One of the more surprising things about Reno is that you can start at a quiet trailhead in a suburban housing development and within an hour and a half be standing under a thirty-foot waterfall in a fold of the Sierra Nevada. The Hunter Creek Trail runs from a small parking area in the Caughlin Ranch subdivision, about ten minutes west of downtown, and climbs gradually through chaparral and pine to the falls.
The round-trip is roughly five miles and gains 1,100 feet — moderate for fit walkers, hard work on a hot August afternoon. Bring water and start early. The waterfall is at its most impressive in late spring after the Sierra snowmelt; by August it can be reduced to a trickle.