Woke up early again today so we could watch the sunrise in Capitol Reef National Park. The park is long and skinny - it protects the 100 mile Waterpocket Fold, a ridge of rocks that were pushed upwards due to geologic action. We went on a hike through Grand Wash, a narrow canyon through the Waterpock Fold that was carved by water erosion. After the hike we had an excellent breakfast of pancakes and eggs, then headed west towards Nevada.
We entered Pacific Time as we crossed the Utah-Nevada border, and at 3:30 Pacific Time we arrived at the ranger station in Great Basin National Park. We then drove up to 10,000ft. on Wheeler Peak and hiked to the base of a glacier - one of the southernmost glaciers in the United States. Along the way we saw many bristlecone trees.
The Bristlecone is the oldest living thing on earth. These rugged trees grow in harsh conditions of extreme wind and cold. Somehow they manage to live over 3,000 years. The trunks of these trees are so hard that when they die they don't rot. We saw gnarled trees along the trail that had probably been dead for hundreds of years.
