Snake Range, Nevada

Great Basin National Park is located in eastern Nevada in the Snake Range. This view from along Highway 50 shows the high peaks along the core of the range in the park. Great Basin National Park is known for its ecological diversity ranging from low desert basin to high alpine tundra, with many ecozones and habitats in between. Great Basin National Park is also known for Lehman Caves and its Bristlecone Pine forest. Wheeler Peak has an elevation of 13,063 feet above sea level, the second highest mountain in Nevada (after Boundary Peak in western Nevada at 13,145 feet). The park was originally established as Lehman Caves National Monument in 1922, but was expanded and established as Great Basin National Park in 1986. The park encompasses 77,100 acres or about 120 square miles in the core of the Snake Range (Harris and others, 1997).