Ruby Mountains
Visitor Guide
Larry Hyslop
Gray Jay Press
Elko, NV
Ruby Mountains
Visitor Guide
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2004 Northeastern Nevada Museum
All Rights Reserved
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the written permission of the publisher, with the exception of brief passages embodied in critical articles and reviews.
All photos are by Larry Hyslop
Maps are courtesy of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
First printing: 1996
For ordering information, contact:
Northeastern Nevada Museum
1515 Idaho St., Elko, NV 89801
Info@Museum-Elko.US
Cover photo: Yellow-bellied marmot
Back cover photos: Liberty Lake, Dollar Lake and woolly yellow daisy
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.
As always, for Cindy
Thoughts on Writing this Book
Before writing a book, an author must have an intended audience. I wrote this book for the first time visitor, as a guide to the mountains’ many riches and activities. I also wrote it for the frequent visitor, to expand their knowledge of the Rubies. Further, it is my hope both readers use it to further explore these magnificent mountains.
This book mentions many of the plants and animals inhabiting the Rubies, but it does not attempt to list every flower, mammal or tree. I have tried to include those species more interesting or more commonly seen. It is my hope after reading this book, the reader will use field guides to learn more about the species of birds, flowers and mammals found in the Rubies. Scientific names are not used in this visitor’s guide. When there is more than one common name for flowers, the local variation is used. Field guides can be purchased locally listing the scientific names of each species.
This book lists some possible activities in these mountainous playgrounds but, again, not a complete list. This book describes only a few of the many available hiking trails but it is not meant to be a hiker’s guide. The bibliography lists my book: Hiker’s Guide; Trails in the Elko Area.
The Ruby Mountains are a single range almost a hundred miles in length. From their southern end 60 miles south of Elko, they run slightly east of north to their northern end six miles west of Wells. Two low passes separate them into what we call the East Humboldt Range, northern Ruby Mountains and southern Ruby Mountains. In this book, I often use the common term, Ruby Mountains or Rubies.
Thanks
Most of the chapter on geology comes from Mike McFarlane and Mark Ports’ unpublished manuscript titled The Natural History of the Ruby Mountains. Mark and Lois Ports helped me learn the local species of mammals, birds and flowers. Charles Greenhaw helped considerably with area history. Janice Collett, along with DeLynn and Duane Jones, helped with editing. Personnel from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Nevada Department of Wildlife, Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Gallagher Fish Hatchery took the time to review the material in this book, answer questions and to assist me whenever I asked. Bonnie Whalen produced the maps. My special thanks to Steve Foree and John Haney. A special thanks to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Interpretive Association and the Northeastern Nevada Historical Museum for help in publishing this book.
Table of Contents
Shoshone Indians
Early Explorers
California Trail
Formation of the Great Basin
Building the Ruby Mountains
Glacial Sculpting
Rock Types
Precipitation Amounts, Avalanches
Singleleaf Pinyon Pine/Utah Juniper
Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany
Quaking Aspen
Cottonwood, Willow
Whitebark Pine and Limber Pine
Bristlecone Pine
Flowers of the Alpine Slopes
Flowers of the Lower elevations
Flowers of the Sagebrush Hills
Unusual Flowers
Berry Producing Plants
Mountain Goats
Big Horn Sheep
Mule Deer, Elk
Wild Horses
Carnivores
Gnawing Mammals
Himalayan Snowcocks
Birds of the Alpine Slopes
Game Birds
Jays, Birds of Prey
Mountain Song Birds
Woodpeckers
Hummingbirds
Wilderness Areas
U.S. Forest Service Campgrounds
Dispersed Sites
Picnic Spots
Horse Back Trips
Mountain Biking
Angel Creek Campground
Angel Lake Campground
Entering the canyon
Powerhouse Picnic Area
Camp Lamoille Road
Glacier Overlook
Thomas Canyon Campground
Nature Trail
Terraces Picnic Area
Road’s End
Via Harrison Pass
Via Secret Pass
Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Gallagher Fish Hatchery
South Ruby Campground
South End of Valley
Soldier Canyon
Clover and Starr Valleys
Other Canyons
Hiking, Backpacking and Camping Concerns
Introduction
Green slope high above Lamoille Canyon
The morning sun is above me, brightening the upper slope. Because of the steep climb, sweat stings my eyes and my shirt sticks to my back. Below, the canyon bottom is still in darkness where a meandering ribbon of brightness shows where Lamoille Creek reflects the sky.
