What's Blooming and Singing up Strawberry Creek, Great Basin National Park

We've been glad to get out and stretch our legs while still doing social distancing. A good place for that is the Sage Steppe Loop Trail, a 1.3-mile loop at the end of the Strawberry Creek road in Great Basin National Park. There are options to make the hike longer.

I wanted to see what flowers were blooming and what birds were singing. So here's a quick look at what the trail looks like in early May.

When the snow melts, one of the first flowers to emerge is snowy buttercup (Ranunculus nivalis). 

 Another yellow flower, not as pretty, but more widespread, is creeping barberry, also colloquially known as Oregon grape (Berberis repens). The leaves turn a beautiful red color.

This next flower is extremely tiny, the small-flowered blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia parvifolia).

We hadn't come far by this point, we had simply crossed the foot bridge and entered the large meadow.


Many of the flowers were unobtrusive, like this carrotleaf desert-parsley (Lomatium foeniculaceum).

This tiny clover, hollyleaf clover (Trifolium longipes) is easily overlooked.

Here's some Nevada biscuitroot (Lomatium nevadense).

In 2016, a lightning strike started a 4,500-acre wildfire in the Strawberry Creek watershed. The sign survived, but the hillside behind it burned. I like seeing how the landscape is returning.

The sagebrush bluebells (Mertensia oblongifolia) were just starting to bloom.

Continuing up the trail. The kids had decided I was taking too long and were way ahead of me. We were the only vehicle in the parking lot (good thing, as it's not a big parking lot!), so I didn't mind them going ahead.

Then I started seeing more color--arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata).

And a little long-leaf phlox (Phlox longifolia).

This tiny flower is slender phlox (Microsteris gracilis).

This West Coast Lady butterfly seemed to like it a lot.


Desert Girl had waited for me, so I pointed out some flowers as we crossed the creek and headed back through the forest to the vehicle. I had challenged the kids to find at least five different flower species. They were not interested. Sigh. At least they were outdoors!

A variety of birds were also out, like this male Mountain Bluebird.

A green-tailed towhee fluttered into the shrubs. I like the red tuft of feathers on the top of his head. I also saw lots of chipping sparrows flitting about the ground.

A yellow-rumped warbler stopped for a moment.

A female mountain bluebird isn't nearly as bright, but is still beautiful.

A female Cassin's finch is a bit non-descript; the males have a bright red head. The females of many bird species are more camouflaged so they can sit on a nest and not attract attention.

The kids like the sage steppe loop as they know it's short. When they were little it would take a couple hours to do. Now we can do it in way less than an hour--unless I'm looking at all the birds and flowers! It will be fun to visit periodically as the flowers will change notably through the season.

On the way out of Strawberry Canyon, we noticed a large herd of elk in the fields across the highway. We've seen the elk on both sides of the highway in this area, so be careful traveling through here.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief glimpse of what's going on in this corner of the world! Have a good day!

2020 Ely Bristlecone Birkebeiner plus Bonus Train Photos

 One of our favorite races of the year is the Bristlecone Birkebeiner in Ely, Nevada, put on by the Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts.  This is the longest running cross-country ski race in the state of Nevada. It has also expanded to include snowshoeing and fat tire mountain biking. We arrived about 8:35 am on Saturday morning, giving us enough time to attach our numbers. I was doing the long-course (4.1 miles), while the kids were doing the short course (1.5 miles), their first time at this new distance. In previous years, they had done the kids' race, but we had done a practice loop a month before on the short course and did great.

I took my phone with me, thinking I might take photos along the way, but I got a little competitive and didn't want the lady behind me to pass me. So I didn't get any photos until the end! Fortunately, a photographer was out on the course, and you can see some photos on their Facebook page.  Here are the ones of us (photo credit I believe to Jani Ahlvers):

I did see the first fat-tire mountain biker come in.

Then I went to find the kids. Desert Girl was making s'mores at the fire pit. She graciously made me one.

I got back to the finish line in time to see some friends arrive.

NDOT had a cool tent set up with the logo: "Preserving Nevada's Waters for Future Generations." Thank you, NDOT!

People hung out at the shelters, waiting for everyone to finish.

Then it was time for awards. About ten people did the short course. And Desert Girl came in second for women! (fourth overall). 

And Desert Boy came in first overall for the Short Course! What a difference from a few years ago, when he was in tears and falling down a lot. Goes to show that practice does pay off! (Of course getting a little bigger might have helped, too!)

