Though I lived in Ely for four years, I only visited the Ward Mountain Recreation Area (which gained that designation while I lived in the area in the early 1980s) on only a couple of occasions. The site is close to Ely, in a pleasant setting, but the area is so much like so many other regions in the Great Basin, with its pinyon and juniper forest and tall sage, that my family and I tended to look for different environments to hike through. I worked as a geologist and roamed through this type of environment on a daily basis.

With that said, though, the Recreation Area does provide the local residents with easily accessed recreational opportunities and the campgrounds make great places for an overnight stop on the way through this somewhat remote part of the state.

The Recreation Area is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, so take precautions based on the season.