We just returned from visiting the North Rim at Grand Canyon and Great Basin NP. North Rim is a welcome change to the crowds at the South Rim. Lightly visited but all the comforts of home. Campground was well maintained and spacious, good camp store and plenty to do (or not do) for several days.
For some reason, I've had an urge to visit Great Basin NP inspite of the fact that it's a good two day drive from anyplace. I'm an amateur geologist so the drive from Cedar City, UT to Baker, NV was spectacular. Living in SoCal, I was wondering if there was anyplace one could call the "wide, open spaces". WOW, there still is and it's right in the middle of east/central Nevada!
Baker is the jumping off point for Great Basin and is a town with no stoplights, one gas station, a couple bars and a small grocery store ("Hamburger? We might have some later today when Fred gets back from Ely"! Hmmm...). Anyway, we stayed at Whispering Pines for the full hookups and spent two days wandering the National Park and touring the Lehman Caves which are only a couple miles away. Can't tell you much about the park's campgrounds except that there are three (uncrowded in mid-August), shaded and the middle one is arranged around a 12 month creek. Baker struck me as kind of a cool town with a little bit of a funky, bohemian streak. I liked it so much, I shot them an email after we got home inquiring about hosting next summer.
Probably the best part of the trip was an unplanned detour to Ely to check out the Northern Nevada Railway. We got there too late for the train ride which didn't seem like too big a deal anyway, but we got in on the daily tour of the shops. WOW! The railway is preserved much as it was in the 1920's. Same buildings, same equipment, and much of the same motive power and rolling stock. The best part, they seem to have plenty of cash because they're actively rebuilding many of their old steam locomotives. Very cool if you like that sort of thing!
I did not know about Great Basin Nat'l Park. Seems nice. I looked it up to see about the campgrounds in the park: 
DesertHawk- Las Cruces, NM USA 
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