Week of April 3, 2025

From the editor’s desk

There aren’t many things that hit my reset button like swapping stories around a campfire on a warm, desert night, and hiking the West’s endless playground of canyons and trails.

Every March—when Reno is on its third or fourth cycle of whiplashing from T-shirt days to blizzard days and back again—I try to get the family down to balmier Southern California or Southern Nevada for a camping trip. Last week, we went to Valley of Fire State Park outside of Las Vegas, where we hit a four-day streak of luxurious weather; watched bighorn sheep families graze and frolic; and hiked through red Aztec sandstone formations to our hearts’ content.

I’ve been back in town for a few days now, and while I’m reacclimating to the tariff frenzy and the global stock-market plunge, I’m also thinking about how to spend as much time as possible outdoors. If you are, too, here are a couple of my favorite seasonal traditions to help make the most of the merciless freeze-thaw cycle of Northern Nevada spring.

If you’re short on leisure time and still want to get a legit glimpse of the changing seasons, the 1.1-mile Rancho San Rafael Nature Trail that loops through Evans Creek, just a few steps north of McCarran Boulevard, is quick and convenient enough to do on your lunch break if you live or work in the northern part of Reno. Park at either end of Rancho’s dog park; walk through the pedestrian tunnel under McCarran; and voila—budding willows, cattails and wild roses now; assorted wildflowers in a month; and a leafy cottonwood canopy later in the season.

Over the years, my son and I have made something of a game of hiking Mount Rose Peak Trail in the spring and early summer. While the entire trail to the summit is 10.7 miles (and add difficulty points due to the fact that it starts at 8,900 feet), one of its many wonderful features is that the payoff begins almost immediately, with a view of Lake Tahoe, so doing just a portion of this hike is easily worth the half-hour drive from south Reno. The game: to hike as far as we can in April, May, and then June before we’re trudging through more snow or mud than we want to be. Chances are you’ll still be able to throw a snowball in July, so also bookmark this one for a 100-degree day when you want to feel a 75-degree breeze without driving too far.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor