Utah and Nevada’s Great Basin

Light from the rising full moon illuminates Wheeler Peak and Stella Lake, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Autumn star trails over Notch Peak, House Range, Utah. The mountains are lit by the light of a first quarter moon.

Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Wheeler Peak by full moonlight, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Admiring a several thousand-year-old Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) in Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Sky pilot (Polemonium viscosum) in a glacial cirque beneath Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, shields, and other speleothems (cave formations) abound in Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

A Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) feeds from a crimson columbine (Aquilegia formosa) along Baker Creek, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

A twisted and contorted Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) on the slopes of Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Bizarre and grotesque cave formations in Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

The House Range and Notch Peak (right of center) at sunset, Utah

Early-season ice accumulation along Lehman Creek, Great Basin National Park, Nevada

$Small stalactites aligned with fracture patterns in the limestone$

Baby stalactites on the ceiling of Lehman Caves trace out fracture patterns in the Pole Canyon Limestone, Great Basin National Park