Ruby Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada

This one picture says it all about Ruby Marsh, a place of big mountains, big valleys, and big sky. This wildlife refuge, located in Northern Nevada at the meeting of the Great Basin and the northern mountains, reminds one of what America must have been like a million years ago. After another 28 mile gravel road (this one a little dryer than the road to City of Rocks) we arrived at the Ruby Marsh National Forest Campground.

If you look real closely, right below the opening into the canyon, you will see our camper all alone in the campground. The campground is technically open this time or year, but facilities are limited with no water or bathrooms. Fortunately not a problem for us. The weather as is typical for spring is changeable by the hour and we received the usual gamut.

Remember that canyon from the picture on page 2? Well we decided that we wanted to hike up to those snowfields. We had no topographic maps of the area, there is no trail, but it was so tempting...so off we went.

The higher we got, the rougher the trail got, but the better the views got.  How high should we go? Finally we let exhaustion determine the limit.

We didn't make it to the snow fields. We reckon we hiked 5 miles what with dead ends and side trips. Every turn in the canyon gave us a better view of the Refuge, and another corner or two ahead.

The park brochure mentioned supplies being available at “Shantytown” 2 miles down the road so we took the truck down to take a look. Unfortunately “Shanytown” seems to be closed for the season. Good thing we were well stocked.  Note that there is still plenty of snow at the higher elevations, The Ruby Mountains are one of the premier Heli-Skiing operations in the west.

On our last day at Ruby Marsh we took a hike out into the marsh. The marsh contains vast areas of birds, sagebrush, marshy wetlands, and tallgrass prairie.

There's lots of wildlife in the refuge. We saw mule deer, rabbits, ground squirrels, but didn't see coyotes or bobcats, both of which are present. The birdlife is amazing, but they are very skittish and hard to photograph.

Besides these two we saw Kestrels, Redtail Hawks, Northern Harriers, Trumpeter Swans, many types of geese and ducks, and the ubiquitous Vultures.

Next we head to Ely, NV which is famous for, among other things, murals.  Leaving Ruby Marsh via a (you guessed it!) 28 mile gravel road.  Must be a numerology thing.