Island Forest Trail - Great Basin National Park - Nevada - Self Guided Walks and Trails on Waymarking.com

The trail begins at the Bristlecone-Alpine Lakes Trailhead where there is a large parking lot with an interpretive kiosk and rest rooms. The wheelchair accessible trail is 0.4 miles long (round trip) with four interpretive signs.

A Mountain of Influence
The forest here stands on the rubble of glacial outwash. During the last ice age, 20,000 to 11,000 years ago, glaciers emanated from Wheeler Peak and lay heavily on the landscape. With the colder temperatures of that period, Engelmann spruce and limber pine forests were found much farther downslope, living at 6,000 feet. As temperatures rose and glaciers retreated, so rose the conifer forest.
Because Wheeler Peak is so tall (13,063 feet), it creates its own weather. Moist air blows from the west and cools as it is forced to rise over the peak. As it rises, clouds form. The clouds drop rain or snow mostly on the mountain’s western side. But enough moisture falls on the eastern, leeward side to sustain these high mountain forests and fill many of the park’s streams year-round.

Trickledown Effect
The glacier-carved walls of Wheeler Peak funnel rain and snowmelt into this mountain valley. Like a catch basin, Teresa Lake collects and holds much of the runoff. At the base of the lake, water slowly drains and flows downslope beneath the surface. Not far upstream from here the water emerges from the ground and feeds this small, rippling creek. The water spills into larger Lehman Creek, which courses its way down the mountain, emptying into Snake Valley near the town of Baker—where it is diverted for irrigation use for farms and ranches.

An Island Isolated
“In the Great Basin, distance may be less fearsome than topography; isolation is a key word. A plant or animal finding itself isolated on an island mountain . . . must cope with a surrounding sea of unlivable landscape.” Stephen Trimble, The Sagebrush Ocean
The many plants and animals found within this forest and along this meandering creek are almost completely cut off from others of their kind. The forbidding landscape that surrounds the Snake Range inhibits all but wind-borne plants, wing-borne animals, and large mammals from finding their way here today.
Eleven thousand years ago at the close of the last glacial period, rich, wet forests like this one occupied valley areas. As the climate warmed, basin forests migrated upward to cooler temperatures and dependable moisture. Stranded, these mountain forests—and all they contained—became islands unto themselves.

Forest Gaps
The gaps you see in this forest were created by a lightning-caused fire. Look around and you’ll notice fire scars on the trunks of several mature trees. Fire is a natural process that helps maintain diversity in plant and animal habitats. Its cleansing and culling action releases nutrients into the soil and renews and invigorates aging forests.
After fire burned these openings in this spruce-pine forest, abundant sunlight flooded in and quickly encouraged grasses and wildflowers to grow. Next, the small grove of aspen trees in front of you, at the edge of the trail, began to sprout and fill the opening. When these aspens are 80 to 100 years old their canopy will provide enough shade for young spruce and pine trees to grow. The aspens will give way to the conifers, which will reclaim the ground until the next lightning strike sparks the cycle again.

Fee?: 0.00 (listed in local currency) Approximate Time to Finish: 1/2 hour Addtional Website URL: [Web Link] Brochure or Interpretive Signs: Interpretive Plaques/Signs Rate the Walk: Wherigo Cartridge: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
A picture at the start of the Trail or Walk is greatly appreciated. Additional photos taken during the course of the walk would also be of great benefit.

If there does not appear to be a defined beginning to the trail or walk, pick a logical place (e.g. close to parking) or where information about the walk or trail can be gathered.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   09/30/2016 Volcanoguy visited it