections of young bristlecones on their leeward side.

An impressively large bristlecone pine in Magic Grove

The crowning glory of this grove, however, was the Quarter Tree, an ancient pine with a beautiful, windswept form and sprawling, exposed roots. Isolated from the others in this forest, the Quarter Tree stood at the very highest point of the ridge, its twisting branches outstretched to support a shield-like crown of needles. The Quarter Tree- an informal name, as this tree has no official name- is one of the most iconic bristlecone pines in the world and a symbol of Great Basin National Park. Its moniker is due to it being featured on the coin design for Great Basin National Park's quarter. 

The Quarter Tree and Mount Washington

These amazing trees are the oldest known non-clonal trees on Earth. I'm not aware of the age of any specific trees in Magic Grove, but based on the harsh, exposed conditions of this ridge and the impressive size of some of the trees, I'm confident that some of these trees here are thousands of years old. The oldest known bristlecone pine at the moment is Methuselah, which grows in the White Mountains of California and is over 4800 years old; however, the oldest tree ever dated was Prometheus here in Great Basin National Park, which lived nearly 5000 years but was died when it was cut down for dating. Bristlecone pines have a range spanning the entire Great Basin, growing near the highest ridges and peaks in the many parallel mountains ranges of California, Nevada, and Utah.

The Quarter Tree

Bristlecones can be identified in part by the very neat distribution of needles along their branches, with most needles around similar length. Once seeds from the cones of these pines start growing into trees, it can take centuries just to become a thin, juvenile tree; in harsh growing conditions, the bristlecone pines sometimes add very little new volume in their short summer growth season. The result is a dense trunk that often survives for thousands of years after the tree dies. The remarkable longevity of these trees and their responsiveness to environmental conditions make the growth rings of bristlecone pines a climate record for the past 10000 years.

Bristlecone pine cones

The Quarter Tree was the highlight of the hike, but the trail didn't end there. The end of the Snake Divide- which is very poorly defined at this point- is at the crest of the Snake Range. It is about a 0.3 mile walk from the Quarter Tree to a saddle on the crest just south of where the Snake Divide joins up with the Snake Range's crest. A sign near the saddle marks the end of the Snake Divide Trail and notes that there is not yet a marked or maintained trail from here up Mount Washington. This spot provided a nice perspective looking back at Magic Grove. Here, I realized that the grove was much larger than it looked from atop the ridge; the bristlecone pine forest stretched downslope on the southern side of the Snake Divide and was actually quite extensive. However, the trees lower on the slope appeared to be growing in more favorable climes and lacked the drama of the twisted limbs of the trees atop the ridge. Behind the grove, the many desert basins and mountain ranges of the Utah Great Basin stretched out to the horizon.

Magic Grove and the Great Basin

At the saddle, 11140 feet above sea level, excellent views opened up to the west as well. The high limestone summit of Mount Washington rose steeply above the saddle to the south while Spring Valley opened up below. The Schell Creek Range and the Egan Range were two layers of mountains beyond Spring Valley; while I might have seen to even more remote mountain ranges on a clear day, smoke from California wildfires constrained visibility.

View of Spring Valley from saddle along the Snake Range crest

I only saw a single other hiker during my whole day of hiking here- a far cry from the fifty or more hikers I had seen the previous day on both the Wheeler Peak and Bristlecone-Rock Glacier Trails. There is something truly magical about the ancient, windswept bristlecone pines on the slopes of Mount Washington. The trail is still a bit tough to handle at the moment, but as it improves this will likely become one of the premier hikes in Great Basin National Park. For the moment, though, visitors are still rare and you can have this magnificent grove to yourself if you can handle the long hike, substantial elevation gain, and poor trail conditions.

Bristlecone-Rock Glacier

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5 miles round trip, 1100 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate
Access: Paved road to trailhead, no fee required

The oldest known living tree on Earth- a bristlecone pine named Prometheus that was nearly 5000 years old- once grew in the cirque beneath Wheeler Peak in Nevada's remote Great Basin National Park. Prometheus has since been cut down, a tragic incident that spurred the protection of this land as Great Basin National Park. However, on the Bristlecone-Rock Glacier hike, you can still discover two unique sights in that cirque: the bristlecone pine forest of which Prometheus was once a member and the remnants of Nevada's last glacier that carved out this spectacular glacial bowl. For casual hikers visiting Great Basin National Park who aren't up for tackling the difficult hikes up Wheeler Peak or out to Magic Grove, this hike delivers the greatest rewards while demanding just a moderate effort.

