While figuring the farthest we like to drive (now that gas is so expensive); capturing a picture like this makes it worth it all!

When we don't want to travel quite so far, we visit Lamoille Canyon which is often called the Yosemite of Nevada.

You go through the forests of the Ruby Mountains to high
desert plains just southeast of Elko. There are dozens of waterfalls and
cliffs. Bighorn sheep and mountain goas amble through the high country -
hawks and eagles soar beautifully over-head.

The main route is 227 - then east of Elko - about 30 miles. The Ruby Mountains are about 10 miles wide and 100 miles long - they say the rocks faulted upward about ten million years ago.

There's the Humboldt National Forest (this number is also
in our travel book - 702-752-3357; now it's here and easier for me to find .. as
well as anyone else who might make a visit to this blog). Lamoille Canyon
is a deep cleft in the mountains. Ruby Dome is 11, 387 feet.
Cottonwoods and willows as well as aspen trees go up the canyon - it's as if
they've chosen 'their home' next to the canyon too, and like where 'they'
live.

You can keep going until you reach Thomas Canyon Campgrounds - there are wildflowers and beautiful white-bark pines.

When we want to make a 'day-trip' that's easy; doesn't
drain the gas-tank, we go to Lake Mead which is about 65 miles from us.
There's a museum on the area's prehistory; my son takes his boat there, and we
enjoy the sandy beach. Right 'next door' is the Hoover Dam; near Boulder
city. Lake Mead is essentially the reservoir; it provides much of
California's water.

The museum is called Lost City Museum - 702-397-2193 is their phone number. They have restored structures and they have artifacts that give us a clear picture of the Pueblo people who inhabited the villages along the nearby Muddy River thousands of years ago.

As we had home, we pass a large silica sand mine; then we
drive in this stark and open stretch of the Mojave desert.

We have visited the Valley of Fire State Park - 702-397-2088; it's about 7 miles of sandstone that has turned red from oxidized iron and eroded into beautiful shapes that look almost like intended sculptures by an abstract artist.

Petroglyph Canyon Trail is beautiful - canyon walls are
decorated; art pieces by those who lived her thousands of years before we moved
here.

At Rainbow Vista there are canyons; domes, towers ridges and valleys in range of colors one can use up about 'megabytes' of memory cards as they capture their beauty!

While we enjoy our periodic visits to Las Vegas (90 miles
from where we live), we prefer the 'outdoors'. We can get to Red Rock
Canyon in about 20 minutes, as we are 'Leaving Las Vegas'..... They have a
national conservation area; 702-363-1921. We sometimes drive up into the
Calico Hills - more sandstone and canyons. We can hike from the sandstone
quarry - it goes north and east into the Calicos; there are rocks that collect
rainwater and the wild animals that live in this area.

Any of these trips we make in either a day - or take at least 5 days when we have 'distance' to cover, and 'dollars' in our pockets..........