Enjoying Nevada’s Summer Greens

Enjoying Nevada’s Summer Greens

June 2026

Photo by Kim Clawson

Starting June 1, I spent three nights camping at Great Basin National Park. Great Basin is a high-elevation park. Many of the points of interest and hiking trails are over 10,000 feet above sea level! I was surprised by the variety of plant and animal life in the park.

I love the lead photo because of the variety of greens on the mountain. The mosaic of dark green pine trees, light green aspens (some still without leaves), shrubs, and juniper trees surrounding a small grassy meadow caught and held my attention.

Photo by Kim Clawson

Nevada isn’t exactly known for lush green vegetation. In fact, in the book Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, the author calls the Great Basin (which covers most of Nevada) “a study in pastels.” Alkali-crusted lakebeds, cheatgrass-covered hills, ancient lava flows, and clay soils dominate the scenery — until travelers venture into Nevada’s many mountain ranges.

There, several species of pine trees, evergreen shrubs, and juniper trees take over. In the photo above, the dark green junipers contrast with the pastel colors of the desert below, in the area surrounding Baker, Nevada, near the Utah/Nevada border.

Photo by Kim Clawson

On June 10, I attended our administrator’s retirement party at Spooner Lake State Park, part of the larger Lake Tahoe area. This deserves a separate post, but wildflowers were in full bloom, and even though the lake was low, the green trees and grasses were a nice break from the hot desert.

Photo by Kim Clawson

I took the photo above on Tuesday, June 16, through my office window. A Swallowtail butterfly was visiting the marigolds that I planted in the same wine barrel with a bunch of columbines. The columbines had already finished blooming, but their leaves were still green. I thought they looked nice beside the yellow marigolds.

Photo by Kim Clawson

I took the opportunity to explore a new area near the Carson River closer to home on June 22. Now that it’s officially summer, anything naturally green in the lower elevations is going to be close to a creek, stream, or river.

These tarantula hawks are drinking nectar from a showy milkweed growing along an irrigation ditch. The area we were exploring had three kinds of milkweed, lots of pollinators, and a few other wildflowers still blooming.

I think living in a desert makes me appreciate green vegetation more than I would living in a wetter climate. I always enjoy time in the mountains and along the river, especially during the dry heat of the summer.