The trail to the rock glacier is signed as leading to the glacier in some cases and the rock glacier in others; know that they refer to the same place. I will refer to it as the rock glacier in this post for consistency.

I hiked the Bristlecone-Rock Glacier Trail during a weeklong autumn road trip through Nevada to see the fall colors, arriving on the first day of October. Great Basin National Park is literally in the middle of nowhere- the trailhead is 4 hours from Salt Lake City and 5 hours from Las Vegas. The hamlet of Baker- population 68- is near the entrance of the park, while the closest town with full services is Ely, an hour away. I'll thus skip describing the route from any major city and instead just describe the route from Baker; Nevada Highway 488 leads from Baker to the entrance of the park. Upon entering the park, I turned right onto the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive and followed it just a little over 12 miles to the Bristlecone Trailhead, a large parking area on the left side of the road just outside the entrance to the Wheeler Peak Campground. There's parking here for more than 40 cars and a vault toilet.

To start the hike, I crossed the road and started up the combined trail for the Sky Islands Forest Trail, the Bristlecone Trail, and the Alpine Lakes Loop. The first few meters of the trail were flat and wide for the ADA accessible Sky Islands Forest Trail but the Alpine Lakes Loop and the Bristlecone Trail broke off to the right very quickly. I took this right fork. This trail- wide and well maintained- began a gradual ascent and after a hundred meters it split apart again into the two directions of the Alpine Lakes Loop, with the right fork leading towards Stella Lake and the left fork leading to Teresa Lake and the Bristlecone Pine Grove. I took the left fork at this junction.

The trail climbed gently through a forest of spruce and fir for the next 2/3 of a mile before coming to the next junction. Here, the Alpine Lakes Loop continued towards Teresa Lake on the right; having seen from the summit of Wheeler Peak earlier that day that Teresa Lake had dried out, I skipped visiting the lake and instead took the left fork, which led to both the Bristlecone Pine Forest and the rock glacier.

The Bristlecone Trail dropped slightly from the junction as it crossed the dry creekbed of Lehman Creek. The trail then contoured around the northeast ridge of Wheeler Peak, staying fairly flat as it cut through forests on the slopes of the ridge. This stretch of trail delivered the first views of the hike: I could see across the Lehman Creek watershed to the colorful fall aspens growing on the slopes of Bald Mountain (there are no aspens directly along this trail). To the northeast, I looked out into the desert flats in Utah that are characteristic of much of the Great Basin.

Fall colors on aspens near the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive

Looking out into the Great Basin

The trail made a sharp turn to the right as it entered the Wheeler Peak cirque. The trail began to steadily ascend as views of towering Doso Doyabi appeared ahead and the bristlecone pines came into sight.

Doso Doyabi rises above the bristlecone pine forest

The trail crossed a dry creekbed and then made a switchback and began a more aggressive ascent through rockier terrain as it began to pass a number of bristlecone pines. These trees live to be the oldest non-cloncal organisms in the world and inhabit the harsh upper reaches of the tallest ranges in the Great Basin. They do not typically grow to any impressive size due to the harsh environment, but over time the elements sculpt and twist the trees into unusual forms. Many older trees barely cling onto life, with just fragments of bark and a handful of needles giving life to a tree that had otherwise been reduced to a bare trunk. A number of dead trees dotted the grove as well: the dead trunks can last on these mountain slopes for thousands of years. 

Trunk of a dead bristlecone pine

Bristlecone pines have a range that is generally limited to the mountaintops of the many mountain ranges of the Great Basin. In the 1950s, Dr. Edmund Schulman of the University of Arizona visited the bristlecone pine groves of California's White Mountains and found- to his shock- that there were trees there a thousand years older than any giant sequoia, which were thought to be the oldest trees in the world at the time. Quickly, it became apparent that the oldest specimens in the White Mountains were easily over 4000 years old. In the following years, bristlecone pines became an object of academic fascination as the dendrochronological records in their trunks were used to validate radiocarbon dating and understand climate patterns of the past ten millenia.

