Staying in Reno for a week, our primary outdoor adventure was going into the Black Rock Desert towards the High Rock Canyon area. We've spent a lot of time in the western deserts but never up here in northern Nevada. With our 4WD vehicle, we were prepared for iffy roads but surprisingly, the road all the way out to Soldier Meadow was well graded. Not challenging at all. That said, I could see how it would be after any significant amount of rain. Plenty of potential mud spots. As it turned out, we didn't make it to the canyon due to fuel concerns but the road to Soldier Meadow was worth the drive. Next time, we'll carry an extra gas can. There's a gas station in Gerlach but it wasn't open when we drove through in the morning. read more

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Went to Black Rock Desert for Black Rock Rendezvous May 25-27, 2013. First time to Gerlach, NV and this desert. This is where Burning Man is held every yr. The town of Gerlach has 3 bars & the Black Rock Desert Visitor Center. There's Gerlach Water Tower Park with just a water tower & maybe a bench or table, can't remember, plus a map/brochures to pick up. Black Rock Desert Visitor Center - you can ask about the desert, some stuff for sale like sunscreen, water bottles, books, posters. There's a unisex bathroom we used - last flushed toilet for a while! We checked out Guru Rd - it's a neat dirt road with lots of folk art along the way. Pretty cool Elvis Memorial, & sayings on rocks. We turned off 12 mile access to head into the Playa. Desert is just that, sand, dirt, dried mud. Pretty neat to be able to camp in the desert with nothing around. Since it's on BLM land it's FREE to camp there. I'm not sure how they use the bathroom regular if you camp, but they brought in 8 pit toilets for us to use. Everyone was asked to bring 1 gallon of water per person/day. There's no drinking water in the desert. Got there after about 7hrs with lots of stops. Sat we just set up our tents & had a potluck dinner Dutch Over Cookoff & stuff we brought with the Friends of Black Rock. Watched some singers & kids playing with sparklers. Quiet camp is 10pm. We heard fireworks going off, not sure what time that was. Sun they had tours 8:30-2:30pm, but we could only pick one tour. I wanted them all! So we picked Solider Meadows-it's 1hr ea way to get there, several neat hot springs slightly off the trail. We saw some wild horses cross in front of the truck we were in - that was neat. After the tour we looked & found Double Hot Springs on our own. It's way neat!! One hot spring was 175 degree, the other was 180 degrees. No touching it or going in!! Too damn hot! Dinner was make your own tacos - they had drilled the meats, some cheese quesadillas, etc. Mon - some quick breakfast: muffins, oranges, bagels/cream cheese. Everyone started packing out. Leave No Trace!! Everything packed in, must be packed out. Maybe we'll go back for Hot Springs Tour & Fly Geyser! read more

Had a recent near-death experience out on the Playa. I thought the area we drove in was dry and carefully followed others' tracks...but the tracks led straight to hell. My 4x4 4Runner dead ended in a clay muck quagmire and needed to be extracted by a specialty service. This was after days of driving all over the place out there with no problems over alkali clay pan surface that looked identical from over my steering wheel. Thankfully we were "only" 2.5 miles from Gerlach as we hiked out in 100+ degree heat. We called 911 with spotty signal and after a lengthy back and forth with the local sheriff was told that we were on our own with no help coming--not that they didn't try to help. Hiking through the moist, scorching, sucking clay was the desert equivalent of slogging through deep snow--with a 50 lbs pack on my back. No trail, no guide, no functioning GPS, just binoculars and a rough idea of directional sense, and thankfully with town in view. Once off of The Playa in Gerlach, there were plenty of suspicious, unfriendly locals, but no services, not even a garden hose or spigot to wash the clay bricks that formed around our feet. We got off very lucky. The sheriff contacted the specialty service and they were very kind, competent professionals who had un-stuck people from The Playa on a weekly basis, and their services were far less than the thousands I was expected. Of course, we were very lucky to have mired so close to town, and had any phone signal at all. We were also lucky we had plenty of water, food, packs, equipment, a shovel. We were told that the same thing happens to people elsewhere in the 5 mile wide by 30 mile long Playa and wherever they get stuck, they inevitably have to hike out on their own from wherever they are. The BLM literature says the pioneers crossed The Playa in covered wagons pulled by oxen going about 2.5 miles an hour. They made better time than we did hiking out. Be warned. Even with our perilous adventure, we had fun camping out there and experiencing the total freedom that only this void can offer. Your only other company on The Playa will be tumble weeds, bacterial mats and other wild people. Do not expect to find any other forms of multicellar life or uni-cellular reception out in what on Planet of the Apes they would call..."The Forbidden Zone." read more