Stop every three or four steps to ease my breathing means it is a slow climb. Forcing my way through thick clumps of small aspens does not help as loose rocks roll under my feet. But I am enjoying every step since all this effort brings me closer to one of my favorite places in the Ruby Mountains. The difficulty of the climb accounts for one of this canyon’s greatest attractions, its solitude.
When I finally enter the hanging valley high above Lamoille Canyon, its slope is only slightly less steep. The canyon floor is mostly bare rock strewn with whitebark pine trees. Five mule deer bucks form a line along a ledge. Although I just now noticed them, they probably spotted me as soon as I entered the hanging valley. They stand still but occasionally stamp their feet.
When I finally approach too close, they turn and flee up the canyon. A few minutes later, they reappear, running toward me in single file. They angle across and climb the sidewall as high as possible before daring to run past me. They quickly leave the canyon around a side ridge.
The canyon floor levels off as I enter a cirque encircled by steep walls. This shelf once held a glacier and later a lake, but now contains only a small pond bordered by flowers, grass and boulders. Although it is August, a snowbank covers half the shelf. The snowbank is covered with fresh hoof prints where the mule deer bucks walked onto the snow, milled about and ran off. Unfortunately for me, the snowbank buries my favorite rock. During past trips, it has provided the perfect platform to rest and scan the heights for mountain goats.
Pond in cirque
The north wall of this cirque is notched along its ridge, offering a route into the neighboring hanging valley. After fortifying myself with cookies, I climb to the ridge. Black rosy finches flit between boulders, accompanied by the whistles of pikas. From behind comes the distant chuckle of a Himalayan snowcock. The sound comes from high on the opposite wall and I waste no effort searching for the well-camouflaged snowcock.
From the top of the ridge, I cross the steep slope of this next canyon. My route is bordered above and below by cliff faces. Short, gnarled, white bark pines line the lip of the lower cliff, where mountain goats have recently bedded. The soft ground shows their flared hoof prints. Tufts of winter hair dangle from pine branches. The thick, almost nauseating, smell of mountain goat envelopes me as I pass each tree
American pipits fly between rocks and pine trees while dark-eyed juncos search the ground under the pines. A Clark’s nutcracker calls “krak” as it flies past. A red-tailed hawk floats over a ridge. It crosses the canyon on motionless wings and disappears over the next ridge. I look down on its back as it soars past, too far below to be aware of my presence.
Farther across the slope, it widens into a green bowl. Around my feet is a low mat of cinquefoil, a few American bistort, tiny elephant’s head and alpine sunflowers. A patch of subalpine buttercup grows thick on wet ground below a melting snow bank. Parry’s primrose and mountain sorrel colors the shade beneath the upper cliff. The air buzzes as flies and bees move among the flowers. The buzzing frames bird song and wind.
A group of Himalayan snowcocks appears over the ridge. Twelve birds are flying in formation, much like a squadron of fighters. In the few seconds it takes them to soar across the canyon, they never once flap their wings. Other than a few calls, their only sound is the rushing of air past their wings. They bank in unison and disappear around a cliff face.
The other side of the green bowl holds seven mountain goats and nine mule deer. Neither group notices me as the animals graze on the abundant food. Kids bounce around grazing nannies. The goats stay high, close to the base of the upper cliff. The last winter hair on one mountain goat nanny clings to her belly like a ragged tutu. The mule deer prefer the lip of the lower cliff where fawns feed beside their does.
To remain unseen, I sit on the green mat, where I thoroughly enjoy the sights and sounds from my perch at 10,000 feet. Green is the basic summer color in the Rubies. The canyon walls are the dark green of pines and mountain mahogany trees. The creek below me is covered by a paler green of willows. Surrounding me, the green slope is speckled with bright colors of flowering plants. The snowbanks lining the upper cliff add a second basic color. Tan cliffs and rock buttresses add a third.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to be anywhere in the Rubies and not hear the harmonious sound of falling water. From the walls above me comes the hard sound of water falling onto bare rock. Below is a softer tone, where banks of sedge and moss muffle its splash.
During the brief alpine summer, plants produce flowers and seeds at a frenzied pace while animals work equally fast to convert this greenery into winter fat. Even the slow, persistent pines quickly produce cones and new growth.
