Higher elevations are home to mountain meadows, white fir, quaking aspen, Engelmann spruce, and large Ponderosa pine.

[6] The oldest nonclonal organism ever discovered, a Great Basin bristlecone pine tree at least 5,000 years old, grew at the treeline near Wheeler Peak in the national park.

Jackrabbits, pygmy rabbits, mountain cottontails, ground squirrels, chipmunks, and various mice live in the low-elevation sagebrush desert.

Other animals that can be found here include elk, mule deer, spotted skunks, shrews, ringtail cats, and ermine.

[10] Many species of birds can be found in Great Basin National Park, including Canada geese, hawks, sparrows, bald eagles, tundra swans, barn owls, snow geese, killdeer, golden eagles, woodpeckers, mallards, wrens, greater roadrunners, chickadees, great horned owls, ravens, magpies, and swallows.

As the Paleozoic era progressed, several intensified geologic events occurred, including repeated episodes of faulting, and in turn, orogenies which involved upward lifting of a metamorphic core complex, creating mafic and rhyolitic dikes and sills.

[14] The Lehman Cave system began forming around 550 million years ago (during the Cambrian), while it was still submerged in a relatively warm, shallow ocean.

Eventually, the water level dropped, leaving glare rooms and cavities in the rock, creating the depths of the Lehman Caves system.

[13] The park's scenic features include Lexington Arch, the Lehman Orchard and Aqueduct, Rhodes Cabin, Stella and Teresa Lakes, and Wheeler Peak Glacier.

[16] Visitors' inscriptions in the cave from the era before it became a National Monument note its use and popularity among recent settlers to the region.

[21] The Wheeler Summit trail is quite strenuous, and the altitude presents significant hazards for unprepared or inexperienced hikers.

[citation needed] The Great Basin visitor center is located on Nevada State Route 487 in the town of Baker.

[22] The Forgotten Winchester, a rifle manufactured in 1882 that was found leaning against a juniper tree in the park in 2014,[23] is on display inside the Great Basin visitor center.

[24] Both centers feature exhibits about the park's geology and natural and cultural history, as well as theaters with orientation films.

The plant hardiness zone at Lehman Caves Visitor Center is 6b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of −3.8 °F (−19.9 °C).