A little research on the mountains of Nevada!

Tweet

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of Nevada on my recent road trip to Iowa. In Nevada, on I-80, I went over two passes, one at close to 6,000 feet and one close to 7,000 feet. This meant that the mountains towering in the distance above the high desert must be quite tall. I did a little research over my first cup of coffee this morning and discovered that there are ten peaks in Nevada that are 11,387 feet (3,471 m) tall or above. Number ten on the list is the "Ruby Dome," in my beloved Ruby Mountains, near Elko Nevada. I then read that Nevada is considered the most mountainous state in the US (except for Alaska), in spite of travelers' stereotype of of Nevada as nothing more than "a place to get through on the way to somewhere else." I'll attach a picture I just took of the Ruby Mountains. The folks in Elko told me that the road up Lamoille Canyon into the Rubys does not open until June 15th. Several Summers ago, I drove up to the end of that road (in August) and marveled at the u-shaped valleys, which told me that glaciers had sculpted the Ruby Mountains. The vegetation on the way up was not as lush as the mountain vegetation in my usual stomping grounds (California and Montana), but it was still quite pretty. It's fun learning new stuff!