It is as though summer is a rising ocean wave. As summer advances, a wave of greenery sweeps up each canyon. Flashes of red, yellow, pink and blue dot the upper edge of the fast moving wave, as flowers burst open the instant the snow melts away. The green wave skirts around permanent snowfields and expanses of tan rock to cover grassy slopes. Mountain goats, big horn sheep and mule deer climb the slopes to keep pace with this wave.
The greenery finally crests at the top of each peak. It seems to pause only a second before autumn begins and the wave recedes back down. The receding edge of the wave now carries flashes of aspen yellow and alpine knotweed red. Above the receding wave, the slopes are once again the white of winter.
When I rise to leave, I move away slowly as not to alert the feeding animals. I cross back through the notch and descend the first canyon. When the road comes back into view, the sight of cars and people is jarring after my quiet morning.
Picnickers, fishermen and bicyclists are within my view, reminding me of the role of these mountains as playgrounds. They provide a great service to local people and visitors. People may say Lamoille Canyon and Angel Lake get too much use. Old timers curse the paved roads making entry too easy and swear it used to be so much better. But for many people, Lamoille Canyon or Angel Lake may provide their only outdoor experience. Their hike into Lamoille or Smith Lake may be their only hike of the year. Their camp out at Thomas Canyon, their picnic at the Terraces or fishing at Angel Lake may be the only time they do these activities. Some people drive the roads merely to check on the progress of the seasons. Even if they are only in the mountains a couple of hours and do not get out of their vehicle, it is a valuable experience.
Fishermen work its creeks and lakes, bird and flower lovers search its slopes, and rock climbers use its cliffs. Children attend group activities at Camp Lamoille. Weddings are held in the picnic grounds. Hikers, horsepackers and backpackers wander through the backcountry.
The mountains provide such an important service that the over-use of a few areas can be forgiven. The Rubies provide another important service: solitude. Even with all the people visiting them, often all it takes is getting off the road or trail a few yards to spend the day without seeing another person. It is easy to find pine-covered slopes, rocky canyons and shady aspen groves where man’s hand seems never to have been placed. The Ruby Mountains are a Nevada jewel. They need and deserve all the protection we can muster.
Wagon tracks along Hasting’s Cutoff in Ruby Valley
Shoshone Indians
The ancestral Shoshone Indians hunted and gathered food in the Rubies. While other mountain ranges provided more of the important pinyon pine nuts, the Shoshone hunted mule deer, big horn sheep and marmots in the Ruby Mountains. They called the northern Ruby Mountains Takadoya (snow mountain) and the East Humboldt Range Tainyadnoya (holes in the top mountain), a reference to Hole-in-the-Mountain Peak.
The Temoke Band was a group of Western Shoshone who often summered in Ruby Valley. Early white visitors described the Indian population of the Ruby Valley as somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people during the 1800s. They wintered on the west side of the mountains, next to the South Fork of the Humboldt River.
Old Temoke was a young Shoshone man when he met the first white men and showed them where to cross the mountains. Old Temoke was also one of the signers of the Treaty of 1863. The U.S. Army picked Shoshone men to act as signers of the document. This act created the idea of chiefs in the Ruby Valley people, where no chief had existed before. Old Temoke became such a chief.
The U.S. Army said the treaty of 1863 was about peace and friendship. It gave white men the right to cross the valley, put up telegraph lines, build railroads and dig mines. The treaty did not say anything about the Shoshones giving up their land and promised a reservation in their beloved Ruby Valley. Old Temoke pressed for the promised reservation throughout his life, but received only a plot of land six miles square, enough land for only a few families.
The Temoke Band has always had strong feelings about its ancestral home. They have resisted every attempt at moving them onto reservations and colonies. As their ancestral way of life vanished, they stayed in their homeland by working on the valley’s ranches as cowboys, hay hands, maids and cooks. But as the ranches mechanized, most lost their jobs and left the valley.
As Old Temoke’s grandson, Frank Temoke was hereditary chief of the Temoke Band, Western Shoshone tribe. At a land claims meeting, Frank Temoke declared “The earth is our mother, and it is not for sale.”
Frank Temoke lived his entire life and died at age 91 in the beautiful Ruby Valley. Before his death in 1994, he wanted his tombstone to be a simple, granite boulder inscribed with: “This is my country. If you pick this country up and move it over there, then I will go with it. But, if you can’t move our country, then we stay here.”
Early Explorers
The earliest white people to enter the Ruby Mountains were the fur traders/explorers. Peter Skeen Ogden, a Canadian with the Hudson's Bay Company, led a mobile trapping community called the Fifth Snake River Country Expedition. He and his trappers were the first whites to enter northern Nevada, coming from the north and reaching the Humboldt River near Winnemucca. About Christmastime, 1828, Ogden’s brigade veered southeast from the Humboldt, crossing it near the present Elko Hot Hole. They crossed the Ruby Mountains through Secret Pass into North Ruby Valley on their way to winter rendezvous northeast of the Great Salt Lake. In his journal Ogden recorded reaching the Rubies: “We are now near the foot of a mountain, which appears very high and this we are to cross tomorrow.”
Fremont’s Third Expedition for the Bureau of Topographical Engineers originated in St. Louis in 1845. They entered northeastern Nevada from the salt flats of today’s Utah and split into two groups east of Ruby Valley. Lt. Theodore Talbot and mapmaker-artist Edward Kern led a group to the Humboldt River through Secret Pass. Fremont, accompanied by a group of Delaware Indians, and Kit Carson as scout, rode south down Ruby Valley. When he first saw the area in early November, he wrote in his journal: ". . . lofty mountains, their summits white with snow." They crossed the mountains at Harrison Pass. The two groups reunited at Walker Lake, in western Nevada, before crossing the Sierra Nevada to Sutter’s Fort.
California Trail
In 1841, the wagons of the Bidwell-Bartleson party left the Oregon Trail at Soda Springs, Idaho and veered southwest toward California. They were the first party to attempt this route. After numerous ordeals and wanderings north of the Great Salt Lake, they entered present-day Nevada at Pilot Peak, north of present-day Wendover.
At Big Springs, beside the Pequop Mountains (about four miles south of present Oasis), they gave up on the wagons and became a pack train. More than 40 emigrants, including Nancy Kelsey and her infant daughter, traveled with the Bidwell-Bartleson party. They entered Ruby Valley from the east. Followed by curious Shoshones, they traversed the valley and crossed the mountains over Harrison Pass. They eventually reached California and their successful passage proved emigrants could travel the Humboldt River route, opening the way for the California Trail.
There were soon many wagon trains traveling along the Humboldt River. The California Trail entered today’s Nevada at its northeast corner. The trail angled down to Wells, skirted the East Humboldt Range and descended the Humboldt River valley.
Hastings Cutoff through Ruby Valley
In the spring of 1846, Lansford Hastings traveled east from California to Fort Bridger, Wyoming. His goal was to encourage California-bound wagon parties to use his new trail, the Hastings’ Cutoff. It passed through present-day Salt Lake Valley, crossed the salt flats and looped around the Rubies.
He gathered a company of some 66 wagons and led them back toward California. When the wagons entered Ruby Valley, his route took them south before crossing the Ruby Mountains at Overland Pass. They then traveled north along the South Fork of the Humboldt. They rejoined the main trail near today’s Hunter interchange on I-80. The group eventually reached California with no more than the usual problems, even though the ‘cutoff’ proved to be longer and more difficult than the main California Trail.
The Donner Party arrived at Fort Bridger soon after Hastings’ group left. They followed Hastings, eager to make up time, since they had a late start. The Donner Party’s problems may have culminated in the Sierra Nevada but their troubles started far to the east.
The Donner party consisted of 23 wagons. Of the 87 people, they had only about 30 men of working age. They were not able to follow Hastings’ tortuous path through the Wasatch Mountains of present-day Utah. They had to cut a new trail over the Wasatch, through brush-choked canyons and over steep ridges. Some days they moved only one and a half miles. (The following year, Brigham Young and his followers used their trail to enter the Salt Lake Valley.)
The Donner Party’s next ordeal was crossing the present-day Bonneville Salt Flats. The route was an 80-mile trek to reach water at the base of Pilot Peak. It was a terrible ordeal for oxen-drawn wagons traveling at two miles per hour.
At Pilot Peak, the group spent a week resting and looking for lost oxen. Several wagons were abandoned. Their remaining 18 wagons continued west and entered Ruby Valley. Finally, there was plenty of water and grass, but they were growing anxious about the late season. Knowing the Humboldt River was to the north, they became more distressed as the trail continued south to Overland Pass.
Along the South Fork of the Humboldt River, after crossing the mountains, they wrote in their journals of frustration and bitterness. Some wrote of the five days wasted merely in passing the high Ruby Mountains.
After word of the Donner Party’s troubles spread to the east, Hastings’ Cutoff had no traffic the next year. However, because of the huge number of emigrants during the gold rush years of 1849 and 1850, some again traveled the cutoff. Many of them were horse packers who crossed the Rubies over Secret Pass. The cutoff was not used again after 1850.
Geology
U-shape of glaciated Lamoille Canyon
Great Basin
To appreciate the Ruby Mountains, it is necessary to start with the Great Basin. Named by John Fremont in 1844, its rivers flow inward rather than exiting to an ocean. The Humboldt, Bear and Truckee rivers, among others, end up pooling in sinks where the water slowly evaporates away. Ruby and Franklin Lakes in Ruby Valley along with Snow Water Lake east of the East Humboldt Range are smaller examples of these sinks.
Using this definition, the Great Basin includes most of Nevada and portions of California, Utah and Oregon. The Ruby Mountains are located near its northern edge. East to west, they are midway between the Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, the ranges forming the boundaries of the Great Basin.
The Great Basin is a region filled with long mountain ranges oriented slightly east of north. These ranges are 100 to 150 miles long, separated by valleys ten to fifteen miles wide. The mountains are wet and tree-covered. The valleys are dry and sparsely vegetated. It is a landform called basin and range.
Building the Ruby Mountains
About seventeen million years ago, this part of the continent began stretching. Today’s Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevada have moved apart about 50-100 miles during the last ten million years. During this stretching, the middle of the region rose slightly. The valleys near the Rubies are higher in elevation than valleys near the outer edges of the Great Basin.
As the earth’s crust stretched, it also thinned. The heat beneath the earth’s crust is closer to the surface here, explaining the area’s many hot springs.
Because of stretching, the earth’s crust broke in long faults running north and south. These faults freed blocks of rock to slide and tilt. Activated during numerous earthquakes, one block slipped upward as its neighboring block dropped. The upward sliding block formed mountain ranges and the downward blocks became valleys, a process known as fault block mountain building.
As the block containing the future Rubies rose, it appears to have tilted slightly. The east side of the Ruby Mountains is steeper than the west side. The west side has more and longer streams.
Fault lines edge both sides of the Rubies, evidence of past earthquakes. Movement along the fault on the western edge has occurred since the last ice age. The Ruby Mountains continue to rise.
Pond-filled cirque above Island Lake
Glacial Sculpting
The country around the Rubies would have looked very different during an ice age. Herds of mastodons, rhinos, horses and camels roamed the valleys. Ice covered 30 percent of the mountains near Lamoille Canyon and a mass of ice bulged from its canyon mouth.
Trees could only grow low on the mountains because of the cold winds blowing off the glaciers. Large streams flowed from the glaciated canyons. Ruby and Franklin Lakes merged into one lake, 200 feet deep and covering 470 square miles.
Within the last million years, at least four worldwide ice ages have occurred. The climate during an ice age is not so much colder, as it is wetter. Normally, the snow that falls during winter melts off during the summer. Mountains may contain permanent snowfields but they are too small to become active glaciers.
During an ice age, much more snow falls during the winter. It cannot melt fast enough to disappear during summer. Over the years, permanent snowfields grow and deepen. The weight of overlying snow compresses bottom snow into ice. This compressed ice becomes large and heavy enough to flow downhill as a glacier.
The Rubies show the effects of the last two ice ages. These may have destroyed evidence of earlier ice ages. The Ruby Mountains are the most heavily glaciated mountain range in the Great Basin. The older of the two glaciations in the Rubies occurred about 150,000 years ago. The younger glaciation was about 15,000 years ago, recent enough for the effects to still be evident today. If we say the Rubies are ten million years old, then the length of time since the last glaciation represents about one percent of their life span. In geological time, the glaciers have only been gone a heart beat.
Canyons eroded by streams develop V-shapes. They have steep sides and narrow, stream-filled canyon bottoms. Canyons eroded by moving ice develop U- shapes with broad, flat bottoms. Angel Lake Canyon and Lamoille Canyon show these effects. Much of their beauty is due to the broad canyon bottom offering magnificent views of the bordering mountains.
Lamoille Creek is slowly converting its canyon back into a V-shape. Since the younger ice age’s glacier did not extend into the lower canyon, the lower creek has had almost 150,000 years to grind away the canyon floor. Near the mouth of the canyon, the canyon has returned to a V-shape.
A cirque is a flat shelf where a glacier once grew. The many cirques found in the Rubies sit at about 9,000 feet elevation in the East Humboldts and 10,000 feet in the southern Rubies. During the ice ages, this elevation was high enough and cool enough so snow did not melt away in the summer. At this elevation, snow built up to become glaciers.
Since slopes are steep at high elevations, the tendency for ice to flow downhill is great. Flowing ice quickly changes the shape of the mountain supporting it. It plucks pieces of rock from the mountain slope and transports it downhill. The gap between slope and moving ice fills with freezing water. As the glacier continues to flow, more rock is pulled free. Over the years, this process removes large amounts of the mountainside, creating a bowl shape.
When the climate changes and the glacier melts away, this shelf remains as a cirque. If it is dished enough, a cirque will contain a lake called a tarn. Most of the lakes in the Ruby Mountains were formed this way.
There are more cirques than lakes however. Some cirques contained lakes in the past, but the lakes filled in, leaving behind ponds or flat expanses of sediment. Cirques some times show several shelves. Above the shelf containing Island Lake is a second shelf containing ponds.
Horn above Lamoille Lake
One mountaintop can have two or three glaciers digging into its sides. The peak is left as a sharp-topped peak called a horn. The most famous example of a horn is the Matterhorn of the European Alps. Snow Lake Peak bordering Lamoille Canyon is a local example. Glaciers grinding away at opposite sides of a ridge leave behind a knife-edged ridge called an arete.
Many south facing mountain slopes did not develop glaciers and have retained their rounded faces. The north face of Ruby Dome Peak, the side visible to Elko, is glaciated and steep. The south-facing slope is not glaciated and is quite rounded.
The glacial ice slowly moving downhill transforms the canyon it moves through. Boulders frozen in the ice act like grit on sandpaper, grinding away the rock of the canyon. Over time, this force widens and deepens the canyon. During the older ice age, Lamoille Canyon contained ice 900 feet thick. Its glacier flowed twelve miles, past the canyon’s mouth. During the younger ice age, ice extended eight miles down the canyon.
Glaciers also carved out the side canyons of Lamoille Canyon. Since the main glacier was larger, it could sculpt and deepen the main canyon faster. Ice flowing out of side canyons met the main glacier at its side rather than its bottom. After the ice melted away, these side canyons were left as hanging valleys. They have the characteristic U-shape of a glaciated valley, but their floor is high above the main canyon. Island Lake’s cirque is in a hanging valley.
As a glacier flows down hill, it encounters warmer temperatures, causing the ice to melt faster. Finally, it reaches a lower elevation where forward movement ceases. The glacier continues to flow downhill for many years, but the glacier’s front does not advance any farther down canyon. The forward movement of ice is matched by the rate of melting.
Lamoille Canyon moraine on left
The ice transports debris and boulders down the canyon. As the ice melts, they are dropped in front of the glacier’s face. This builds a boulder pile called a terminal moraine. Its presence today clearly shows how far the ice traveled. Outside Lamoille Canyon’s mouth lies its terminal moraine from the older ice age. The younger ice age’s terminal moraine is inside the canyon, near Right Fork Canyon. As the sides of glaciers melt, they leave boulder piles called lateral moraines. The sides of Angel Lake’s canyon show lateral moraines.
The end of an ice age is heralded by less snowfall. The amount of melting at the glacier’s front becomes greater than the speed of ice movement and the glacier front recedes uphill. Piles of debris are left behind, called recessional moraines. In Lamoille canyon, below the glacier explanation signs are recessional moraines. Individual rocks melted out of a receding glacier are called glacial erratics. The trail to Lamoille Lake passes several such boulders.
During these ice ages, the Great Basin’s valley floors were wetter and cooler. Trees and mountainous plants grew and spread across valley bottoms. These plants migrated between mountain ranges. It was during this time that many alpine plants reached the Rubies.
After the ice age ended, the valley floors warmed. Plants could survive only by migrating into the mountains. As the valley floors became too hot and dry for mountain plants, each mountain range became isolated. We now live during an inter-glacial period. Sometime in the future, glaciers will return to the Rubies.
Granite dikes in Lamoille Canyon