We stayed in a hotel in Ely. There aren't many reliable hotels closer to the park. Unfortunately, that meant an hour drive to and from the park, so we didn't have time for much else on Thursday. Friday morning we returned to the park, and my brother Ben, Nate, and I headed out on a 5.5 mile loop hike going up Timber Creek Trail and heading down the South Fork Baker Creek Trail. This was a very pleasant mostly shady trail that followed the creeks along much of the way.
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| Here we are with Pyramid Peak behind us. |
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| Here is Ben with Pyramid Peak behind him. |
There were also a lot of wildflowers along this trail, including shooting stars, columbines, blue bells, and lupines among others. The flowers obviously attracted a lot of butterflies, which frequented flower patches and often fluttered past us.
Meanwhile, Austin headed out with my parents and two aunts on a shorter loop trail along the Baker Creek Trail. We all finished our respective hikes close to the same time, and then headed to a picnic area for lunch.
After lunch, Austin, Ben, Nate, and I drove up towards Wheeler Peak and hiked the Bristlecone Trail. This trail lead us past a glacial till and a view of the aptly named Brown Lake before taking us to a grove of ancient Bristlecone Pine trees.
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| Glacial Till |
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| View of Wheeler Peak from the ancient Bristlecone Pine Grove |
Unfortunately, we didn't have time after the Bristlecone Trail to take the Alpine Lakes Loop Trail that I had really wanted to do. However, we did still drop by Teresa Lake briefly before heading back.
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| Teresa Lake |
Saturday we drove to Garnet Hill in Ely. It isn't at all difficult to find garnets there, though we didn't find any large ones. We didn't stay to long, but we had fun chipping away and filling bags with garnet filled stones. After that, we headed home.
