2017 Lichen BioBlitz

One of my big events this summer was the Lichen BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park. Over 50 people gathered to go search out lichens. I came into the event knowing very little about lichens. But, to my surprise, after three days, I could spout out a few Latin names. Woohoo! Everyone had a good time and started viewing the rocks, soils, and trees a lot differently!

Following some talks and a potluck lunch, we split into groups and went out to explore. On the first afternoon, I went out to Snake Creek with a group led by BYU professor Steve Leavitt. He showed us a variety of places that lichens grow.


Tree branches often have some lichens on them, like this Xanthomendoza.


A handlens was really helpful to see some of the tiny parts of the lichens. I was glad I had brought my macro lens for my camera.


I can't quite remember what all I saw that first afternoon. There was so much information that it was all a bit of a blur. On one water birch next to Snake Creek, Steve circled the tree. I asked him how many lichen species he was seeing. He replied at least ten. Whoa!

I knew I had a lot to learn! The next day I headed up to the glacier with Devin.


It turned out this was a good hike to get some lichens straight in my head. We kept seeing the same ones over and over, so it was great practice. Here's elegant starburst lichen, Xanthoria elegans, one of the most common lichens in the park. It grows at all elevations, usually on rocks.


This white and black lichen is the roadmap lichen, Lecidea tessalata.


This lichen had little trumpets emerging from it, so cool! (Cladonia species)


Devin was very patient and did a great job of explaining not only lichens, but also overall forest ecology.


One thing that fascinated me was how many bryophytes (mosses) were around. They are much fuzzier than lichens. And when you look at them really close up, they are amazing.


The shapes of the lichens are fascinating. Here's a Rhizoplaca.


And a different species of Rhizoplaca. Those little round plates helped me remember the name.


We progressed up the trail and got to the bristlecones. Tucked away in the interior of a dead bristlecone was some wolf lichen (Letharia vulpina). It looked totally different than the other lichens we had seen.


One tree had mega-sized wolf lichen on it. So cool! These lichens can be used to make a yellow dye. They've also been used to poison foxes and wolves in Europe.


Up by the glacier we found some orange stains on some rocks, while there was more Xanthoria on others. We also found lots of yellow Candelariella (sort of sounds like candle, which makes it easy to remember), little bits of black Sarcogyne, a black lichen that grows in the rock (so it gets the neat title of being endolithic), and a couple more kinds of Rhizoplaca.


After exploring the glacier area, we went to Teresa Lake. Time out for a sphinx (hummingbird) moth on some Parry's primrose.


Devin then found this Rhizocarpon lichen under water at the spring that feeds Teresa Lake. Who knew that lichens can grow underwater?


After another night of camping out at the Wheeler Peak Campground, we packed up and headed to different places. I joined USU professor Brad Kropp at the picnic area, where we started off by looking at soil lichens.

This is Psora, a brown lichen with white-rimmed edges. 

 Then we looked at more rocks. I think this is Lecanora species. I like the circular pattern.

And if it's green and kind of blotchy, it could be Xanthoparmelia.

 There's so much more learning to do. I have my hand lens ready! 

Can you identify any lichens in this photo?

The orange is Xanthoria elegans, the yellow is Candelariella, and the white and black is Lecidea tesselata. I'm not sure what the grey one is.  Oh yeah, and it looks like there's a little bit of the endolithic lichen, Sarcogyne.

If you don't know them all, don't worry. The experts don't either. It looks like at least one new species of lichen was found during the BioBlitz. This is a species that science didn't know about before this BioBlitz. How cool is that?


Here are the folks who were still around after the delicious closing lunch (thanks Great Basin National Park Foundation!), preliminary results talks (thanks Brad and Steve!), and raffle prize drawing (thanks Western National Parks Association!).

It will take the experts a few months to finish identifying what was found at the BioBlitz. It was a great three days, and I won't ever look at lichens in quite the same way

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!

The Warm-up Hike: To the Bristlecones

 Jenny and I had a plan: get our seven-year olds to the top of Wheeler Peak, 13,063 ft. The trail starts at 10,000 ft., so that's a lot of elevation gain. We figured we better do a training hike, so we headed up the Bristlecone Trail at Great Basin National Park. This trail also starts close to 10,000 ft., but doesn't gain as much elevation. Plus it is so inspiring to walk among trees that are over 3,000 years old.

Of course I took my camera to get some photos of the cool trees.

Each time different trees catch my eye.

Our group photo. We ended up with three adults and five kids on this hike. Everyone did great.

On the way down we even found a little patch of snow to slide in. I love finding snow in July!

Jenny got some extra strength training in carrying Willow!

Coming up next...the big hike...