Nathan Gilbert

The Ruby Mountains in June, 2026

5 min read 1,026 words

Just south of Elko, Nevada is a vast island of trees, streams, birds and bugs inside a wide sagebrush sea known as the Ruby Mountains. Most of Nevada's forest-lands are collected in the Humboldt–Toiyabe conglomerate. The Humboldt part of the name comes from a 19th Century German naturalist (what do I need in my LinkedIn profile to get this job title?), Alexander von Humboldt. He was born important because of the "von" in his name. This guy traveled throughout Spanish South and Latin America, eventually staying in "Nueva España" (Mexico) for several years, mainly around Mexico City. On the way back to Europe he basically texts President Tom Jefferson to see if can drop in on him at Washington to talk fossils.

See, TJ was spending a decent amount of time rage-posting (rage-ledgering?) against a theory known at the time as "American Degeneracy", which said that the "colder/wetter" temperatures of the Western Hemisphere caused flora and fauna to become small. Humboldt backed Jefferson in this debate and bolstered their position with fossilized teeth of mammoth he found while at the equator. TJ didn't listen to Alex about slavery, though, which makes me think of other theories of American Degeneracy...that are true, then and now.

Clearly, these adherents to the "Cloudy-day shrinkage theory" of biological development had not spent much time in the Great Basin of the United States, circa 2026, amidst a record-breaking El Niño season. Jack rabbits should be 12 feet tall here. Coming from the East, as you traverse through northern Nevada towards Elko on Highway 80, each basin and range takes you a little higher, a little bit further from the desolate salt flats and up into something that approximates a montane landscape with the corresponding drop in mercury. Toyiabe is the Shoshone (Newe) word for "mountain".

The drive up Lamoille Canyon road is easy. It's paved and not an an extreme grade. It's an out-and-back road that has a terminus at the Ruby Crest National Recreational Trail's head. This canyon is referred to by some (the Nevada tourism department) as the "Yosemite of Nevada". It is a spectacular drive. Lamoille evidently comes from an early settlers fondness of a French typographical error about the area that came to known as Vermont. History just seems arbitrary at some point.

Topographic map of Thomas Canyon Campground, its loop roads dotted with numbered campsites, with the Thomas Canyon trailhead and its parking area marked to the south.
Thomas Canyon Campground. The trail leaves from the bottom of the loop.

We camped at Thomas Canyon Campground, at a site somewhere in the 20s or 30s. That just meant it was hugging the canyon, close to the trail. The lower numbered sites are closer to the road and a little more in the sun. Our campground sits at around 7550ft in elevation and had good separation between each individual site. The sun was intense in the middle of the day, but since the canyon was fairly narrow, you start getting decent shade around 4-5pm.

For June, it seemed like a lot of Northern Nevadans were ready to hit the mountains and have a little early summer hoe-down. That was fine for us; the plentiful aspen and roaring creek kept their sounds at bay. The Creek, as mentioned, was flowing strong in this month. That waterway being the Lamoille Creek. The Thomas Canyon creek also had strong flow, with several waterfalls easily visible from the aforementioned trail that starts right in this campground.

There are several small trails and stops along the road as you head towards the top. The interpretive trails are fun and informative. Otherwise, mainly the other trail-heads are for overnight backpacking trips which we were not doing on this trip.

The Rubies are known as habitat for Big Horn sheep (which we didn't find) and many species of bird, including the Himalayan Snowcock which is not native to the mountains, and interestingly, that website linked from the Nevada DOW differs in the story of how they were introduced from other places I've seen. We did glimpse many types of hawk, eagle and corvid in the canyon, thankfully. Several small ground mammals and fish as well.

I plan on coming back to the Ruby's at some point, I enjoyed the several days we spent there during this trip. Whenever leaving the Rubies from the North, always stop at Cowboy Joes for the caffeine.

