Ely, Nevada

Last weekend I drove to Ely, Nevada(4 hours through the barren salt desert of western Utah and then more of nothing from NV stateline to Ely---so boring---good thing I had an awesome audiobook to listen to)! My nephew and his family live in McGill, Nevada(about 10min north of Ely). I had to wonder why anyone would start a town in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but I guess there was a booming smelter business at one time in McGill and there is still mining to keep people in these 2 towns. My nephew works for the BLM, so he helps take care of the acres of empty land down there used for recreation and grazing. We did go up into the mountains for a cookout---that is where the real beauty of this area lies: up in the mountains! There is also a mountain called "Garnet Hill" where you can literally find garnets(January's birthstone)! The garnets are already "cut" like a gem when you find them(after searching through lots of dirt/rocks). I'm not sure what to do with the garnets I found yet---first I gotta find a rock polisher to get some of the rock off the gem. The biggest one I found was the size of a plump raisin, but one of my nephews found one the size of a big grape(and on the first stone he turned over)!! Searching for the garnets made me realize I'd have never made a good '49 gold digger---takes too much time and digging around for the little success you have! But the reason I went to Ely was to see my great-niece get baptized, which was the highlight of the trip! I love spending time with my family and watching them develop into who they have become so far in life!!!