PhotographyREVIEW.com Blog - Photo-John's Photo Crap - Ruby Mountains

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Monday, July 23, 2007 at 10:54 PM Ruby Mountains - Northern Nevada
I moved to Salt Lake City a few months ago and last week I was back in California for a mountain bike race and to put in some time at the office. On the way back I stopped at one of my favorite places, the Ruby Mountains, a small glacial range just east of Elko, Nevada. Not very many people know about the Rubies. Actually, not very many people know about Nevada, unless it's Vegas or Reno. But there's a whole big empty world of mountains and sage to explore in Nevada. I especially like the Basin and Range country of Northern Nevada, which the Rubies rise up out of. I've stopped and ridden my bike in the Ruby Mountains a few times over the past three years. In fact, now I look forward to stopping in Elko and hope for a little extra time to spend up Lamoille Canyon. Most people never take their foot off the gas when they go through Elko. They're missing out. This was a more ambitious stop than usual. Usually I just gas up, get some coffee, take some pictures of the mountains from town and then hit the road again. But my dad told me about a hike he'd done about a week before and I wanted to do it on my bike. I'd ridden part of the trail a year ago but hit deep snow and couldn't go on. This year is much drier and snow is not a problem. The trail starts at about 8800 feet and goes up to a pass at about 10,500 in about 3.5 miles. There's not much air up there and at about 9500 the trail turns to mostly rock. It's good stuff. Most of it is rideable but there are some rocky sections, some tight corners, and some exposed bits of trail that aren't worth the risk. The trail becomes very rocky and there are patches of snow left, when you near the pass. You can look down from whence you came and see two or three high mountain lakes below. At the pass, a whole new vista opens up in front of you. There are two little trails wiggling away into the rocks and they were very enticing to me. Unfortunately, within a couple of hundred yards there is a designated US Wilderness Area and bikes aren't allowed to go any further. At that point I left my bike (who's gonna steal it?) and hiked the couple of hundred yards to a wonderful cliff overlooking Liberty Lake. After that, it's a short hike back to the bike, a little ride back to the top, and then it's all downhill. It's rocky, rooty, skinny downhill, with exposure. But it's downhill All the photos in this blog were taken with a new 8-megapixelCanon PowerShot SD850 IS pocket point-and-shoot digital that I've been testing. They've all had some editing done in Lightroom and then Photoshop PS3. But I am very pleased and impressed with the quality of the image files and the performance of the camera. I'm working on a review right now and it should be live in a few days. If you're interested in my digital camera reviews, here's a link to our main pro reviews page: Digital Camera Pro Reviews >> See more Ruby Mountains photos >> Attached Images
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