We had a planned trip to the Tetons with Steve and Margo. With such a long drive and big peaks planned, I wanted good conditions. The current state of smoke and predicted thunderstorms for the weekend made me look elsewhere. I first looked west in Washington, but rain was predicted there. I then looked south to Nevada. Surprisingly, the Ruby Mountains near Elko were predicted to be sunny with limited smoke. Ruby Dome, and the Ruby range in general, had always on my list.

I shot an invite to Steve and Margo. Being retired, they quickly shifted plans and accepted.

Carrie and I were arriving earlier on Saturday morning, so we headed to the end of Lamoille Canyon to scramble up Liberty Peak and Tri-Lake Peak.

After picking up the key to access the Ruby Dome trailhead (for the next day) and trailing a bike race the entire distance of Lamoille Canyon, we finally arrived at the trailhead at 8800'.

On the way up we followed the horse trail. This got us to Lamoille Lake in 1.5 miles. We took a quick break and then headed to Liberty Pass at 10,500'.

Here we headed west and summited Liberty Peak on good terrain with just a bit of easy scrambling right near the summit. The views of Liberty Lake, Favre Lake, and the surrounding Ruby Mountains were stunning. Better yet, the weather was sunny with limited haze!!!

We descended back to Liberty Pass and then headed east to tackle Tri-Lake Peak. This peak was rated class 2. I am sure you could keep it class 2, but we found a more direct, easy class 3 route.

From Tri-Lake Peak, we had better views of Lamoille Canyon, Mount Fitzgerald, and the impressive Snow Lake Peak.

On the way down we followed the longer hiking trail back to the trailhead. This trail took us by the scenic Dollar Lakes. The hiker's trail has less rock, so it was much easier going. We also figured John Platt would be proud that we did a loop :-)

After a great day of hiking, we got good news when we arrived at Thomas Canyon Campground... Margo and Steve had found a site that we could camp with them at.

After beers, soaking our feet in cool creek near camp, and great conversation... it was off to bed for the tomorrow's climb of Ruby Dome.

Take the paved road up Lamoille Canyon. This road is accessed via SR 227 south and east of Elko. Follow the abundant signs.

The trailhead is located at the end of the road at 8800'.

From the end of the road up Lamoille Canyon, hike the trail to Lamoille Lake. From the lake, the trail switchbacks up to Liberty Pass. From Liberty Pass, hike west to tag Liberty Peak.

Return to the pass and head east to ascend Tri-Lake Peak (marked as spot elevation 10865 on the map).