Elgin, NV to Ella Mountain GPS: N37° 15' 00" W114° 30' 00" (WGS 84) May 27, 2001 home: page 1 View maps, route map for this trip Located in Rainbow Canyon, Elgin is about 104 miles North of Las Vegas and takes about 2.5 hours to get there. The town of Elgin has a history tied with the Union Pacific Railroad but is now virtually abandoned. The small town existed between 1913 and 1966. However there are still a couple occupied homes and a small school house converted into a museum. There are many camping sites located among the many Cottonwood trees in the area. To get there from Las Vegas, travel North on I-15 for about 23 miles (24 minutes) to Exit 64 on US 93. Travel North on US 93 for about 43 miles (56 minutes) to a well graded dirt road on the right. A sign points to Caliente & Rainbow Canyon at the junction. Turn right on the road and travel Northeast 37 miles (1 hour) until it ends at a paved road in Rainbow Canyon. Elgin is located 1/4 mile north on the paved road. From Elgin we travelled NE to Ella Mountain along some of the best scenic trails of the trip. Most of the trails follow the tops of the ridges until it drops down into Pennsylvania Canyon a few miles ahead. Moving up a couple switch backs along the road to Ella Mountian. You can see several radio towers and a BLM fire lookout tower on the top of Ella Mountain in the background. From the top of Ella Mountain you can look down on Pennsylvania Canyon below. At the top, the BLM fire lookout tower is manned during the summer months. At 7479 ft., Ella Mountain is the highest mountain in the region, so the BLM uses this tower to spot forest fires in the surrounding hills. The lookout tower is also one of the last manned towers in Nevada. After getting our fill of the cool air on Ella Mountain, we travelled a different way back to Elgin. Further south in Pennsylvania Canyon the trail follows the wash where the canyon walls get closer together. Eventually the trail led up and out of the canyon and back into Elgin. home: page 1 Contact the author at speleo@intermind.net Photographs and information in this website may be copied or distributed for personal use only. For other uses, express permision by the author must be given. Use of appropriate photo credits requested.