Great Basin National Park

The first national park we made it to was Great Basin. It wasn't a park I knew much about but it's beautiful. The park was busy so we just drove around for awhile and landed at the Bristlecone Pine hike in the early evening. 

Since the trail was still pretty busy we decided to make dinner, and it was one I'm pretty proud of- bacon quesadillas. They were amazing and we had leftovers for lunch the next day. I loved cooking in the van. It took some learning and patience at first but getting to watch Joshua play with Roslyn while I slowly chopped vegetables and worked methodically over the gas stove was tranquil and always in the moment. This meal was a great example of that feeling. We slowly made food and then sat outside and ate while passing the baby back and forth.

After dinner the hot sun and crowds had dissipated so we hopped onto the 3 mile trail. It wove through some beautiful old forest and then opened up with some great views. The higher up you get the more bristlecone pines emerge. They are very very old knotty twisted trees with beautiful textures and colors. The path ends with a bunch of them all together and we lingered for quite awhile. 

Since we did an evening hike and all the campsites nearby were full we found ourselves a bit stuck after the hike. Luckily Joshua had one last free spot pinned on his map but we didn't know much about it. We ended up driving in the dark down a bumpy dirt road that looked like it had no pull offs. Then it just ended in a huge water filled rut. We felt a bit worried until we went to turn the van around and spotted a fabulous camping spot off the road. You could see the surrounding mountains and the stars were the best we'd ever seen. We put Roslyn to bed and sat out in the warm night air trying to capture them in a photo until we were tired.