I got up early this morning and took these pics of the sunrise from my hotel room window in Ely, Nevada:

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From the first time I spotted the town of Ely, Nevada on a map, I have always figured it would be pronounced like E. Lie (as in: ‘e not tell truth, ‘e lie!). I was wrong. The locals pronounce it as E. Lee, as if they’re describing something that tastes too much like an eel. Then there’s the Lehman Caves. I thought the name would be pronounced “Layman” or maybe “Lemon”. (Come to think of it, “The Lemon Caves” sounds like a good name for a children’s book.) But again, I was wrong. The locals pronounce it “Leeman”. So, if you’re ever traveling in eastern Nevada, keep this simple rule in mind: “Whatever the Hell the vowels may be, you should pronounce it like it’s Lee.” My apologies to the Tootsie Roll marketing department. Wait, why am I talking about Tootsie Rolls in a Parkinson’s travel blog? I’m not; I’m talking about caves.

What, you may ask, is my level of experience with cave tours? Well, I’ve never been to any of the REALLY big caves (Carlsbad, Mammoth), but I’ve been to at least 20 caves scattered around the U.S., and the Lehman Caves tour is definitely one of the best of them. This is largely because it’s so “intimate”. In most caves, the really cool formations are seen from a respectable distance. In Lehman, you’re standing right next to many of them. And there are LOADS of formations. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so many formations packed so closely together. Perhaps even more impressive is the density of formations that are no longer there. Y’see, this is one of those cave systems where, in the olden days, tourists were encouraged to break off a piece to take home as a souvenir. As a result, there are incredibly dense concentrations of little nubboes, which are all that’s left of a virtual forest of stalactites. Still, there’s more than enough left to make it worthwhile. But the aforementioned intimacy includes multiple, relatively long passages where you must contort yourself to get through – more than I’ve seen on any other walking tour. (I’ve never gone on any of the more advanced caving / exploration tours.) So, while I’d certainly recommend Lehman Caves to most folks (make sure you buy your tickets in advance), I probably would not recommend this tour to many of the Parkinson’s patients I know.

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I had selected the first cave tour of the day to allow myself plenty of time to hike and otherwise explore Great Basin National Park (which the caves are part of). But there was one thing I wasn’t counting on: snow. When I left Las Vegas, I knew I’d end up about 200 miles farther north. I did not know that I would also be gaining a mile in elevation. To make matters worse, it was an exceptionally windy day. With all the trails (and most of the scenic loop road) snowbound, there really wasn’t anything else to do. I tried walking the scenic loop road but didn’t get very far before the wind and cold were just too much. I did at least capture these images along the way:

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At that point, I headed back to Ely, snapping these last couple of pics, looking back at the mountains of Great Basin National Park:

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On my return to Ely, I pretty much just watched basketball for the rest of the day. And I’m not fully sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow…