Support for Outdoor Nevada comes from Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas.

We're proud to help introduce a new generation of adventurers to the diverse experiences that our state has to offer.

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Today on Outdoor Nevada, we return to the Ruby Mountains to explore Lamoille Canyon, try our luck on Angel Lake and meet up with a local author and photographer.

All this today on Outdoor Nevada.

♪♪♪ (John Burke) If there's one thing I've learned about the great state of Nevada, the more you explore it, the better it gets.

I mean, just look at this.

This is Lamoille Canyon in the great Ruby Mountains, and better yet, your cell phone doesn't work here.

How great is that?

There is plenty to see and do around here, and I got just the guy to show us around.

♪♪♪ (water rushing) ♪♪♪ Joe, how long you been in this line of work?

-I've been doing this for a little over 20 years.

-Is it as great as it seems?

-Look at my office.

(laughter) (Joe Doucette) I mean, I'm a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and I bring kids up here to teach them about wildlife.

What more could you ask for?

-Nothing, except that you also live in these parts, don't you?

-I do.

I live 20 minutes from here.

-And what is that like?

-Unfortunately, you sort of sometimes start to take it for granted.

I have these mountains in my backdrop, and I go sit on the back patio and grill a steak and watch the sunset day after day.

-You are killing me.

Joe, let's talk elevation.

What about the mountains where we are right now?

-So the highest peak is Ruby Dome.

It's 11,387 feet, just under 11,400.

We're probably right around 7,000 feet, maybe a little above.

And then you go over Liberty Pass and you get up around 8,500, 9,000 feet.

-What are some of the things to do in this area?

-Oh, all sorts of stuff.

Bird watching is huge here, lots of birds in the area; in fact, it's the only place in the Western Hemisphere you can find the Himalayan snowcock.

We have people come from all over the United States, Europe.

They come here to find it.

It's on their life list.

So birdwatching is great.

Photography, as you can see.

It lends itself beautifully to photography, and these aspens around us turn a really bright gold in the fall.

You've got fishing-- look at this beautiful creek.

You got wildlife watching.

You've got lots of different varieties of wildlife all through the area.

-There's got to be hiking, camping.

-Yes, all of that stuff.

-Tell me about that.

-So at the end of this road which you can see right up there where the snow is, that's one end of the Ruby Crest Trail.

It's a 43-mile-long trail that runs along the crest or the spine of the mountains, and it ends up in Harrison Pass.

The views are incredible.

When you get up top, you can see 50, 75 miles in any direction.

The stars at night are brighter than any nightlight; it's incredible.

-Now, this looks like a happy landscape.

Tell me about the water.

-So you're looking at the water here and what happens is in Nevada, water is very much an elevational thing.

So we're the driest state in the country-- 7-1/2 inches of rain statewide.

In the town of Elko, which we're outside of right now, 10-1/2 inches.

At the top up there, 50 inches of precip.

So what happens is you have this water melting and coming down.

This area was originally carved by a glacier, and then when you get animals like beavers in and they build these great beaver dams, it slows the water down and provides habitat.

As you saw earlier, we have two mallards up there.

They probably have a nest close by or getting ready to nest, and this provides habitat for just a myriad of wildlife.

Obviously, you've got trout in here.

You've got all sorts of small animals, marmots, rodents, everything all through here, mule deer.

They all rely on this.

We call beaver "meadow makers" because what happens is they dam it up.

This water flows really fast until it hits the dam and slows down.

It drops the minerals and rock that's been eroding off, and then when it gets mixed with the organic material from the plants, it becomes soil that grows things and it turns into a meadow.

This was probably much steeper like this at one point and now is a level meadow that is used by wildlife.

This great brush zone is perfect for a whole bunch of different animals.

-Nature is amazing.

-It is amazing.

Oh, it's better than anything man can do.

-Tell me more about the beavers.

How long do these dams last?

-These dams will last for years; however, on a really heavy snow year, they could get blown out when the flows are really high.

Then the beaver sit there, and they work-- they work continuously and they rebuild them back up, and they will do this all the time.

In fact a beaver has to be chewing on wood almost all the time because their teeth have been developed and grow so fast that if they aren't continually wearing them down, they'll actually grow into their jaw bones and then they can't eat.

-So it's a necessity that he does it.

-It's a necessity, and they are busy.

"Busy as a beaver" is truly a good word, and it's fun.

I've been up here fishing in a couple of these areas, and you're wading and fishing and have a beaver swim by you is really cool.

-Do they eat fish?

-No.

Beaver eat plants.

They actually love the bark, and they love the leaves so when they're cutting the trees down, what they're doing is they're trying to get to the top of the tree where the tender shoots are.

So that's what they're doing, and then they're using the rest of it to build their dams and they're hauling it down.

And then they'll have a couple of young which are called "kits."

And then when the kits get a certain age, the parents kick them out and they move up or downstream and they start their own beaver dam.

There was a study done where it took all the little tributaries of the Colorado River and got beavers back into where they all used to be.

They would hold as much water back in those little tribs as is what's in Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam.

-No kidding!

That's amazing.

Now, you love this, don't you?

-Absolutely.

-Why do you love this so much?

-Why not?

(laughter) Look at my office.

I like sharing my knowledge and teaching people about things.

Kids nowadays are so tied in to their phones or computers, that kind of stuff.

You get them out here, like you said earlier, there is no cell service here.

My granddaughters who live with me, we get them up here and they're doing like this and I make them put their phones away, and then they forget about them and have fun.

You know, the fresh air, the exercise, the sun, it just is a great place to raise people and animals, and you get values that, you know, sometimes you lose.

It's like anything, if you get overcrowded, you change how you work.

-Well, it's interesting you say that because I come out here and this is world-class beauty, and there aren't a lot of people out here.

-Yes.

Shows like this, sometimes the locals don't always like it because it tells about it.

-Sorry about that.

-That's all right.

But why wouldn't you want to share?

And it is world-class.

It's actually called the "Yosemite of Nevada" by a lot of people, and you just got everything you need here, and unlike Yosemite, it's not crowded.

-It's not crowded.

Now, I've heard you know a little something about fishing.

-A little bit.

What do you want to know?

-I want to know how to catch one.

Can you help me with that today?

-I can tell you how to fish.

I can't necessarily guarantee we're going to catch one, but we can try.

I got a place we can take you to that will be perfect for this.

-You got the spot?

-I got the spot.

-Let's go.

-Okay.

♪♪♪ Deep in the heart of the Ruby Mountains, you climb about 2,400 feet on a winding road that is heartstopping-- pay attention on that.

And when you finally get here, you're going to find this alpine beauty, Angel Lake.

Now let's go find Joe and fish this thing.

♪♪♪ Joe, I'm not overstating my case here.

This is one of the most beautiful spots I've ever been to, especially in Nevada.

You really know how to do it.

(laughter) You know, look at this.

It's the first week of June and we still got snow behind us but we're in shirtsleeves, right?

-Yes.

-This is a glacier carp cirque.

It's a natural lake; it's called Angel Lake.

There is a dam that was built in the 1920s to increase the capacity because they use it for irrigation down in the valley.

-Let's talk about the lake itself.

How deep is it?

How cold is it?

-So the lake is fairly cold.

As you can see there's snow, and that's what feeds it.

It'll actually have probably four or five feet of ice during the winter.

And this time of year, the ice came off probably about three weeks to a month ago.

So the water is mid-40 degrees.

During the summer it'll get up to a balmy 53, 55 degrees.

-What kind of fish you got in here?

-So we have trout in here, and we have three types of trout.

We have rainbow trout, which are stocked every year; we have brook trout, which are naturally reproducing so they don't need to be stocked, and then we also stock tiger trout, which is a cross between a brook and a brown, and it's sterile, grows faster, much more fun to catch.

They fight, they're aggressive.

-So let's start with the basics.

I want to go fishing at Angel Lake.

I'm going to need a license, right?

-You need a fishing license.

You can buy it at NDOW.com, and buy it right on your phone.

It's phone friendly.

And then it asks you if you want to print it or have it mailed.

Say "print," it loads a PDF on your phone, and you don't need to have a license with you.

That PDF on your phone is all you need.

It's awesome; it's very convenient.

-What are the limits?

-So up here the number of trout you can keep on this is five trout.

That's your daily limit, but possession limit is the same as daily limit, so until you consume some of those fish, you can't take any more home.

But if you practice catch and release, you can catch and release and go all day long.

I've had days up here where I've caught 30, 40 fish in a morning, and since I'm not keeping them, I let them go and I keep fishing.

-I don't think I've ever caught 30, 40 fish in my life!

(laughter) What do you use?

Give me the secret.

How are we going to do this?

-So you and I are going to fish a little bit different.

So I like to fly fish.

So flies, basically what they do is they will imitate aquatic insects, and trout are insectivorous.

They eat aquatic insects.

People don't realize a lot of the insects you see spend most of their life underwater.

So like a damsel fly that you see flying around, those little blue things that look like a dragonfly, two years of its life is underwater as a nymph.

First as a larva and then as a nymph, and then about two weeks of its life flying around, procreating and then dying, and fish eat primarily the stuff underwater.

-I had no idea.

Never heard that before.

-So they eat primarily what we call macro-invertebrates.

And in this case you're using a spinning rod, and one of the things I've done is I've given you a red hook.

Fish like red for whatever reason.

It looks like blood and that kind of stuff.

So I will thread the worm onto that red hook.

We've got a bobber that we can actually fill with a little bit of water, and that will give it some weight to make it easier for casting but it'll still be up there where you can see it on the deal.

So basically I've got a little piece of sinker to help keep that worm down where the fish are because the fish are not necessarily up close to the surface, and of course, you know, the good old worms.

And you've got these worms, and do you know how to tell if worm is going to catch a fish?

-How?

Tell me.

-Okay, it's the easiest thing in the world.

Moms, your kids are going to love this.

If it tastes good to you, it tastes good to the fish.

(laughter) That's a fish tale.

That is a fish tale, and I'm not buying it.

Oh, my gosh, that's a new one.

So that's the secret to catching a fish?

-That's the secret.

-I may not be catching a fish.

I'll taste it for you, how's that sound?

-Yeah, you do that.

I'll stick to the beef jerky.

Can we talk a little bit about safety before we go any further.

-Yes, please do that.

-So you're going to be in a float tube.

I'm going to be in a little what we call a "kick boat."

Float tubes are inflatables, so you got to wear a PFD, a flotation device so if God forbid something happens and you end up in the water, you're still going to float.

If you feel your float tubes starting to get a little low, don't try to get back to where you started, go to the nearest shore.

-Hey Joe, let's go fishing.

-Let's go.

From there, Joe got me suited up and into the water.

This water is cold!

Do the fish care if it's windy?

-Some of my best days have been on windy days.

-Okay, I like your attitude.

I didn't bring a net.

-I have a net.

-If you catch a fish, I'll come.

We talked.

We floated.

We floated and talked.

Joe is a great fishing buddy and a wealth of information from the environment and wildlife to how our land can offer us all so much.

♪♪♪ Floating around this incredible lake, you can take in the sights all around you.

The peaks, the waterfalls, the clouds that look close enough to touch.

It's a magical and calming experience.

♪♪♪ I tell you what, Joe, I hope the fish don't bother us.

I could do this forever.

The fish didn't bother us, not once.

Joe said it best: It's called fishing, not catching.

It didn't matter to me, I had a great time.

When it comes to visiting Angel Lake, the timing is very important.

You definitely want to check the forecast to make sure the weather is right.

Though it was a bit windy, we couldn't have asked for a better day.

Feeling comfortable in that?

-Yes, I am.

-Good.

-You should do this for a living.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service have done an amazing job at keeping this area pristine, barely a sign of trash.

That being said when you do visit, do your part to keep it this way.

♪♪♪ Even though the fish weren't biting, I could have spent the whole day at Angel Lake easy, but I decided to head back and explore more of Lamoille Canyon.

One of the many beauties of Lamoille Canyon is there's plenty of hiking trails for all skill levels.

This half-mile hike is perfect for the whole family.

The trail winds through a sea of aspen trees.

The rustling of the leaves is soothing and calming.

Eventually you'll find yourself walking along a stream and several small ponds.

You'll also find yourself stopping along the trail to take it all in.

To really appreciate Lamoille Canyon, you have to see it in person.

It's a thing of beauty.

-Look at this!

You know, the state of Nevada always gives you a little more than you're asking for.

If I were to say to you come to Lamoille Canyon, you'll find a beaver dam that's been abandoned, would you predict this?

There is so much here and so much in this entire state.

It's willing to give it to you, you just got to go a little further.

I continued my hike, and as luck would have it, I met up with Cynthia Delaney.

She's a local photographer, author and champion for rural Nevada and its culture.

When somebody like you who's an artist but also outdoors you're a hiker, you look at this, you can hear the wind in the trees, you can hear the water nearby, you can breathe the air, see the flowers, do you see this as an artist or do you see all of this as a hiker?

(Cynthia Delaney) I see it both ways, actually.

I've always been an avid outdoors person, and of course you throw photography into the mix so they're kind of combined.

It's hard to separate the two.

-Tell me about being an artist in this area and a hiker; I mean, this area looks like a slice of heaven.

-It is, really.

It is.

Of course I grew up in Nevada so I'm used to, you know, the extremes, the desert, the mountains, et cetera.

When I moved to Elko, I really did fall in love with Lamoille and did a lot of hiking around this region all over these mountains.

-You know, it's interesting.

You talk about the extremes of Nevada, because I think a lot of people think about a dusty highway between Vegas and L.A. but I mean, look at this.

-Oh, yes.

We actually have water in this part of Nevada because we often have heavy snowfall in the mountains.

And then come spring when it warms up, here you go-- we have waterfalls.

-Absolutely spectacular.

-Yes, absolutely.

-Let's have a chat.

Let's go sit down right here, what do you say?

I got about a thousand different questions for you.

-Okay, sounds good.

-Well, let me ask you this: You grew up in Winnemucca, right?

-Right.

-What was that like?

-Winnemucca in the '70s and early '80s was a very small, mostly ranching community.

You know, of course we had business owners with small businesses and things of that nature.

We basically went there when I was a small child, and we kind of homesteaded north of town.

So we had a small farm.

My dad was an accountant.

But it was an idyllic way to grow up actually.

As a child I was able to spend most of my days riding horses in the sagebrush, hiking.

Basically, I had the freedom nobody has today, so I loved that opportunity.

-You're obviously great at photography.

Did you catch the bug early?

When did that happen, when you started to like that?

-I really think that because my mother gave me or allowed me to use her camera at about age 12 and I started photographing mostly my horses and my pets.

We had every kind of animal in the world.

You know, growing up with those, I loved it.

I loved capturing their personalities.

I loved capturing the connections between animals, and even at that time I liked scenery.

Although Winnemucca is not as scenic as this region of course.

It's mostly sage and a little bit flatter, but it's still a beautiful area to me.

-At some point your photography got serious.

When was that, and why was that?

What happened there?

-Well, I first thought about it professionally when I went to college at UNR the first semester.

I took darkroom photography and fell in love with that, but there was always that little voice in the back of my head that says, you know, artists never make any money.

So I decided to be an anthropologist, right?

Great.

So anyway I pursued that route until the early '90s, and then I realized my true calling was photography and that's when I went to school at New England School of Photography in Boston, and I kind of never looked back, actually.

-When did you know that hey, I'm pretty good at this.

-I probably thought I was really hot in college, although I just was learning, you know.

But to me there was a connection, an emotional connection, and of course I'm a very visual person so there was that impact, that visual impact with black and white, that really struck me.

And then after I started photography school in Boston, I knew that I could somehow or the other make a profession out of it.

I didn't know what I would be doing then, but I just knew that I loved to photograph and I loved to write.

And I've been photographing and doing some writing almost since then.

-Tell me about your book, and what can people see in there?

-I wrote my book primarily as an educational resource so my students at the college could learn about the beauty around them and go out and experiment with their own cameras.

But it's also meant for tourists.

It's meant for anybody who enjoys Nevada or the outdoors, and especially rural communities because I also go into some of the smaller towns.