In 1964, Donald Currey, a graduate student from UNC Chapel Hill, was doing field work in this very bristlecone pine grove in the cirque of Wheeler Peak, using tree cores to help build a dendrochronological record. Currey found one particularly wizened and ancient tree in the grove- named Prometheus- and tried to core it for his research. The record is a bit unclear on what happened next- either Currey's borer for extracting tree cores broke or Prometheus was too unwieldly for him to get a representative tree core sample- but his resulting choice was devastating. Seeking and then receiving permission from the Forest Service, Currey cut down Prometheus to analyze its rings. He counted 4862 rings. Factoring in the time it took to reach the height at which it was cut down, Prometheus may have been as much as 5000 years old. It remains the oldest confirmed non-clonal organism known on our Earth and until it was downed by a human, it lived here on the slopes of Wheeler Peak.

Bristlecone pines

The trail split into a short loop at 1.4 miles from the trailhead. The left fork here led hikers through the short Bristlecone Pine Interpretive Trail, while the right fork skirted the grove and was a shortcut to reach the rock glacier trail. I took the left fork here to pass through the heart of the grove and see a number of truly ancient trees, peers of the nearly-immortal Prometheus. The interpretive trail had a number of informative signs about the species and the grove as it made its way by some very gnarled trees. A particularly impressive tree lay at the top of the trail; while much of its trunk was dead and the dead wood had been scarred by fire, a few living branches still sporting bristlecone needles demonstrated that this 3200 year old tree was still alive and photosynthesizing.

3200-year old bristlecone pine

The tragedy of Prometheus helped bring the outcry and attention needed for federal protection of these rare and ancient beings. Today, the oldest known bristlecone pines are preserved in the Bristlecone Pine Natural Area in the White Mountains and here in Great Basin National Park.

Gnarled bristlecone trunk

At the top of the Bristlecone Pine loop, the Rock Glacier trail broke off to the left at a signed junction. I followed this trail, which passed a couple more bristlecone pines while it made a steady but gentle ascent through rocky terrain. A quarter mile past after leaving the Bristlecone Pine loop, I arrived at an interpretive sign at the end of a switchback where there were the first good views of Wheeler Peak at the head of the cirque and the rock glacier at its base. As recently as the early twentieth century, there was a true glacier here with crevasses that filled the head of the cirque, but that glacier has since retreated and there is now just some permanent patches of snow at the head of the cirque and a rock glacier, a mix of rock and ice that has some flow characteristics similar to how a true glacier moves. This was the last true glacier in Nevada before it became a victim of the changing climate that is wiping out glaciers from the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rockies to Montana's Glacier National Park.

Wheeler Peak rising above the rock glacier

The trail made a quick set of switchbacks after the viewpoint and then continued up the valley into the depths of the cirque. The trail flattened out for a while as it followed the moraines left by the retreating glacier, but the terrain was very rocky here, making the trail much less pleasant to hike along. After the flatter stretch of the hike ended, the trail ventured onto more freshly deposited moraine, ascending steeply through piles of rocks that were likely just deposited in the glacial retreat of this past century. As the trail ascended through this moraine, views opened up outside the cirque: I had gained enough elevation that the peaks of the North Snake Range, including lofty Mount Moriah, had come into view.

Mount Moriah and the North Snake Range

The trail ended at a sign that simply read "Rock Glacier." There wasn't terribly much glacier to see here: a few patches of permanent snow at the base of Wheeler Peak's headwall marked where the glacier would have once originated. While there is apparently still a rock glacier here, it was not obviously distinguishable from the moraine around it. However, the views of the towering cliffs around the cirque here were still impressive and humbling. It was also very chilly: surrounded by high cliffs, this spot in the cirque almost never gets sunlight, explaining how the temperatures here were kept low enough to support a glacier in the middle of the Great Basin Desert.

Wheeler Peak towers over the rock glacier at the head of the cirque

After enjoying the views here, I traced my steps back, taking the other segment of the Bristlecone Pine loop on the descent and reaching the trailhead around sunset. As I drove down the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, I saw an incredible harvest moon rising over the Great Basin. I finished my day with dinner at Kerouac's in Baker- it's one of the only restaurants for miles around and luckily, it's even tastier than any place you'd find in Ely; in fact, Kerouac's may have the best food you can find in the triangle defined by Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Elko, Nevada.

This is an excellent hike. The handful of nice views along this trail are paired with the awe of seeing trees older than the monuments of Rome and Athens as well as the majesty of the great rocky cirque carved by Nevada's last glacier. There are better hikes in Great Basin National Park, but those hikes require strenuous efforts while the hike to the bristlecone pine grove and the rock glacier allows visitors to more easily access the sense of wonder which this landscape can imbue in us all.