Desert city with water shortage
According to Acronymmonster, Las Vegas in Nevada is known all over the world as a gambling city. Casino after casino follows hotel along the “Las Vegas Strip”, a modern boulevard. The city of Las Vegas is located in a desert landscape in southern Nevada. Most of the city’s drinking water has come from Lake Mead.
Las Vegas – Casino Bellagio in the back, Caesars Palace in the front
As the largest city in Navada, Gambler’s Paradise is home to around 600,000 people and the extended metropolitan area is home to around 1.8 million.
Las Vegas an artificially created dream world
The steady increase in population of Las Vegas, as well as more than 40 million tourists and gamblers per year in the city, have greatly exacerbated the desert city’s water problem.
Anyone who reaches the city of Las Vegas from the dry desert of Nevada can see how great the effort must be to keep a functioning city alive in the middle of a desert landscape.
Hotel New York, New York with Casino in Las Vegas
Las Vegas is also known for its gigantic stage shows. Stars from all over the world gave and give each other a hand. Also known are the “Wedding Chapels” in Las Vegas. There you can get married quickly and easily, usually with a lot of American kitsch around it.
Water was never plentiful
The first settlement in what is now Las Vegas was established by the Mormons in 1854. The first water requirement could be covered by standing groundwater in depressions, which had been pushed to the surface. After a few years, however, the Mormons left the place.
Luxor Hotel and Casino – Pyramid in Las Vegas
Waypoint in the desert on the way west
Fort Baker was built on the same site by the military around 1865. From then on, the fort, the resulting settlement, was an important waypoint and stopping point for settlers on their way to California. At the beginning of the 20th century, plots of land in today’s urban area were then sold to “investors”. This ultimately gave rise to what is now the city of Las Vegas in all its “splendour”.
Great Basin National Park – Nevada – USA
Valley surrounded by mountains
The Great Basin National Park is located in the US state of Nevada in the southwest of the United States. The Great Basin National Park was founded in 1987. The area of the protected area is 312 km². Up to 80,000 visitors come to Great Basin Nationa Park, located near the Utah state border in White Pine County, every year.
Road up into the mountainous region of Great Basin National Park
The name of the national park comes from the Great Basin – desert, in which the national park is located. The Great Basin is a drainless, desert-like depression between the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east of the Great Basin.
Wheeler Peak and Stalactite Caves
The mountain ” Wheeler Peak ” stands like a white-green island in a mountain range in the surrounding desert. At the foot of the Wheeler Peaks are the stalactite caves ” Lehmann Caves”. Guided tours of the Lehmann Caves are offered. Extensive forests (aspen, Douglas fir, oak, pine) also exist in the Great Basin National Park. An alpine tundra landscape characterizes the overall landscape of the protected area. There are also numerous lush meadows and lakes, such as Stella Lake, in the Great Basin National Park.
Abandoned farm in Great Basin National Park in Nevada
In Rattlesnake Country
Due to the dry and mostly hot climate in the Basin, primarily heat-loving animal species such as snakes, but also many insect species, have settled in the national park. The dangerous rattlesnake feels very comfortable in the Great Basin National Park. Mugwort is the most common plant found on desert soil. The Great Basin plain is exceptionally dry. However, the very high mountains bordering the basin are mostly covered with snow all year round. In between there are more or less tree-covered mountain slopes.
Coming from Las Vegas, immediately after the entrance to the Great Basin National Park, a scenic drive leads up into the mountains. From up there, the view and distant view of the desert, mountains and forests is excellent.
Camping in the Great Basin National Park
There are four restroom campgrounds in Great Basin National Park. The campsites are quite small and not particularly comfortably equipped. For those who like it even easier, you can set up or park your tent or RV at Snake River or Strawberry Creek Road.
Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park in Nevada
There the only comforts are the benches, tables and a ring of fire. One should not underestimate the desert climate. During the day it gets very hot, at night it gets bitterly cold. The town of Ely is the closest to the Great Basin National Park.
Pines – oldest living things in the world
A pine tree (Pinus longaeva) in Great Basin National Park is said to be the oldest known living thing (3,000 years). The oldest of the pines was around 4,900 years old. Unfortunately, the historically important tree called ” Prometheus ” was felled in 1960, before the national park was established.