We have a lot of neat history here in Nevada, you know, with the gold mining and this and that, so I kind of captured that as well.

It's really a guide for just about anybody who is interested in seeing a part of Nevada that mostly remains uncaptured.

I mean, most people-- I travel a lot.

I've traveled the world.

Most people, you say you're from Nevada, they're going to say Las Vegas.

And Las Vegas is a great place, but there is a lot more in this state, and I just wanted to express that.

-And the history of this state is right on the surface.

Now, in your book you also capture Native Americans, right?

-Yes.

-Tell me about that.

-Well, I actually have a number of Native American friends, and as I grew up in Winnemucca also the same Paiute people, and I've remained close with them.

I really appreciate their culture.

And particularly in Elko, I like to go to the powwows when I can because it's something I didn't grow up with.

But it's a magical experience for me the way they dance and they express themselves visually and emotionally.

It's their culture coming out in their very dance, the sound, the colors.

Everything is beautiful and different to me, and I just find it fascinating.

-You've also photographed cowboys.

That's a big part of Nevada history as well.

-It absolutely is, and it's another culture or subculture, I should say, that I truly appreciate.

I did not grow up as a rancher but my father was a rancher as a child, and I appreciate that lifestyle.

As a young person, I was introduced to horseback riding very young, and I knew a lot of people who were ranchers in the Winnemucca area, north of Winnemucca.

So I appreciate their hard work, I appreciate their lifestyle.

I also appreciate their ethics, their code of ethics, and visually, you can't get much better than a cowboy, right, with the hat and the dust.

I love rodeo also, I have to tell you, and we have an amazing rodeo, the Silver State Stampede every year, and I have photographed that thing a lot.

-I've done it.

-You have done it?

-I've done it, yes.

-You have.

Well, then we have something in common.

-That's right.

-It's the action and the dust and the animal and the man versus each other or working together that is just so intriguing.

-I am so glad in life that you found your passion, you followed it, and now you're offering it for others because you're so talented, and your work is so valuable on so many levels.

I just want to say thanks, because it's so good to spend time with a fellow storyteller like you.

Thank you.

-Absolutely, thanks.

♪♪♪ To really optimize your time in the great outdoors, you're going to want to spend some time camping so I want to give you some quick tips to really be able to enjoy it.

Let's start with the tent.

Keep it simple.

You don't need anything elaborate.

You know why?

You don't spend as much time in here as you think.

The most underrated piece of camping equipment is this chair right here.

You get done hiking for the day, you've caught your trout, you want to sit around the fire, you're going to need a place to sit.

Don't forget the chair.

You're thinking about not bringing it?

Bring it.

Now, in places where there's designated campsites, most of them will have firewood that you can buy, not always, and if they don't, please don't be chopping down the trees and the limbs.

That's an issue.

Also, if you want to cook anything, make sure, if you can get one, get a Dutch oven.

Now, they're heavy but they will allow you to make lasagna or desserts or whatever you want.

They're very functional.

And finally, don't forget the amount of water that you need, especially in the higher elevations.

You're going to need more for yourself, and you don't want to leave your campfire unattended and lit.

So you can use the water to put that out as well.

One last thing: In designated campsites remember, lights out by 10, and make sure if you pack it in, you pack it out.

♪♪♪ Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains was formed by a glacier that swept through here thousands of years ago and it left in its footprint an absolute natural wonderland.

Here you'll discover many things: An aspen forest, hiking trails of all kinds of difficulties; as a matter of fact, the one that I took was just a half a mile long, perfect for the entire family.

You'll also see an amazing waterfall that seems to start from the heavens and flows endlessly into Lamoille Creek, and there you will see an abandoned beaver dam that is just something for the eyes to behold.

This place has been called the "Swiss Alps of Nevada."

Whoever said that got it right.

Lamoille Canyon in the Ruby Mountains: You don't have to fly international, but once you arrive, you'll feel like you did.

♪♪♪ Support for Outdoor Nevada comes from Jaguar Land Rover Las Vegas, inspiring the spirit of adventure with confidence in any terrain or condition.

Information at jlrlv.com.