The Great Western Loop: Stalactites and Stalagmites

The Lehman Caves are probably the biggest attraction in Great Basin NP. The caves were discovered in the 1880s by Absalom Lehman. Before becoming a National Monument and later part of the National Park, the caves were used for a variety of things to include private tours, weddings and even as a Speak Easy during the Prohibition.

Unlike most cave systems that only have a handful of shield formations, the Lehman caves have over 300 of these rare formations. You can see the aptly named Parachute shield formation in the center of the photo below.

The longest tour of the cave is the Grand Palace Tour and takes about 90 minutes. All of the tours sell out weeks in advance, so if you want to explore this very unique place, make sure to plan ahead.

With our cave tour tour complete we started heading east towards Moab. Due to the late start and a quick trip into town to resupply, we used the iOverland app to find us a decent campsite not to far from the highway to call home for the night.