The town of Elko was a great spot to camp for two nights, in order to hike in the Lamoille Canyon. Not much to the town itself though.
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The Ruby Mountains are Nevada’s wettest, and therefore most verdant mountain range. The Lamoille Canyon scenic byway is a 12 mile one way in, one way out highway that cuts through some Alp-like scenery. It was so beautiful and a much different atmosphere than the surrounding area’s sparser desert. There are 10 peaks above 10,000 feet and dozens of alpine lakes. Ruby Dome is the highest peak at 11,388 feet! Bighorn sheep are apparently in abundance out here, but we unfortunately didn’t see one (nor much of any other wildlife except for raptors in the air).
At the very end of the highway, you have several options for hiking trails, including a 40-mile Ruby Crest National Scenic Trail. We didn’t do that one, go figure. What we did opt for was to take the Lamoille Lake trail, a mere 2 miles long. However, it wasn’t quite so easy as we had thought. The quick elevation gain (about 1500 feet I think) was noticeable to both of us. But it was so well worth it; we ended up at the Lake (after passing Dollar lake too) and my trusty Altitude app revealed we were at an elevation of 9750 feet!.
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