Day trips from Reno
Reno’s best feature is its position. A silver boomtown, the clearest shore of Lake Tahoe, a Sierra mountain town and a desert lake on tribal land are all inside an hour, in four different directions.
All of them need a car, and one of them needs a permit. What follows is which to pick, how long it honestly takes, and what winter does to the roads in between.
One spare day
- A first spare day, and anyone who likes somewhere strange
- The single best-known thing near Reno, and rightly so
- A short, easy day that feels like the mountains
- History, museums, and a quieter valley under the Sierra front
- Emptiness, and people who want somewhere that is not a resort
Virginia City
The Comstock Lode made Virginia City one of the richest places on earth in the 1870s, and then the silver ran out and the town mostly stopped. What is left is a boardwalked main street on a mountainside at 6,200 feet — saloons, mine tours, a steam railroad and a great many places selling fudge.
It is the least like Reno of anything within an hour, which is the point. Half a day is enough; a full one is comfortable.
- Geiger Grade is a steep, winding mountain road. It is fine in normal conditions and unpleasant in snow or ice.
- Open year-round, but it is high and exposed and a good deal colder than Reno. Some businesses cut their hours in deep winter.
Lake Tahoe — the Nevada shore
Incline Village and the north-east shore are the closest parts of the lake to Reno, straight up and over the Mount Rose Highway. Sand Harbor is the postcard: clear water, granite boulders, a state park beach.
This is the shore to pick if you are coming from Reno. South Lake Tahoe is a different proposition — roughly an hour and a half, and honestly better as an overnight than a day.
- The Mount Rose Highway climbs to about 8,900 feet — the highest year-round pass in the Sierra. Beautiful, and not a road to take casually in a storm.
- Sand Harbor's car park fills early on summer weekends and is turned away when full. Mount Rose Highway is a genuine mountain pass and can require chains or close outright in winter.
Truckee
Forty minutes west on I-80 and over the state line into California. Truckee is a railroad and lumber town turned mountain town: a compact historic main street, good food, and Donner Lake and the Donner Pass summit immediately above it.
It is the easiest of these trips to do badly-planned. There is no pass to worry about beyond the interstate itself, and you can be back in Reno for dinner.
- Interstate the whole way. In good weather this is the least demanding drive on the list.
- I-80 over Donner is the main route between Reno and Sacramento and is the road most likely to be under chain control in a storm. It also gets some of the heaviest snowfall in North America.
Carson City and the Carson Valley
Nevada's state capital sits forty minutes south, with the capitol, the state museum in the old Carson City Mint, and a walkable historic core that takes an easy half day.
Keep going south and the Carson Valley opens out — Minden, Gardnerville and tiny Genoa under the eastern wall of the Sierra. It is ranching country with the mountains straight up on one side, and it is the most underrated drive near Reno.
- US-395 south, dual carriageway most of the way. Straightforward in any conditions.
- Valley floor, low elevation, and passable all year. The least weather-dependent trip here.
Pyramid Lake
An hour north into the desert, and utterly unlike Tahoe: a vast, treeless, intensely blue lake with tufa spires rising out of it, on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe's reservation. There is almost no development, and that is the appeal.
It is a place to drive to, look at, walk beside and drive home from. Bring water and fuel; there is very little out there.
- This is tribal land and a permit is required — for day use as well as for fishing, boating or camping. Buy it online in advance or at the ranger station at Sutcliffe. Turning up without one is trespassing, not a technicality.
- Year-round, and starkly good in winter. There is no shade and no shelter, which matters more in July than in January.
Winter, and the passes
Three of these trips cross or climb a mountain, and from roughly November to April that changes the planning rather than the timings. Nevada and California both post chain and traction requirements route by route, and a road that is clear in Reno can be under control twenty minutes later and a thousand feet higher.
The Mount Rose Highway to Tahoe tops out near 8,900 feet and I-80 over Donner takes some of the heaviest snowfall on the continent. Both close outright in bad storms. Check before you commit to the day, not while you are on the hill.
Nevada’s transport department runs a live conditions service at nvroads.com showing chain and traction status, closures, cameras and — between mid-October and the start of May — where the snowplows currently are. A rental car in Reno will not come with chains.
Without driving yourself
These are the trips that genuinely collect you in Reno, which is a much shorter list than the number of tours sold with “Reno” in the title. Most Tahoe product expects you to already be at the lake.
- Lake Tahoe Half-Day Morning Guided Tour from Reno | Small Group
- Virginia City Wild West Half-Day Tour From Reno | Small Group
- Virginia City and Lake Tahoe Full Day Small Group Tour from Reno
- Horseback Riding Adventure from Reno
- Sierra Historic Tour from Reno
- ATV or UTV Trap Excursion from Reno
Fitting one in
A day trip is the second or third day of a Reno trip, not the first. The itineraries put them in order, with what to do either side.