On top of Ruby Mountain

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Ruby Mountain isn’t some rugged granite peak. Rather, it is a round-topped mountain in Nevada with a beautiful trail to the top.

While it is over 10,000 feet in elevation, you can drive your car up to about 7,000 feet.

I was looking in Sunset Magazine and came across a short item on a bed and breakfast located in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada. Looking it up, I saw it was close to Elko, where my wife and I were married.

I had been wondering where we should go on a short vacation, so I called and made reservations for a week.

The news item said there was good fishing around Lamoille where the bed and breakfast was located. So, my fishing gear was added to the items that I packed.

If you haven’t explored Nevada, you should do so.  On just a little bit of the road, you can find some outstanding things.

When we arrived at the place, everyone was in the kitchen, cleaning. They hadn’t officially opened for the season.

We pitched in and helped them clean for two or three hours. We got really acquainted.

When we were through, they cooked a big meal and we started to settle in. We were charged for the meal. I thought that was a little odd since we had helped them get ready for our time there.

There were high hills all around us, and that was when we learned we were in the Ruby Mountains.

After driving around for a couple of days, we decided we would go to the top of the mountain.

The peak was a round-topped high hill, nothing like the mountains of Washington or Idaho.

We were able to drive on a long winding road to a parking lot where there was a trail that would take us to the top.

I had been suffering with a breathing problem that started bothering me as we climbed higher.

By the time we got to the top, I was gasping for breath and immediately lay down in a grassy area.

I stayed there while my wife explored around the top.

I learned later that the place was alive with hummingbirds, no doubt feeding on nectar they found in the wildflowers.

Going downhill was less strenuous for me and that was the story of climbing Ruby Mountain.

The fishing never happened but there was a lot of exploring to do there in the mountains.

The bed and breakfast was busy in the winter and had a concrete slab where a helicopter would land and take skiers to the top of ski runs.

In spite of the rocky start overall, we could mark off that area as “done.”

We were able to spend a couple of days in Elko and then home. 

We had spent a number of trips to places in Nevada and were never disappointed.