Heading north up Great Basin Highway (US93) a rugged snow capped mountain range comes into view, the Ruby Mountains.  They jut up majestically from the sage brush covered desert floor.  Our destination is Elko Nevada at the foot of the Rubies with a special eye for the Lamoille Canyon just above town.  The scenic drive glides up through the rugged, glacier formed canyon, past hanging side canyons and through thick aspen groves.

We rounded a corner to find snowmobiles parked in a high icy drift stretching all the way across the pavement. End of the road for us.  No Ruby Dome or mountaintop trails today.

Lower elevation trails lead to many beaver ponds. The aspen groves provide about perfect dam building materials and food.  Stumps stand 4 or 5 feet tall where they were gnawed off at snow line when they were retrieved to supplement mid winter food stores.  Ambitious engineers those furry fellows.  There work greatly changed the flow of the mountain streams.