Day Three: Ruby Mountains

The fairly happy family is back on the radar and their chronicler has a lot of catching up to do.

One of the goals of this trip was to explore Nevada, a place we ordinarily drive through as fast as possible. En route to the Ruby Mountains just east of Elko, we came across a bakery advertising cornish pasties. Jennifer had to stop because she lives for this stuff. She bought a pastie and a blueberry pie for the picnic lunch in the Rubies. Isn't that a cute and rustic-looking pie? 

You could cross Nevada a hundred times and never know there is a lovely, alpine mountain range within thirty minutes of downtown Elko. Rushing rivers, conifer forests, snow-capped peaks, etc. etc. just like a postcard and there was almost no one there.

We were very proud of ourselves for "discovering" the Ruby Mountains. We set off on a hike to the purportedly beautiful Lake Lamoille, but after an hour or so the trail was lost in the snow and we had to turn back. 

It was a big disappointment to all of us, but still fun. The kids are finally at the age where they hike uncomplainingly. 

After the hike, we proceeded to our campground where Mark and Owen pitched the tent.

The picture doesn't do the site justice. Right behind the trees was a rushing river, forget the name already because we have seen so many rushing rivers in the days since. Mark, Isabel, and Owen explored the river while Jennifer sat on a rock reading.

We ate dinner at a restaurant decorated with taxidermy in the nearby and very tiny town of Lamoille. 

Owen continued to astound us with his newly voracious appetite and perennially awful table manners

Those are ribs, so it wasn't as bad as it looks.

We drove back to the campground in thunderstorm, crawled into our tent and some of us went to sleep to the sound of the rain and the rushing river. Some of us didn't sleep.