High Desert Lessons and the Patience of Ancient Things

The high desert has its own rhythm, and we are learning to move with it. This week took us along "The Loneliest Road in America" (Highway 50) into Nevada's hidden country at Great Basin National Park, a place that teaches patience through ancient things. While many travelers rush past Nevada on their way to somewhere else, we are discovering the beauty in staying, in looking closer, and in letting this stark landscape teach us about endurance and scale.

At 10,000 feet, the park holds its own weather system with cooler air and less oxygen. Ancient bristlecone pines, some more than 4,000 years old, grow out of limestone like living monuments to endurance. We spent three days among these rocks and trees, and the slow approach we are practicing made sense here.

🎥 Watch our full Great Basin experience: Exploring Great Basin National Park: Ancient Pines, Dark Skies & The Loneliest Road in America

Gear Check: Our 2017 Subaru Outback car camping setup was put to the test. Overnight temperatures dropped to 35°F while Reno reached 87°F the same day, a swing of more than fifty degrees in a six-hour drive. Our Kelty Tru.Comfort Doublewide Sleeping Bag and Luno Car Window Screens kept us comfortable, but cooking above 9,000 feet was a new challenge. Altitude changes more than breathing.

Workflow Discoveries: Writing from our mobile office with no cell service forced us fully offline. There is clarity in being disconnected, without the reflex to check facts or messages. The stories feel more complete when they are allowed to develop naturally.

February Prep Update: We are testing our mobile office in progressively remote locations. Great Basin's limited connectivity was good practice for regions with patchy internet. In town, we could complete basic tasks, but real-time research and cloud backups were not possible. Our Samsung Portable SSD T7 (2TB) proved helpful for safeguarding files off-grid.

The Lehman Caves Story: In 1885, rancher Absalom Lehman was chasing a cow, or so the story goes, when he discovered what would become one of Nevada's remarkable underground galleries. The Shoshone people had known of caves in the area for generations, but Lehman's documentation drew scientific attention to the formations.

Why It Matters: The caves carry layers of Nevada history: geological, indigenous, and pioneer. Lehman charged visitors fifty cents for tours (about $12 today), creating one of the state's earliest tourist attractions. The lesson holds: the best Nevada experiences are hidden and require intention to find.

The Bristlecone Connection: These trees survive only in rare conditions: high elevation, limestone soil, severe weather. They add millimeters a year. Some here began growing when Egypt was building pyramids. Touching 4,000-year-old bark while planning a two-year journey adjusts one's sense of time.

Highway 50 Road Trip: 

• Campground (2 nights): $70 • Lehman Cave Tour: $24 • Gas (round trip): $75 • Camp food and hiking snacks: $125 (freeze-dried meals carry a premium) • America the Beautiful Annual Pass: $80 per year (already owned) • Gear replacements (headlamp batteries, stove fuel): $12 • Dining out (Ely, NV): $30

Lake Tahoe: 

• Gas (round trip): $20 • Nevada State Parks day use permit: $100 per year (already owned) or $10 per day at Sand Harbor • Lunch: packed sandwiches and fruit: $20

Practical Discovery: Highway 50 rewards detours. Historic small towns (Austin, Eureka, Ely), Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park (Beehive-shaped stone kilns from Nevada’s silver mining era), Stokes Castle (Three-story stone tower built in 1897 as a summer retreat), and Sand Mountain (two-mile-long, 600-foot-high singing sand dune) are all worth the stop.

We are building a backpack-portable kit that lets us film, record clean audio, and protect footage without a production crew. The core is a phone-first camera (planning to upgrade from the iPhone 13 Pro to an iPhone 17 Pro this winter), a compact Joby GripTight GrorillaPod MagSafe Tripod for stable shots, our new DJI Mic 2 external portable mic for voice clarity, and a small Ulanzi VL49 on-camera light for dawn and evening. Footage is mirrored to a Samsung Portable SSD T7 (2TB) in the field, then backed up when on Wi-Fi. Power stays simple with an Epicka Universal Travel Adapter and a lightweight Anker Power Bank.

The philosophy is straightforward: stay light, protect your work, and use tools that perform without slowing you down.

We are using affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy through them at no extra cost to you. We only recommend gear we’ve tested and genuinely use.

Ely, Nevada: The Smash N Grab inside the Jailhouse Casino serves hand-formed smashburgers with house-cut fries. Owners Nicholas Sheehan and Ely native Tasha Leon run a small, family operation that feels exactly right after a long day on the road and offers the fuel needed for the next day's hike.

High Desert Cooking: At 10,000 feet, water boils faster but food takes longer. Our Jetboil MiniMo handled our freeze-dried meals, but they needed about fifteen minutes instead of eight. Coffee tasted sharper and more intense; Verve Coffee Roasters Craft Instant did the job well. These altitude adjustments will transfer to high-altitude places like Andean cities such as Quito (Ecuador), La Paz (Bolivia), and Cusco (Peru).

Great Basin National Park

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Coming Next Week:

Questions We Are Exploring:

Looking Ahead: What begins in the Sierra continues in September with Zion, Yosemite, and Las Vegas.

Time moves differently in the high desert. Beside a 4,000-year-old pine, our life journey feels brief. These trees have weathered ice ages, droughts, and wind by growing slowly, adapting constantly, and staying rooted in hard but beautiful places.

That is guidance worth carrying: pursuing depth that honors God’s timing, practicing observation that reveals His creation, and living with presence that reflects His peace. The most remarkable moments often live between destinations, in the places that ask us to slow down, stay awhile, and bring glory to our Creator.

Until next week,
S&S