In addition to the cool awards, the kids also won gift certificates to Sportsworld, which they really enjoyed spending.

I finished mid-pack for the long course and really enjoyed my ski. I guess I better start taking lessons from the kids if I want to place higher. :)

The Fire and Ice Winter Festival was being held that weekend in Ely, but we had another commitment back home. We did run over to the train yard to see the newly crafted wooden train engine. When we got there, we found they were getting ready to attach Engine 40 to the train cars.

It's so cool to see a coal-fired train engine on the move.

A film crew was there. They are making a documentary about White Pine County and will be in town for about a month.

A few other people were gathered. Later that day, they were planning to shoot off fireworks from the train.

The Nevada Northern Railway is not to be missed if you're in Ely.

Across from the new parking lot we found the wooden replica. We couldn't believe all the detail that had been put into it.

The plan was to burn it at the bonfire that night. 

First, though, the kids could climb on in!

It would be cool to have one of these around all the time, it was so cool!

Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts has a bunch of races throughout the year, so if you want some inspiration to go out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors, check out their website!

To the Top of Eastern Nevada: Up Wheeler Peak with Kids

The day arrived: time to head up Wheeler Peak. We had two seven year olds and a ten year old. We had spent the night before at Wheeler Peak campground at 10,000 feet to acclimate and make the hike easier. We took a before hike photo when we were still all smiling (we forgot to take the after hike photo, but I can assure you some of the faces would have been showing different expressions!)

The start is easy, not too steep, fairly flat ground, and gorgeous views. We could see where we would soon be--on the ridge that leads up to Wheeler Peak (the mountain on the right in the photo above).

As we got higher, the trail got rockier. The kids wanted lots of breaks, so we had to use our best parenting techniques to keep them going.

I found the flowers distracting. I especially loved this pink one, moss campion (Silene acualis), that grows in a mound.

At one point, Desert Boy went ahead, found a wind shelter, and then laid down and pretended he was dead. Here are the kids trying to revive him. Fortunately they were successful!

Higher up, we found some snow!

We decided to take this snowy route for awhile.

Desert Boy's expression shows how enthusiastic he was. But then he and Isaac started talking about video games, and they got a second wind.

Jenny is such a trooper, up to any challenge! And with a smile.

Almost to the top!

One of the benefits of climbing the peak in July is seeing the bright pink Palmer's primrose (Primula parryi) in bloom. It's usually a riparian plant, but for some reason it also likes the higher slopes of Wheeler Peak. The purple plant is sky pilot or sticky Jacob's ladder (Polemonium viscosum), and it smells like skunk. Fortunately it wasn't too odiferous on this particular day. In the middle of the photo below, you can see Bald Mountain, with Buck Mountain to the right. The dry playa in the background is Yelland dry lake bed in Spring Valley.

Finally we got to the top! It was so nice to be there. We shared the summit ridge with about 20 other people, who were scattered along it.

Some of us went to the eastern edge of the ridge to see the Wheeler Cirque Rock Glacier and Jeff Davis peak. This year there aren't any thermokarst ponds (pools of water) on the rock glacier.

Jenny got a family photo of us.

And I wanted to get a photo with Jenny!

We spent about an hour at the top on the rare, almost windless day. You might notice we're not even wearing jackets. This is not common at all! Desert Girl wasn't feeling so good, and we hoped heading down would relive her altitude sickness.

The Ross's aven (Geum rossii) with its mats of yellow flowers and cushion phlox (Phlox pulvinata) with its white flowers decorated the scene, along with more sky pilot.

I thought going down might end the whining, but the kids were tired and let us know it.

With snow down the gully to Stella Lake, we thought that would be a fun alternative to the trail. There were a few fun moments...

 ...but it was really long and probably didn't really save us any time. But now we know.

We were all exhausted when we got back to the vehicles and forgot to take the after photo. The kids said they would never hike the peak again. But once they told other people and saw their reactions, they changed to saying that they wouldn't hike the peak in the next few years. After that, who knows?

Anyway, we were really proud of them for accomplishing such a big feat. and it was great to spend the day outdoors in such beautiful settings. For anyone wanting to take kids to the top, plan on an all-day adventure (it was about 9 hours total for us, including an hour at the top), lots of food and water and patience. And it sure helps to have good weather!