This weekend I went on a Geology field trip to Great Basin National Park (Geology field trips are the best, as they nearly always involve camping and exploring incredible areas). For those of you who don't know (I didn't), Great Basin National Park is on the very eastern edge of Nevada (bordering with Utah) and consists of basically one prominent mountain range in the Basin and Range province. The Basin and Range province stretches from central Utah to eastern California, and is close to the height of the United States. If you look at a topographic map of the western states, you will see hundreds of little squiggles running north to south across Nevada. These have been described as "a thousand caterpillars marching to Mexico" and are actually many mountain ranges with basins in between. As for why they are there, if you are interested in the geology just ask me in the comments below.
Anyways...(I apologize for my tangents, but...they are not likely to stop) the Great Basin contains a windy mountain road that ascends to the base of the second-highest mountain in Nevada (by 77 feet!), Wheeler Peak at 13,064'. This high mountain range creates something of a "sky island"--an area of green majestic forest surrounded by unyielding dry desert. We drove up the mountain road to the campground below Wheeler Peak, which is at 9908'. By the time we got there, it was already dark, and at that high, even in Nevada, it can be very cold. But the stars were incredible. There was no moon and we were at the end of a meteor shower, so hundreds and hundreds of stars glittered overhead, and often large shooting stars raced across the sky. This is a superb place to go stargazing, so far away from any real cities and so high up.
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| Wheeler Peak |
After a chilly night, I awoke in amazement to the view around me. We could tell the night before that the area we were in was pretty, but we had no idea that it was this pretty. As opposed to Utah, Fall here among the aspens was in full force. I walked out of my tent to the sight of immense the first rays of the sun penetrating through dense and immense green pines and bright yellow aspens. It seemed that all the forest was bathed in a heavenly yellow glow.
Bristlecones are so old because they grow super slowly and have extremely tough bark. They also thrive in adversity, growing where no other trees would--on the top of ridgelines, where the wind is extremely strong. Because of their strength, they also take hundreds of years to die and instead of decaying like other trees, they are merely eroded by wind and water over time, leaving gnarled and stark silhouettes. There are so many lessons and metaphors for life from this tree that I won't even bother explaining them!
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| This picture refuses to orient itself the right way, even though the picture I uploaded was rotated right. If anyone knows what to do, let me know! |
The Glacier
The object of the hike was to reach the rock glacier at the cirque of Wheeler Peak. A cirque is where a glacier has carved right up to the base of a mountain and formed a half-bowl-shaped valley. This cirque does not have any ice glaciers on it any more, but there is a lot of ice underneath some of the loose boulders, which causes them to inch forward at millimeters each year, making a rock glacier! We got to a spot where we had a good view of the glacier, and time was running out for us to turn around, for we had an 11:00 appointment to go to Lehman Caves. Some in the group decided to turn around and mosey back to the cars, and some wanted to go further and closer to the rock glacier. If you know me, you will know which group I was in.
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| The cirque! Wheeler Peak is in the middle right, and the rock glaciers are the mounds of rock at the bottom of the valley. |
I went forward as fast as I could, for it was getting close to 9:15, and we were supposed to be back at the vans at 10:15 in order to make it to the caves. As time went on, I was getting farther and farther ahead of the group, and I was getting more and more tense, as I knew I had to hurry, but it also seemed that if I would just make it over one more rock pile, I would have an astonishing view. So I kept going, now beyond the trail, over and over these huge rock piles. I thought one was the end, but above it there was another, and another, and another. I finally reached the highest point in the cirque, and the view was much the same as other places, albeit amazing. Now, though, it was 9:36 am, and I had to make it over 2.5 miles back to the vans in 45 minutes, the first part bounding over huge boulders, which is always slow going.
