Day 2: Great Basin National Park; Moab, Utah

Two hours east of Ely we reached Great Basin National Park, one of the newest national parks, having been established only in 1986. It is located entirely within the Snake Mountains, just another of the many mountain ranges of central Nevada's "Basin and Range" geography. But it is beautiful.

We climbed up 5,000 feet through several different ecological zones, from desert scrub to scrubby woodland to pinyon pine forest to white pine and aspen forest, to bristlecone pine forest and finally above the treeline. We parked at 10,000 and hiked through the beautiful pine forest until we reached a grove of bristlecone pines, the oldest living plants on earth. I continued hiking up until I reached a glacier. The glaciers were tucked into the sides of 13,000 foot Wheeler Pk and were nearly vertical.

Great Basin National Park is open to the public for free and barely gets any visitors. I highly recommend it to anyone passing through.

Then we headed east into Utah, changed time zones, and reached the interstate. Interstate 70 goes through 110 miles of spectacular Utah wilderness. No towns, gas stations, or services of any kind for 110 miles! That's kind of amazing in this day and age. Even the freeway exists didn't have actual names. They simply led to dirt roads and said "Ranch Exit".

There were several vista points along the freeway which provide absolutely phenominal views out over the red rock desert and canyon lands and otherwordly geological formations.

Reached the town of Moab where we're spending the night. Went to a brewpub for dinner.

It's an interesting cross section of people here. Lots of Americans from all over the country. Also lots of international tourists - European, and Japanese. Kind of reminds of me China.