Deb here. We slept great last night and La Quinta even threw in a great breakfast this morning. Any breakfast that includes a pancake machine keeps John happy!
Our goal today was to head north on Rt. 93 and find cooler weather for camping tonight. We quickly got out of the Las Vegas busyness and went through a whole lot of beautiful nothing. Once we reached Ash Springs, Rt 93 turned into the Great Basin Highway and it was all lovely. There was construction at one point in the middle of nowhere, and we stopped for a long time waiting for the pilot car to guide us through. We chatted with a young flagman who’s the father of a 9-month old, as well as the driver in the car behind us. Fortunately the temperature was in the 80’s, so the wait wasn’t too painful.
Eventually we came to the towns of Caliente, then Pioche. Our deviation on Business 93 into Pioche turned out to be a winner, since the town is an adorable old mining town. We kept on going, eventually arriving in Ely. By this time it was 1:30 and we decided to stop at a Subway and split a sub for a late lunch.
Back in the van to put some more miles in with the hope of making it to a Ruby Mountains campground. In September 2023 we first heard about the Ruby Mountains and drove the paved road to its deadend, then did a great hike to several alpine lakes. I remembered the road up through the canyon as being absolutely stunning and also remembered seeing a campground part way up the road. I’d checked the Forest Service website and learned that many of the sites were first come/first serve, so we decided to give it a try.
Google Maps took us on a cool shortcut off of 93, first on Rt 229 followed by 18 miles of well maintained dirt road to get us over to Lamoille and the start of the Ruby Mountains Canyon Road. We arrived at the campground at 5:15 and found a bunch of available sites for the high price (not) of $19/night or $9.50/night with John’s national park geezer pass. We scored Site 31, which backs up on the river and montain views in either direction and made the decision to stay here for 2 nights. Ahhh….
Walk around the campground, dinner of cheese, crackers, veggies and yogurt and enjoyed the rustling aspens, roaring river, blue skies and cool temperatures. I’m actually wearing a sweater for the first time in ages!
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