12 Top Attractions & Places to Visit in Nevada
Author Lana Law has visited Nevada on many occasions to enjoy the cities and towns, as well as camping and hiking.
Nevada's amazing landscapes are often overshadowed by the glitter and glitz of its biggest city, Las Vegas. While this is a city you won't want to miss, Nevada is a state filled with incredible natural attractions, scenic drives, small towns, and wonderful opportunities for outdoor activities.
National parks and recreation areas provide outstanding terrain for hiking, biking, climbing, horseback riding, and fishing. You can even find ski hills in the high mountains. If you aren't up for that level of activity, you can simply enjoy sightseeing from the comfort of your car.
To find the best places to visit in Nevada, you sometimes need to venture beyond the cities and towns and get lost in Nevada's stunning natural areas. Plan your trip with our list of the top attractions in Nevada.
Las Vegas
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Considered the most entertainment filled two and a half miles in the entire world, the Las Vegas Strip glitters and glows with massive resorts and hotels, theaters, restaurants, gardens, and other attractions. This famous portion of Las Vegas Boulevard, running from the Mandalay Bay Hotel to the Treasure Island Hotel, is what most visitors come to the city to see and experience.
This is where the huge resorts, like Paris, New York-New York, The Bellagio, The Venetian, and Caesar's Palace are located. Lit up at night, The Strip shows up as one of the brightest spots on earth when seen from space.
Also worth seeing is Fremont Street in old downtown Las Vegas. Draped with a canopy of LED lights, the light show here in the evening, known as the Fremont Street Experience, is a must-do if you have time.
Las Vegas is one of the best places to visit in the US for a quick, action-packed getaway. Flights from all over the country offer easy access, making it a top destination for everything from a girls getaway weekend to a wedding. Families can also find hotels that cater to people traveling with kids, or pet-friendly hotels.
If you want to see more than just the city, you can escape to nature on some beautiful hiking trails near Las Vegas or simply enjoy a day trip to nearby Death Valley National Park or Valley of Fire State Park.
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Hoover Dam
Built during the Great Depression as a way to provide jobs, Hoover Dam is a marvel of modern engineering. The 726-foot-high dam contains Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, and provides hydroelectric power to much of Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Built on the Nevada and Arizona state line, the dam is just a 45-minute drive from the center of Las Vegas, or a short helicopter flight. You can walk out onto the dam for vertigo inducing views over the edge, or look out over Lake Mead. Three different tours of the Hoover Dam Power Plant are available; note that some tours can only be purchased at the dam itself.
Read More: From Las Vegas to Hoover Dam: Best Ways to Get There
Lake Tahoe
The sparkling blue water of Lake Tahoe, surrounded by often snow-capped mountains, is one of the most beautiful sites in Nevada. This 22-mile-long freshwater lake, high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the Nevada and California border, is a popular year-round destination.
In summer, most visitors come here to enjoy the beautiful beaches, hit some of the spectacular hiking trails, or camp at one of the many campgrounds in the area. In winter, families and powder hounds from across the US come here to hit the slopes at the ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area. Any time of year, you can enjoy the scenery on a lake-side scenic drive.
Several towns around the lake provide good bases for exploring the region. Lake Tahoe is about a three-hour drive from San Francisco, and under five hours from Yosemite National Park. From Reno, you can reach the north end of the lake in about 45 minutes.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
On the shores of Lake Mead and Lake Mohave, Lake Mead National Recreation Area encompasses some spectacular scenery and offers convenient access points and a variety of services for enjoying the lake and surroundings.
This huge area, encompassing approximately 1.5 million acres, provides opportunities for beaching, boating, hiking, some of the best camping near Las Vegas, and much more on the shorelines and in the surrounding mountains and canyons.
The most popular section is Boulder Basin on Lake Mead, just north of Hoover Dam. Boulder Beach is a popular place for a swim or to set up a lawn chair on a hot day. Campgrounds in this area offer a beautiful setting for both tents and RVs.
Also in this area is the Historic Railroad Trail, where hikers can walk along the old railway bed and through the old tunnels. If you are looking for information, stop by the Alan Bible Visitor Center in this area, about 40 minutes from Las Vegas.
- Read More: Best Lakes in Nevada
Valley of Fire State Park
Valley of Fire State Park is one of the most striking natural areas in the state. Dramatic rock formations and sweeping vistas of colorful stone waves create some of Nevada's most dynamic landscapes. Just an hour's drive northeast of Las Vegas, it's worth making the trip out here.
If you are only interested in a scenic drive, roads through the park provide stunning views of the landscape. However, one of the best ways to experience the park is from the hiking trails. These hikes are generally short and easy, but take you through some incredible scenery, including slot canyons, rock walls covered in petroglyphs, old filming locations, and other spectacular sites. You're also likely to spot some wildlife.
