Getting Oriented

One of the smallest and least crowded national parks in the country (77,180 acres), Great Basin National Park, in eastern Nevada, occupies only a minute fraction of the almost 200,000 square mi of the Great Basin desert—yet it exemplifies the landscape and ecology of the region. This high desert (4,500-6,200 feet in elevation), the largest desert in the United States, is bordered by the Sierra Nevada Range, the Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Plateau, and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. It covers 75% of the state of Nevada and extends into California, Utah, and Idaho.