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| Panoramic view, southeast to northeast, from the top of the cirque. |
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| Alluvial fans made of ice between the cliffs leading up to Wheeler Peak. |
The view was incredible, so I took a few pictures of the giant cliffs. These cliffs had fan-shaped dirty ice fields at the bottom, they were immense and impressive, and some small rocks fell down, echoing across the valley, but I was in a huge hurry and had to turn away. I was nearly in a panic as I was realizing how far away from the bottom I was, and I went down the trail faster than I have ever gone down any. I did not want to make people wait, but I also knew it was a near hopeless cause, since when I started I was nearly 20 minutes behind the group. Out of breath, I arrived at the bottom, where only my teacher was still waiting. He said that if we were to leave right then, we would likely make it to the cave appointment on time, but we were still waiting on one person.
The Not Caves
After a while of waiting and trying to contact the vans which were already driving down the mountain towards the caves, we figured out 20 minutes later that we in fact were not waiting on the kid, but he was in the van where he was supposed to be! So we got in the car and headed down to the caves, knowing that we had missed the appointment and I would not be able to go to the caves. This was quite frustrating, and I knew the exact reasons why I had missed an opportunity to go to the caves. Half of it was my fault, for if I had not gone far ahead to climb the rock glacier, I would have been down with the rest of the group and gone to the caves. However, if there was not bad communication about who was still up on the mountain, and we had left as soon as I had gotten down, I could likely have been to the caves.
I tried not to be disappointed and frustrated, but that was hard seeing as I had missed out on a great opportunity to see some incredible caves for free. However, being in those mountains, with the aspens shining colors I had never seen (red aspens???) and among magnificent pines and alpine views, it was a bit harder to be sad.
So there I sat in the Visitor's Center, having missed the cave tour by minutes for reasons that were and were not my fault. But it turned out to be a good experience. I learned a lot more about the park, reading nearly everything in the Visitor's Center. I went on a nice little walk on a nature trail through pinyon pine and juniper. And after taking a short nap in the sun, a very nice stranger started a conversation with me, and it turned out we had a lot in common. So all in all, it was an incredible experience and I learned a lot, both geologically and spiritually.
The Lessons
So what did I learn from this experience? It was my choices that prevented me from seeing the cave. I have still yet to figure out whether or not I did the right thing in going further up the rock glacier, but that choice did prevent me from a potentially wonderful experience. The fact is, in life we have only limited time. In this life, we are not able to do everything that we want to, and instead must choose the best things for us to do. What can we do that would make the most use of our time, what would be the best use of our talents? Furthermore, what would God want us to do? I have learned time and time again that doing what God wants us to do will give us infinitely more happiness than doing what we want to do. He is our Father: He wants to make us happy, and if we listen to His voice, He will lead us to what will bring us the most happiness.
We should not think that somehow everything will turn out all right without any effort on our part. If we dawdle around and do not do what we ought to, the day will come when we arrive back on the road and the vans have already left. We cannot procrastinate our repentance (Alma 34:32-33), saying tomorrow or next year or next month I will be better, I will apologize, I will stop my bad habits, for perhaps when tomorrow comes the van will have left, gone on to a better place, and you will not be on it.
If you missed the van and the cave tour, however, do not despair! Perhaps it is not your fault you missed out on a great opportunity--if something happens that is not your fault, and you feel life is not going how you would wish it to, perhaps this is part of God's plan for you. Perhaps you are meant to do something different, perhaps there is someone in your current path you need to talk to, perhaps you need to learn more about the park before continuing. Everything happens for a reason, and God guides our lives often more than we give Him credit for. So if you are on a path that is not your favorite, perhaps consider stopping the complaining and looking instead for what God expects you to learn on this new path.
The take-home message from this post should be to trust in God and do what He asks. Christ has been compared to a fountain of living waters. On this trip, we visited a spring in the desert. The area all around was filled with shrubby junipers and pinyon pines and the ground was barren, but all of a sudden a river surrounded by green literally appeared out of the ground. Christ can bring happiness, joy and life to the most barren land, the most distraught soul, so trust Him and follow Him.
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| A few steps away from Rowland Spring. |
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| Rowland Spring, living water in the desert. |
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