Camping is popular at Valley of Fire, and the campgrounds are strategically placed in beautiful settings among the rock formations.
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Read More: Top Hiking Trails near Las Vegas, NV
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Located just outside of Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is one Nevada's most popular hiking areas. The massive red rock formations jutting high above the Mojave Desert are the most striking feature, but the area covers a diverse range of sites and geological formations. Box canyons, mountains, and a look at the Keystone Thrust are some of the highlights.
A 13-mile scenic drive through the park offers a look at some of the sites, but hiking trails in Red Rock Canyon offer the best access to all of the major sites. Rock climbing, road biking, mountain biking, horseback riding, picnicking, and wildlife viewing are also popular activities here.
The conservation area has one developed campground with primitive facilities.
Reno
Reno is the second-largest city in Nevada after Las Vegas in terms of population, but is still relatively small and home to only approximately 250,000 residents. However, for a small city, it has a surprising number of impressive attractions and events for tourists.
Reno hosts the annual National Championship Air Races, The Great Reno Balloon Race, and the Hot August Nights car convention, along with a number of other popular annual celebrations. Reno is also home to the National Automobile Museum and several other interesting museums.
Reno is an excellent and very affordable place to base yourself when planning a ski vacation at nearby Lake Tahoe.
Great Basin National Park
In east-central Nevada, near the border with the state of Utah, Great Basin National Park protects nearly 80,000 acres of basin and range landscape. The park is dominated by the 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak and underlain by the Lehman Caves.
It also protects Bristlecone Pines that are nearly 5,000 years old. The park offers a number of developed camping sites and a wide range of backpacking opportunities.
The Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive is a must do, as is the Baker Creek Road—but not in the winter when the roads are closed due to significant snowfall. The park lies next to the massive Highland Ridge Wilderness area, a popular place to get out and enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities.
Burning Man
This pop-up city in the desert is a community-based, annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, about three hours north of Reno. This unique event focuses on art and self-expression in many forms, and attendees are expected to be involved rather than merely spectators. The people and the atmosphere of sharing and community are what make the experience.
Held in late August and early September, Burning Man began in 1986 and has grown considerably over the years. Today, tens of thousands of people attend. Attendance levels are capped each year, and tickets sell out.
The Burning Man Festival purchased the Fly Geyser Ranch in 2016. On this property is the colorful Fly Geyser.
Lamoille Canyon
Lamoille Canyon lies at the heart of Nevada's Ruby Mountains in Elko Country. The Lamoille Canyon Road is an officially designated National Forest Road that winds around the base of the 11,387-foot Ruby Dome.
The road climbs up into a spectacular 8,800-foot-high canyon that was carved long ago by glaciers. During the summer, the alpine meadows explode with wildflowers. The area is also known for its waterfalls and wildlife, with bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and a variety of birdlife frequenting the hills and meadows.
The lower region of Lamoille Canyon is open year-round, but the upper section is buried under snow for several months in the winter. Popular things to do here, apart from the scenic drive, include camping, fishing, hiking, and in the winter, heli-skiing.
Mount Charleston
Like its neighbor to the west, California, Nevada is one of the few places where you can downhill ski in the morning and sit by the pool in the afternoon. Perhaps the easiest place to give this a try is in Las Vegas.
In less than one hour, you can transition from the warm, dry desert floor to a winter wonderland up on 11,916-foot-high Mount Charleston at the Lee Canyon Ski Resort. Here, you'll find a fun and funky resort with 26 runs and three lifts. This resort gets an astounding 11 feet of snow per year and is a great spot to try skiing in Nevada.
However, Mount Charleston isn't all about snow. In the summer, it's a delightful escape from the heat of the valley floor below. Up here, among the tall pine trees, you'll find pleasant hiking trails, waterfalls, and the wonderful McWilliams campground.
Rhyolite Ghost Town
Nevada is a place where people with big dreams have come over the past centuries to make their fortunes. The state is dotted with abandoned mines, deserted ranches, and even a few ghost towns. One of the best-preserved is Rhoylite, located near Beatty and the California border, about 120 miles from Las Vegas.
The remains of a once-prospering town are laid bare for all to see. Structures dating from the turn of the 20th century are slowly being reclaimed by the harsh Nevada climate. You can go right up to most of the structures and take a look around—some of the most interesting ones are the ruins of the Cook Bank building, the railway station, and the bottle house.
This ghost town has been used as the backdrop for many movies, one of the most recent and well-known is The Island starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson.
The ghost town isn't all about ruins—nearby is the Goldwell Open Air Museum featuring 12 life-sized sculptures depicting a religious scene among many other unusual pieces.
