The forbidden fruit here is biting off more than you can chew, as there is simply too much to see and do. Everything from helicopter skiing in the Ruby Mountains to dropping a fly on the riffled surface of a cold mountain trout stream.

Ecosystems within the forest vary greatly, supporting Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert and gnarled dwarf shrubs on subalpine mountaintops. The diverse terrain includes everything from rolling sage, juniper, and pinyon pine, to magnificent cathedral-like cirque basins. Elsewhere in the forest, visitors can lose themselves from the travails of daily life in an intricate labyrinth of deep canyons and rugged ridges shaped by glaciers long ago.

Humboldt-Toiyabe is the largest national forest in the Lower 48 at nearly 6.5 million acres, and home to 15 separate wilderness areas. To give you an idea of the spatial relationship between these mountainous"islands in the sky" that rise above the Nevada desert, 500 miles can easily separate one section of the forest from another. The Humboldt and Toiyabe existed as separate entities they were merged into one magnificent recreational mecca in the 1990s.