I noticed that we would be passing it when I made our travel plans, so I looked up some information about it online and found out that Great Basin was one of the best places in the continental US to see the milky way. Once we realized that the sky was going to stay clear for the evening, we decided to camp instead of staying in a hotel. It was a great decision and we found a campsite right near a raging creek. The sound was so peaceful and the kids had a great time playing on the rocks around the creek the next morning.
We arrived rather late and had to set up camp in the dark, but Alain set up a fire as soon as we finished setting up the tent so that we could have marshmallows over the campfire. The marshmallows were the most stale things we've ever tried in our lives, so we had to cook them a little longer than normal. After marshmallows, the kids went straight to bed. I think it must have been after 10pm Pacific Time.
Alain and I stayed up and laid down on blankets just to watch the stars after the kids went to bed. We saw at least 10 shooting stars (which is a record for both of us). It was unbelievably beautiful and the Milky Way was so perfectly clear. We also drove up Wheeler Mountain (highest peak between Rockies and the Sierras) and had the most amazing view of the Great Basin below as the sun was setting. They had a campground at near the top of the mountain (around 10,000 feet). The summit is actually at 13,000 feet, so it's still a bit of a hike to get to the top. It was a beautiful campground and I told Alain that I would love to come back here and camp! It's a dream campground for sure, but it was full so we had to find our other campsite down closer to 7600 feet. It was nice and chilly. . . perfect for camping in the summer!
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