Family Hike up South Fork Baker Creek

After doing the 5k Snake Valley Slither on summer solstice and then hiking up to the bristlecones that afternoon, my visiting family wanted a shorter hike, so I suggested one of my favorites, the South Fork Baker-Baker Creek loop. It's about 3 miles long, although with roughly 800 feet elevation gain (that's a guess). But by the time we got to the trailhead, the kids were complaining, and we weren't sure we wanted to listen them for two-three hours.

The crying seemed contagious.

But we gathered up our strength and set off, and before long were seeing neat things, like this woodpecker, a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

This swallowtail was visiting the columbine as we walked under the aspens.

Desert Girl was a little tired, but we bribed her and cajoled her, and she kept going.

And finally we made it to the big meadow and found a spot to take a big snack break. Even better, it had water nearby.


We started seeing lots more smiles.

While the family hung out, I went off in search of good photo opportunities.


This meadow is amazing, I always feel like I'm in Yellowstone and a bear might step out of the trees. But we don't have bears in Great Basin National Park, so that makes hiking and camping a lot less stressful.


I was just blown away by all the bistort.

This painted lady was busy pollinating some flowers.

Nearby was another butterfly--a skipper?

Besides the bistort, there were also fields of shooting stars.

The colors were amazing.

I had fun looking at this bee and seeing all the little hairs on it.

Eventually I wandered back and this is what I found:

 Ah what fun with uncles!

We continued on to make the loop.


The trail crew was making the trail a little wider and very smooth.

It made for easy walking.

We crested the ridge, passed some ponderosa pines, and came down on the north, shady side of the ridge. We found these orchids, spotted coral root (Corallorhiza maculata).

When I saw the lack of green, I guessed they were parasitic, and found I was right. They parasitize fungi, which depend on the roots of other plants. The flowers are gorgeous.

When we got down to Baker Creek, it was time to play in the water again. The kids even tried swimming, but the very cold water deterred them.


On the way back we saw big mushrooms,

this beautiful flower, death camus (Zigadenus species),

and had a grand old time. It was a really enjoyable hike, and I highly recommend it!

Taking Kids up Wheeler Peak

A few of us moms decided we wanted to hike Wheeler Peak and in the course of discussion we decided to take some kids with us. So we chose a date, packed up, and hit the trail. It's about 3,000 foot elevation gain and 4.3 miles to the summit of Wheeler Peak.

We're all smiles as we cruise the nearly flat trail through the aspens.

I had my good camera and couldn't help but take a lot of photos. The curve of the aspens mesmerized me. They bend like this because winter snows weigh down their trunks.

A bit farther on we tried for a group photo, although the timer barely gave us enough time to get into position! The 13,063 foot peak still looks far away.

As we cruised up to treeline, we paused to take a look at Stella Lake. By this point it was already looking pretty small.

We hit patches of snow and had some snow ball fights.

Soon we were above treeline and seeing more snow on the edge of the ridge.

The forecast was for a windy day, and as we hiked up the ridge, we felt it. We promised the kids that once we got to the big flattish ridge we would stop for lunch.

We found a huge wind shelter and plopped down. It took us about 2.5 hours to get here, and I remembered that this spot was about half-way time-wise to the top.

We put on extra layers as it was getting colder. We knew it was 90 degrees down in the valley, so it was nice to be somewhere cool.

After lunch the trail got much steeper as we started gaining elevation faster.

Desert Boy had been whining quite a lot on the hike, so finally I asked him about his video games. Wow, what a switch! He suddenly was full of all sorts of information about them and kept talking and talking while he was climbing and climbing, and then all of a sudden we were at the western summit. The last part of the trail was covered in snow, so we had to just scramble up the ridge.

We carefully made our way along the snow and enjoyed the views to the south.

The kids signed us into the trail register.

Hurray for moms! One hiker (in shorts and Chacos) had turned back because of all the snow and high winds, but we persisted and made it. The wind wasn't particularly strong at the summit, but I got knocked down a couple times on the ridge right before it. The weather forecast was calling for afternoon gusts of 50 mph.

We decided to savor the top and take some photos. Here I am with Desert Boy. He kept saying he was never going to climb the peak again. (Now he says he will, but in a few years.)

Can you spot the three lakes? Stella and Teresa are blue, but Brown Lake is, well, brown. It's not a cirque lake, but in the moraine and very shallow.

We left the kids by the mailbox and hiked down the summit ridge towards Jeff Davis Peak. Here's Jenny hanging out over the edge.

 Here's the view to the southeast, looking at False Pyramid Peak, Pyramid Peak, and Baker Peak.

Down below to the north we could see the rock glacier.

When we got back to the kids, Desert Boy was feeling some altitude sickness. So we started descending right away. Next time it would be better if we camped the night before at Wheeler Peak campground (about 10,000 ft) so he would have more time to acclimatize.

We couldn't hear each other talk on the way down because the wind was so strong. So we kept going with very short breaks for the next hour and a half. Finally we reached treeline and Desert Boy felt better.

He started talking up a storm.

As we were back in the meadows, we looked at the faraway peak. Had we really climbed it?

For those hiking with kids and planning a trip, it took us 5.5 hours to get up, we spent 0.5 hours at the top, and it took 3 hours to get back to the trailhead. We could probably have done it a little faster if it wasn't so windy, as we took a break at nearly every wind shelter on the way up.

First Hike of Summer Vacation

 On Desert Boy's first day of summer vacation, I took the morning off so we could go for a hike while Desert Girl went to her last day of preschool. We invited some friends and started at the gravel pit. The kids ran free and migrated to the steep slopes.

They thought it was so much fun to be able to climb where ever they wanted and then slide down.

I climbed up one side for an overview of the gravel pit and the hill we were going to climb.

When we started off on our hike, it quickly turned into a lizard hunting expedition.

The baby horned lizards weren't too hard to catch.

As soon as they let one lizard go, they would find another to chase.

These collared lizards are really neat looking.

I am always impressed by how well the horned lizards blend in with their environment.

We managed to keep moving uphill despite the numerous lizards.

And then we were all at the top!

Aidan wanted to go check out the nearby peak.

The clouds were building, so we didn't stay up there too long.

We took a slightly different way down and found these neat fossils.

The kids also took the time to stop and smell the desert cacti flowers.

And found bones.

It was a wonderful hike. We got back just in time for the last ten minutes of recess.

The graduating preschoolers stood together with new bags of goodies from their teacher.

And here's Teacher Gwendy with them. She's had such a big influence on them, starting off their academic careers. These three are very well prepared for kindergarten, knowing all their letters and even sounding out words, writing numbers and doing some simple arithmetic. The best part is that they can't wait to do more. And I'm so appreciative of preschool because they've learned how to share and get along with their peers. And only take one activity out of a time and put it away before getting out the next one.

Thanks so much, Teacher Gwendy!