A black Jeep Cherokee loaded with a roof cargo box and a rear cargo carrier, parked alone in an empty asphalt lot with dry brown hills behind it.
My trusty steed; the 1998 Jeep XJ. I should have fixed my exhaust tip before this trip though...I lost some boots as a result.
The open rear hatch of the Jeep showing camp gear packed to the roof: stacked tan storage totes, a green military-style trunk, a folding table on edge, bedding and a spare tire.
It packs a lot.
A pale rocky summit rising above a dense green slope of aspen and brush, under a deep blue sky with scattered white clouds.
A Ruby Mountain
A narrow paved road ending in a turnaround, hemmed by young aspen, with a gray glacially carved ridgeline beyond.
The view from our campsite
A shallow creek running over pale cobbles and gravel, edged by grass and willow, with a fallen bare branch overhanging the water.
The Lamoille Creek
Whitewater breaking around boulders in a fast, wide creek, with willows on both banks and a dark rock face in the distance.
The Lamoille Creek up from our campsite.
A rocky footpath leading up a canyon between stands of aspen toward a jagged gray peak.
Look how green that mountain is. Hard to believe you're in Nevada.
A clear creek over a gravel bed in the foreground, with cottonwoods along the bank and a tall striped canyon wall rising behind.
A set-up campsite: a dome tent under aspens, a camp kitchen table with a red plaid cloth covered in cookware and gear, a portable stove stand, and two hard coolers on the ground.
Our setup for dinner.
A shaded creek running clear over a golden gravel bottom, boxed in by a large streamside boulder and overhanging brush.
Thomas Canyon Creek
Water rushing white down a rock chute, seen through a screen of leafy branches in the foreground.
A small waterfall in Thomas Canyon, there are several bigger than this near the trail.
Looking down from a rock ledge at a creek and a house-sized boulder below, surrounded by conifers and aspen in morning light.
Love a shadow shot
A small waterfall spilling down a bedrock step beside a bare dead tree, with green mountainside rising behind.
There's more waterfalls up the trail, here's another one.
A long band of broken tan cliffs along a ridgetop, lit by early sun against a cloudless blue sky, with brush in the foreground.
Thomas Canyon wall
A U-shaped glacial canyon opening between two rock walls, its floor covered in green brush and scattered aspen.
A steep, rubbly mountain face with pinnacles along its crest, framed on the right by a lone dark conifer.
A waterfall pouring over a low rock lip into a shaded pool, ringed by pines and a stacked-rock bank.
Looking down at the pool below the falls, with a low stone retaining wall along the far bank and pines leaning over the water.
A dead, bark-stripped tree standing among fallen limbs on a canyon slope, with sunlit rock walls on either side.
A weathered snag in the left foreground with a serrated rock ridge behind it, deadfall and mountain mahogany on the ground.
A distant spired peak framed at the head of a shaded canyon, seen over green brush and aspen in the foreground.
Mount Fitzgerald, 11,220 ft. Only the 39th highest mountain in the state tho.
A creek threading down a brushy draw between deadfall and aspen, with a sunlit ridge above and a peak in the distance.
Morning shadow across a canyon: dark brushy slope on the left, sunlit gray cliffs on the right, and whitewater in the lower corner.
An open hillside meadow of silver sagebrush and low green shrubs with scattered yellow wildflowers, rising to a rocky rim.
Fitz was getting closer, still had decent snow.
A close view of the same slope, orange paintbrush and other wildflowers mixed through sagebrush and green undergrowth.
Flowers were out in June.
A thin stream falling down a grassy, sage-covered slope from a rocky outcrop high above, under clear blue sky.
A shot of Fitzgerald's long tail. We turned around here on the trail.
A broad glacial canyon with a green valley floor and a long buttressed wall of gray rock along its far side.
Literally just turned around and snapped this shot.
A pale granite ridge dotted with scattered conifers above a green meadow, with the white roof of a parked car in the corner.
This is further up the Lamoille Canyon road from our campground. Not quite at the top yet.
A wide slab-rock hillside speckled with pines above a grassy basin, photographed over the hoods of two parked cars.
A trailhead parking lot with the Jeep, a van, and a sedan lined up in marked stalls below the rocky canyon headwall.
The Ruby Crest Trailhead parking lot.
A dirt trail crossing a green alpine meadow toward a cirque of snow-streaked peaks, with hikers small on the path.
Backpackers' starting their trip.
Tall meadow grass and a bleached log in the foreground, a small pond behind, and a pine-studded rock ridge above.
A whitish granite slope with sparse conifers, a thread of meltwater running down a gully in its center.
A rounded rocky summit above an open sweep of light granite and scattered pines, deep blue sky overhead.
The avalanche chute.
A scratched brown interpretive sign titled "Avalanche Chute" with two illustrated diagrams, standing in a meadow.
A grassy valley floor below a long timbered ridge, with a patch of snow lingering on a shaded peak at far left.
A small clear stream winding through a green meadow past flat stepping stones, with snow-patched peaks at the head of the valley.
This area was really interesting, there was a small pond that was elevated maybe 3 feet above the surrounding ground which was an odd perspective. The photo doesn't really capture it. The pond isn't even in it, but it's directly to the right of this photo.
A meandering meadow stream cut into thick grass, leading the eye toward a jagged snow-flecked headwall under a few white clouds.
Many trout in these waters.
A shallow stream running straight through a green alpine meadow toward the rocky peaks at the canyon head.
(Conan) Trout, man. The Kyuss song, the Rambo character, and what I said here under my breath.
A small blue lake on the canyon floor, ringed by willow and aspen, with steep rock walls closing in on both sides.
All the water in Nevada seems to be in the Rubies. This is a different pond than what I mentioned before.
A green mountainside topped with banded gray cliffs, above a marshy flat and the edge of the lake at right.
An orange and black tortoiseshell butterfly resting with wings open on the white bark of an aspen trunk.
Butterflies and moths were abundant in the Rubies; thankfully mosquitoes were absent at this time.