A good bet
Nevada is a large, hot and dry western state that is popular with tourists because of gambling and the highly developed entertainment options that have grown up around gaming.
It also appeals to those interested in the Old West, which lives on — or at least reveals itself — in dude ranches, historic mining towns, ghost towns and Native American events. In addition, active travelers can pursue a wide range of outdoor activities such as ATV tours, helicopter tours, hiking, snow skiing or waterskiing.
It is a low-population desert state with more variety than one may suspect.

About Nevada
The most-visited areas of Nevada are the two gaming destinations, Las Vegas and the Reno-Tahoe area, places that appeal more to the authentics and centrics among us.
Reno doesn’t have the Vegas glitz, but it costs less to be a tourist there, too. Besides, Reno’s indoor attractions are complemented by one of nature’s finer gifts, Lake Tahoe, a beautiful resort area.
In addition, given the area’s topography, Reno is a center for outdoor activities of great interest to venturers and often to all personality types. Skiing is the big attraction in the winter, but Lake Tahoe offers a plethora of water-sports options at other times.
As for the state’s Wild West appeal, the past lives in the many active ranches (some of which play host to tourists) and in the (now-small) historic mining towns that were born during the 19th century rush to cash in on gold and silver discoveries, mostly silver in the case of Nevada. The state’s big mining rush was triggered by the discovery of silver in the Comstock mines outside Virginia City.
Nevada also counts a number of ghost towns that provide a rawer glimpse into the recent past.
For shades of a still-older West, Nevada’s Native American residents stage a number of annual powwows where tourists are welcome to observe old traditions for clothing and dance and interact with their hosts and learn more about Indian culture.
Not all Nevada’s mines are played out; mining is still an important industry, the state’s second-largest, but tourism is tops.
Nevada is striving to develop tourism in its rural areas. And, certainly, visitors have choices beyond the cities to engage in a variety of outdoor activities year-round, to pursue their interest in history or paleontology or to experience something of life in the 21st century version of the Old West.

• Try your hand at geocaching, an adventure game for GPS users. Use your GPS to find a hidden cache of (not-too-valuable) treasures. If you find the cache, you can take something from it and are expected to make a deposit, too, as well as record your visit in a log. Several of these caches are located in Nevada.

• Take a half-day whitewater rafting trip on any of several rivers, or choose a much more ambitious itinerary, lasting several days.

• Or, take a hot-air balloon trip.

• Try sandboarding, a hot sport that attracts thousands of venturesome riders to the state each year. With a waxed board strapped to your feet, you can glide across sand dunes at up to 50 mph.

• If you love horses, consider adopting a horse or burro. Federal law declared these animals to be "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." See the National Adoption Schedule at www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html

• Winnemucca, named for an Indian, is the starting point for biking, hiking, hunting, plus miles of ATV and off-road adventure trails.

• You have other options for off-road touring by ATV around Las Vegas and Reno; take a guided excursion or choose the self-guided kind.

• Plan a self-drive itinerary around Nevada’s historic mining towns. See www.travelnevada.com/activities_mine.asp for a rundown on the towns and their various attractions and place in history.
Among them, Eureka, the best-preserved 19th century mining town in central Nevada, calls itself the “loneliest town on the loneliest road in America.”

• Austin boasts six trails for mountain biking, ranging from four to 27 miles long, as well as good options for hiking and horseback riding.
Also, it bills itself as the jumping-off point for visits to a number of ghost towns, such as Belmont, one of the state’s most popular.

• In Laughlin, enjoy local gaming (or forget about it), and go canoeing, jet skiing, kayaking, rafting or waterskiing.

• Attend the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering early in the new year in Elko.

• Get married on a mountaintop or at the side of a sparkling lake. Or choose one of the state’s many wedding chapels, and arrange for “Elvis” to be one of your guests.
Or, marry in Lovelock, which has adapted the ancient Chinese tradition of the “lover’s lock,” a lock the couple clamps shut around a chain; they throw the key away in order to “lock” their love for all time.

• You are in the fabled American West. Go horseback riding. Take riding lessons if necessary.

• Attend a rodeo. This could be a small-town event or an event on an Indian reservation, perhaps combined with a powwow. The rodeo option also is there in the big places: the Reno Rodeo each June and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in November-December.

• In winter, try ice fishing on Lake Tahoe.

• Nevadans stage some unusual competitions that you’ll likely find entertaining: Virginia City is active in this arena what with its annual camel races in September and outhouse races in October. In another example, the town of Wells offers up its annual chariot races in November.

• Stay at a guest ranch or on a houseboat.

• Visit Battle Mountain (it’s a town named for some bloody encounters that occurred in the mid-19th century) which gives access to public lands where you can camp, fish, hike and hunt.

• Attend the Nevada Day Parade in the capital, Carson City, in October.

• In summer, ride the restored Virginia and Truckee Railroad, which now travels between Virginia City and Gold Hill. Also, visit Virginia City’s Fourth Ward School, now a museum, and a couple of mansions built by the city’s mining barons.
As a young journalist, Samuel Clemens wrote for a newspaper here under the pen name Mark Twain.

• For ethnic traditions you never knew much (or anything) about, attend the Basque Festival, held annually in Winnemucca.

• Attend the Wine Walk on Riverwalk in Reno, a wine-tasting event, the third Saturday of each month.

• Set aside time for shopping regardless of your destination, but you may give thought to the smaller towns in the northern part of the state. Here, you will often discover items made in the stores themselves, things like handmade boots, saddles, clothing, jewelry and even furniture.

• Play golf. There are more than 100 courses in the state.

• Attend a powwow. There are several annual events, some on reservations or in community parks, but one is staged in Laughlin, another of the state’s gaming resort towns, and others in Carson City, Las Vegas and Reno. You decide whether yours will be a city or rural powwow experience.

• Visit the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, the only place in the state with both a mining ghost town (Berlin) and a dinosaur dig site.

• Go hiking in Nevada’s state parks.

• For an alternative, and less-costly, casino resort town, try Laughlin 90 miles south of Las Vegas.

• Fish in any of more than 200 lakes and 600 streams and rivers. Species include various trout, bass and catfish. Visit www.ndow.org/fish/license for fishing regulations.