Nevada

Wow! The drive to Nevada was a mind-blower. We drove west out of Salt Lake City and into the desert and it goes on & on & on. And to complete the experience, we drove past the Bonneville Salt Flats and had to stop to check it out...


It was hot as the dickens on top of everything else to complete the psycho-surreal-landscape.



Our destination was the Ruby Mountains. The drive was sooooo worth it! It is a stunning place, heralded as the Yosemite of Nevada. It is a glacially carved valley with very impressive mountains, but on a much smaller scale. The hiking is geat, with short steep trails and lots to look at.

This is end of Thomas Canyon, where the wilderness boundary is. We bushwhacked up to the left in the picture and found some hidden flowers. There are three waterfalls up there, but not visible in the picture.

This is the view looking down Lamoille Canyon. That squiggle is the road. We are approaching Liberty Pass on a 2 night/3 day backpack trip.

On our 2nd day in, we bushwhacked up to one of the ridges, and got this view of Nevada. We think we could into Utah, over 100 miles. Freaky.

A typical view of the Ruby mountains.

The meadow shrubs are beginning to turn, just a touch of autumn in the air.

Liberty Lake, perhaps the most pristine, deep blue alpine lake we've seen.

We are now in Reno, staying with our good friends from Virginia, Suzanne & Jay. They've been great hosts, even letting us take over their bedroom! We've had a relaxing stay here, and are ready for more hiking and biking. Next stop: Lake Tahoe, CA. If we're feeling really crazy, we'll drive to San Francisco to say we've drove coast-to-coast (but don't count on it).

After CA, we'll b-line back to Colorado for more road biking and more visiting friends. Stay tuned...