Great Basin National Park is excited to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service and the First Light of the Great Basin Observatory with the telescope donated by the Niggli Family.
The celebration begins at 1:00pm. Arrive early and park at the Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker, NV and take the free shuttle. There will be no public parking available at the ceremony site. Shuttles begin running at noon.
Come and celebrate with us and enjoy special guest speakers at the ceremony, be a part of the time capsule burial and enjoy lantern light cave tours of Lehman Caves.
After the ceremony we will be having birthday cake at the Great Basin Visitor Center and solar scopes set up for safely viewing the sun. Tyler Nordgren will give an astronomy presentation at 3:30 in the Great Basin Classroom.
Schedule:
On August 25, the National Park Service will celebrate its 100th birthday. Parks, monuments and other sites all over the country will be celebrating and Great Basin National Park is no exception!
Come out and join us for a festive afternoon filled with cake, guest speakers and a ribbon cutting for our new observatory. We’ll also be burying a time capsule and hosting a star party! See the event schedule below.
LANTERN LIGHT CAVE TOURS
All Day
Lehman Cave Visitor Center, Great Basin National Park
Make cave tour reservations at www.recreation.gov or call 1-877-444-6777
TIME CAPSULE BURIAL and FIRST LIGHT CEREMONY
1:00pm to 2:00pm
Celebrate the future of the National Park Service and Great Basin National Park with the burial of a time capsule that will be buried on the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service and dug-up for the 50th Anniversary of Great Basin National Park in 2036. You will also be there for the ribbon cutting for the Great Basin Observatory, an outstanding research class observatory.
Park at the Great Basin Visitor Center in Baker, NV and take a free shuttle up to the Ceremony site. There is no parking at the site. Shuttles will begin running at noon.
BIRTHDAY CAKE
2:45 until it is gone!
Great Basin Visitor Center, Baker, NV
Join Park Superintendent Steve Mietz, Congressman Cresent Hardy, Governor Brian Sandoval and our Centennial Senior Ranger as they blow out the birthday candles and have a cupcake!
SECIAL ASTROMY PRESENTATION with TYLER NORDGREN
3:30pm – 4:30pm
Great Basin Classroom, Baker, NV
Join Tyler for an out of this world presentation on the night skies and darkness.
SOLAR VIEWING
3:30pm to 5:00pm
Look safely at the sun through a solar telescope. Astronomy experts, like Cameron Pace from Southern Utah University and Mike Hoffart from Concordia University and Great Basin’s own Dark Rangers will be there to tell you about the prominences and flares you might be seeing.
STAR PARTY
8:00pm to 10:30pm
Enjoy looking through the telescopes to see the stars and other celestial bodies. Ask Dark Ranger questions about the constellations and the importance of protecting dark night skies.
