Episode Details

Where to actually sleep at Great Basin National Park — the park with no lodge, no hotel inside the gates, and one of the darkest night skies in the country. This is the practical close-out to the Great Basin trilogy: the campgrounds, the tiny gateway town of Baker, Nevada, and what to do when everything fills up.

Host Shawn Spainhour, a former Army officer, walks you up the mountain campground by campground — from year-round Lower Lehman Creek, to the all-purpose Upper Lehman basecamp, to quiet Baker Creek and primitive Grey Cliffs, to the crown-jewel Wheeler Peak Campground at nearly 10,000 feet (and the honest cold-and-altitude warnings that come with it). Plus how Recreation.gov reservations work, the Stargazer Inn and other Baker beds, the Ely fallback an hour out, and a simple way to choose the right spot for the summit, the cave, or pure solitude.

This is Part 3 of the Wildlands Great Basin series. Part 1 covers the deep history; Part 2 covers planning your visit.

Wildlands — know the land before you reach it.