Ruby Mountains And Jarbidge

 

July 2026

Shortly after completing the Toiyabe Crest Joannie and I loaded up the camper and took off for a short road trip with the first stop being Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains. We met our friends Kurstin and Jody there where they spend a couple of weeks each summer. We went hiking with Wyatt to Island Lk and Thomas Canyon.  The evenings were spent with Kurstin and Jody exchanging cooking duties and campsites between us. Then I got a wild hair and decided to climb Mt Fitzgerald, a high peak prominent from our campsite. We had a great time in the Rubies, then it was time to move on.

Island Lake

Thomas Canyon with Mt. Fitzgerald beyond

We left Lamoille Canyon and headed for Jarbidge, a tiny remote former mining town that we last visited in 2007 and was the site of the last stagecoach robbery in the American west. On December 5, 1916, a stagecoach carrying mail and passengers was robbed in Jarbidge Canyon. The driver, John Sackett, was killed. The event is generally regarded as the last stagecoach robbery in the history of the American West. The town has only a dozen or so year round residents and no paved access roads. The approaches from Nevada involve long stretches of rough, unpaved Forest Service/county roads, and some Nevada routes can be closed by snow from roughly fall into early summer. The Idaho approach through Rogerson/Three Creek is generally the more reliable access. Hard to believe it took almost 10 years to get back here. The road is pretty good dirt for about 25 miles and we had no trouble getting into the town though the last couple of miles dropping into the canyon are fairly steep. It's really beautiful back there and we camped at Pine Creek campground for the night. In the morning we stopped at the Trading Post and chatted with the locals for awhile. One old timer (HA! who am I kidding, he was my age... yeah - old timer...) mentioned they would happily accept guns and or gold for goods payment. We climbed back out of the canyon in 4x4 - low just to have a little more control on the steep grade but the truck handled it easily. 

Panning for legal currency

 

Crossing Nevada back toward the Toiyabe Range and Kingston canyon where we planned to stay at the campground was full on monsoonal thunderstorm weather. Interchanging downpours with crystal blue skies we eventually landed at the Kingston campground and made a quick outdoor dinner immediately followed by additional lightning, thunder and rain. This was the campground I passed on my final day of the Toiyabe Crest Loop. Then it was time to go home, always a sad day.