Wheeler Peak Campground
National Park Service - Great Basin National Park
Longitude -114.30664, Latitude 39.01143

Spectacular! Drive up the scenic Wheeler Peak Drive and step into another facet of Nevada. You start in semi-desert areas with sagebrush, piñon pines and junipers. Keep climbing and they give way to spruce and Douglas fir. Up top it is extremely beautiful with quaking aspen, limber pine and spruce intermingling in a dense forest, uncharacteristic of Nevada. This whole mountain looks as if it were transplanted out of Colorado somewhere.

The campground is large and sites are well spaced among the trees and some edge two meadows. Facilities are good and clean. Water is provided, but may be turned off late and early in the season.

Wildlife abounds in this protected habitat. We had mule deer come right down into our campsite. There are awesome hikes out of camp, some short, some long and strenuous, but all very rewarding. Hike to the Bristlecone Pine Forest, the oldest living things on earth, or the Alpine Lake tour, or top it out at Wheeler Peak, the second highest point in Nevada. Reviewed SEP98, JUL03.