Lovely Lamoille Canyon

As I promised, in this blog you are going to be surprised by just how beautiful this lovely little canyon is located 20 miles from Elko in the Humboldt National Forest.  I took over 100 pictures and struggled significantly striving to select just the right photos for your viewing enjoyment.

Lamoille Canyon is the largest valley in the Ruby Mountains, Nevada’s wettest mountain range.  It is approximately 12 miles long and was extensively sculpted by glaciers in previous ice ages.  This spectacular byway winds around the base of the 11,387-foot Ruby Dome, and climbs through the glacier-carved canyon to 8,800 feet. Four geology-interpretive panels lead travelers past meadows bursting with blazing wildflowers, abundant wildlife, waterfalls, and avalanche chutes. Mountain goats, big horn sheep and an array of birds can be seen carefully perched in the rocky outcrops above (uh, really … we didn’t see any!). However, we did glimpse two deer as they ran across the road in front of our vehicle—but no goats or sheep.

We caught the canyon at a perfect time.  There was snow on the mountain tops, a dusting of snow at lower elevations, and the leaves were changing color covering the canyon slopes with paint brush strokes of gold, red, and green.

Our first stop up this carved-out canyon was this picturesque picnic area with easy access to Lamoille Creek.  Check out the lovely gold and reds in the creek photos below.  The dogs had a great time exploring and it was very difficult to get them back in the car!

We continued our drive up the valley and at almost every turn in the road, we pulled over to take a picture.  There were very few cars on the road so we could easily stop in the middle of the road and take a picture without worrying about holding up any traffic.  Here is a series of photos from the drive up and then back down the canyon.  Enjoy the breathtaking panoramic views and spectacular fall colors!

Once again, the “Gorilla” came in handy and we took our picture by the Lamoille Glacier Overview.

As we finished our drive, we stopped just below the picnic area and took this photo of the valley floor below.  This valley is home to the cities of Elko, Spring Creek, Lamoille, and Carlin.

Psalms 145:14-16 // The LORD sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time.  You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.