Reno Map
Reno sits in a high desert basin directly below the Sierra Nevada, close enough to the California line that its weather and its economy both come over the mountains.
Where is Reno?
Reno is in far western Nevada, barely 10 miles east of the California line and about 130 miles northeast of Sacramento over Donner Pass. San Francisco is some 220 miles west, and Las Vegas is about 440 miles south; Nevada is long, empty and mostly mountain range from one end of that drive to the other. Lake Tahoe lies roughly 30 miles southwest and about 2,000 feet higher.
Reno at a glance
| State | Nevada |
| County | Washoe County |
| Population | 281,714 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 78 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Mountain division) |
Reno in Nevada
Reno is the seat of Washoe County, which runs north from the city all the way to the Oregon line; Nevada has only 17 counties, and the Nevada county map shows how large each one has to be. The state's other top-100 cities — Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas — are all clustered at the far southern tip, so northern Nevada's business is largely Reno's business. Carson City, the capital, is about 30 miles south. West Wendover, on the Utah line, is the one Nevada town that runs on Mountain Time; Reno and the rest of the state keep Pacific Time, in step with California, which the Nevada state page explains.
The Truckee River and the Sierra rain shadow
The Truckee River flows out of Lake Tahoe, through the middle of downtown Reno, and ends at Pyramid Lake northeast of the city — it reaches no ocean, which is the defining habit of rivers in the Great Basin. The city occupies the Truckee Meadows, a flat-floored valley between the Carson Range on the west and the Virginia Range on the east. Because the Sierra Nevada wrings the moisture out of Pacific storms before they arrive, Reno gets only a few inches of precipitation a year while the crest 25 miles away is buried in snow. That same wall is why Interstate 80 and the transcontinental railroad both funnel through the single gap the Truckee cut.
Cities near Reno
Across the mountains are Sacramento, San Francisco and Stockton; south down US 95 are Las Vegas and Henderson. Reno is the only one of the four that is not in the far south of the state, and the West region quiz is a quick way to fix where Nevada sits among its neighbors.