The Lehman Cave – a must see

Nestled along the Utah/Nevada border is a little known national park, Great Basin National Park, 90 miles west of Delta, Utah, and on the outskirts of Baker, Nevada. With snow still blocking the roads to the trailheads near 10,000 feet through the Bristlecone forest, the guided tour through the Lehman Cave thrilled me and my family.

The cave was discovered by Absolom S. Lehman about 1881 when his horse stepped into a vent from the cave while he was looking for gold near his ranch. One story is that the native people warned Lehman of a little man with a blue beard who guarded the cave from people exploring it as it was a sacred cave of the dead, which the natives used for burial of their loved ones.

Lehman soon turned the cave into a tourist attraction and sold candles that were guaranteed to last for five hours. Visitors broke off rock formations for souvenirs and sold them to other tourists. One large room was cleared of most of the formations to create a bar and dance hall during Prohibition.

In 1922, the cave was established as the Lehman Caves National Monument by President Warren G. Harding with President Ronald Reagan creating the Great Basin National Park. The park covers 76,000 acres and has around 40 caves in the park and surrounding areas.

Entrance to the .54 mile cave is limited to the public led by a guide who explains in great detail the history and the creation of the main cave. It has many unique features including bulbous stalactites, shields and anthodites. Many of the formations broken off about a hundred years ago are starting to repair as they have a new growth of about one inch long and a diameter of a quarter of an inch. Some of the most interesting formations are the huge curtains that cover some of the walls.

The temperature stays a constant 50 degrees and is the home of bats, pack rats and eye-less white amphipods including a freshwater shrimp called the White Pine amphipod. Pack rat middens (rats droppings and their collections) almost four feet deep have been studied and show plant species and animals that no longer exist in the area.

After taking the 90 minute paid tour and a leisurely picnic, we tried some hikes on the outside, but rain cut our hike along Baker Creek and the Gray Cliffs a little short. Wild life abounds in the park with ground squirrels and mule deer commonly seen.

Birds are everywhere enjoying the early spring with Broad-tailed hummingbirds, Mountain chickadees, Pinyon jays and Clark’s nutcrackers commonly seen. At one time we had three different turkey gobblers calling at the same time and both the Green-tailed and Spotted Towhees appeared in the local trees.

If your travels ever take you close to the Great Basin National Park, you will find a forest island including 13,000 foot-snowcapped mountains in the middle of a huge barren desert. I was intrigued by a bookmark “Advice from the Great Basin” at the gift shop.

“Find Beauty All Around You. Be Ready for Adventure. Think in Light Years. Be a Part of Something Greater. Cherish Wild Spaces. Keep a Sense of Wonder. Take a Hike.”
Don’t forget to explore the underground and see if you see a little man with a blue beard. We didn’t, but the experience was worth the trip across the desert.