Great Basin experience

Wondering if anyone can help me out here. I was talking to my wife about this today at dinner, and it occured to me I never tracked it down or got a hint of an explanation.

In September 2013 I visited Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada, a really lonely place, for the annual Astronomy Festival. Great Basin is a designated “dark skies” area, so very little light pollution, and very little emissions pollution because it is so remove.

I was there a few days before the start of the festival. One night I left my hotel in the tiny town of Baker and headed west on 488. About 2 miles west of the town and another 3 to the entrance of the park, there is a pull-off for a historical marker, a ranching exhibit. I pulled in because there would be no light from the town (little that there was). The exhibit was totally deserted, and there wasn’t even any cars on 488. I sit on a bench and wait for the sun to go down.

Then a Western Jay comes out of nowhere and gets mad at my presence. He’s sailing around my head, making a racket. Normally I love birds, but this thing is freaking me out. After 5 minutes of this it flies away into the distance. Note this is all desert, so there are no trees around until you get back to town or into the park.

Then the really weird thing happened. Looking to the north across the desert, I see a light on the horizon, rising, and then heading south towards me. I figured it was an aircraft, but I hadn’t seen a single one during my stay there. It had no blinking running lights like an aircraft should. I figured it might be a satellite, even though it was running north to south instead of the usual east to west. OK, it could be a military satellite in polar orbit. But it didn’t look like any other satellite I’ve ever seen, and it was brighter than even the International Space Station, which I’ve seen a few times. And it seemed too low. I realize it was the desert, with really clear air and that could make it hard to judge, but still I don’t think it was in space.

So it’s getting closer, just a little bit to the west of me. No blinking lights still, no sound of jet or propellers, and it was very quiet out there. No contrail either. It passes into the south and I keep watching until it reaches the southern horizon and disappears. The whole encounter might have been 8 minutes.

Yes, I was freaked out. I probably should have asked the hotel employees if this was a thing. Too late now.

Any ideas?