The Great Basin

Baker to Milford

Yesterday we got to Baker (and Great Basin National Park) around 5 PM.  We drove up to the summit (10,000 feet), where we went on a little hike and saw 4,000 year old bristlecone pine trees!  After our nature walk, we headed down to Upper Lehman Creek campground, where we stayed for the night.  The next morning, we went spelunking in the Lehman Caves, about 10 miles from our campsite.  Our guide kept talking about the shield formations in the cave (which appear in fewer than 60 of the caves in the US) and we walked through several caverns.  We saw one shield that sort of looked like a wedding altar, where, apparently, people used to get married.  An underground wedding doesn’t evoke thoughts of happiness and celebration, but hey, to each his own.

I then headed to the visitor center of Great Basin National Park, as the 100 people who inhabit Baker seem to all work at the visitor center.  There was an aluminum can recycling bin outside of the center, which surprised me.  It was the first sign of recycling I’ve seen since Fallon!  Inside, I spoke with one of the visitor center employees, Linda, who told me a bit about Baker and its waste management practices.  When she first moved to Baker about 10 years ago, the first two things she looked for were “a Christian church and a recycling program.”  Putting recycling right up there with religion?  I approve.  

Unfortunately, Linda didn’t find a recycling program in Baker due to (surprise, surprise) its location and isolation from any recycling centers.  She mentioned how wasteful she felt disposing of recyclables.  “If only there were some way to put cans and bottles on the back of a truck so the trucks that are coming and going anyway could haul them to a recycling center,” she said.  

As for Linda’s personal waste disposal, she burns much of her organic wastes (tree branches, yard clippings, paper) in her backyard.  Most of her food waste goes down the garbage disposal in her sink.  She says she feels bad about burning trash, but that many of her neighbors do the same.  I asked if she knew anyone who composted, and she said that she knew of people composting, but couldn’t give me any concrete examples.

After leaving Baker, I crossed the Utah border and headed to Milford.  State number three!