CARSON CITY, Nev. — Great Basin National Park, known for its ancient bristlecone pines and Lehman Caves ecosystem, and “The Loneliest Road,” Nevada's Highway 50, each will celebrate an anniversary in 2016.

Great Basin National Park, created in 1986, is the only national park completely within Nevada's borders. Here, visitors experience the diversity and beauty of the Great Basin Desert landscape, from the 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak to the Lehman Caves, an acclaimed marble cave system with more than 300 rare shield formations. Ancient bristlecone pines — some dating back thousands of years — grow on rocky glacial moraines.

The park is in northeastern Nevada, near the community of Baker and the city of Ely. From Las Vegas, it's accessible via Interstate 15 and U.S. 93, also known as the Great Basin Highway. The 296-mile (476-kilomter) excursion offers five state parks to visit, along with relics from the Wild West. A few highlights include:

• Kershaw-Ryan State Park, offering an unexpectedly lush canyon in the high desert landscape. Here, visitors will find a children's wading pool, picnic area and hiking trails.   

• Cathedral Gorge State Park, home of dramatic slot canyons formed out of the area's soft bentonite clay. Visitors can explore canyon passageways or hike trails that offer views of the canyon. 

• Pioche, a former mining town that saw its heyday in the early 1870s. Today, visitors can explore such historical sites as the Million Dollar Courthouse and Boot Hill cemetery, and perhaps overnight on their journey from Las Vegas to Great Basin National Park.

Great Basin National Park also can be reached via U.S. 50, known as “The Loneliest Highway.” The stretch of U.S. 50 in Nevada is rooted in the 19th-century expansion of the American West, but it was in 1986 when Life magazine dubbed it “The Loneliest Road,” a reference to the large, uninhabited areas between the towns along the route.

The Loneliest Highway has since become a popular road trip, with stops in historic towns along the way.

TravelNevada has a longstanding Highway 50 Survival Guide challenge, in which travelers get their guides stamped at various sites on the route, and then mail it in to TravelNevada for a certificate and a pin. Among the stops along way:

• Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge near Fallon, an internationally recognized site for birdwatching. Here, visitors can see Arctic tundra swans, northern harriers, canvasback ducks and hundreds more bird species, depending on the season. 

• Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park near Ely, home of six 30-foot-high, 27-feet-long wood-burning ovens. From 1876 to 1879, juniper and pinyon pine were burned in those beehive –shaped structures to create charcoal to be used in the smelters for the Ward Mining District. 

• Nevada Northern Railway in Ely, a historical railway used in the early 20th century to haul copper from the mines west of Ely. Today, a section of the railway still is in operation, offering excursion rides through this charming Nevada town.   

The Nevada Division of Tourism (TravelNevada) is part of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. It promotes and markets Nevada as a tourism destination for domestic and international leisure and business travelers through its marketing and advertising programs and by coordinating partnerships between public and private entities. TravelNevada also administers grant programs for local entities to market travel and tourism offerings and publishes Nevada Magazine.