The Black Rock is one of the most unique desert environments I have ever visited. The Black Rock is best known for its burning man festival that goes on every late August and and early September. When traveling from Reno you head East on I-80, then go North towards Nixon and past Pyramid Lake. Eventually you will pass through Empire and eventually arrive to Gerlach, Nevada, approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes after leaving Reno. If you have never heard of Gerlach, Nevada, then you might want to Google it. Gerlach back in 2010 had a population of 206 people and 1 restaurant, Bruno's. Know you have finally arrived to the Black Rock Desert and if you are going to the Burn, keep on traveling around the big mountain until you hit the entrance into one of the most epic adventures of your life... The Black Rock Desert is one of the most harsh environments and surreal places in Nevada. There is more than 1.2 million acres of wilderness, canyons, limitless landscape, alkali flats, and what seems to be endless hot springs that you can actually swim in. You might smell after but the experience is well worth it. A quick tidbit...There have been several remains from saber tooth tigers and wooly mammoths found at the site of the prehistoric Lake Lahontan...Hmmm...Very interesting... Anyways...You can only give this place 5 stars! read more

My first visit to the Black Rock Desert was in 1978. The town of Empire still exsisted with its free 9 hole golf course courtesy of the now shuttered US Gypsum company plant and even then, Gerlach was dominated by Bruno. The desert is also home to several geysers, including perhaps the most beautiful in the world, the continuosuly spouting Fly Geyser with beautiful pools and interesting colors. The Black Rock desert itself is a dangerous place. Barren and harsh, an alklai laden dead end for the waters that matriculate from the mountians that surround. The flats are often deceptively muddy and if you break down here or get stuck without a buddy, you're quite likely to die. If you stick to the edges of the desert and don't venture onto the playa, its safer, but still frought with peril. Heat, rocks and the occasional rattle snake. And you'll find some natural hot pools for bathing. All alone, for hours. The winter is even worse, as the roads deterioate and become unnegotiable. But here's the thing. This place is magical, mystical, dauting in its lonliness and vastness. Get a 4x4 and explore. But be careful. This isn't an amusement park. read more

The Black Rock Desert. There are many ways to describe this place. Harsh. Flat. Beautiful. Open. Dusty. Frustrating. Solitude. Free spirited. For many their first awareness of this place comes through hearing about the Burning Man festival, or the record setting land speed record run of the Thrust SST vehicle several years ago. Others come here to launch rockets 100,000 ft or higher into the sky while others seek out hot springs located close by. The Black Rock Desert was on the path of the infamous Donner Party which ran into serious trouble in the Sierras and made history in a way many would like to forget. The original Central Pacific transcontinental railroad line runs along its edge, and there is an active gold mine visible along the Eastern edge of the playa that belies the mineral riches surrounding it. This is a place of many contrasts, and many opportunities, at least for those who are prepared to take it on. Cell phones don't work here. If you get in trouble, you will likely be your own source of salvation. This is a place where radical self reliance is alive and well...and required to survive. For the prepared and those who respect the land, the Black Rock Desert offers many things to see and do. For the unprepared, the Black Rock Desert can be hell on earth, a torturous expanse of land that you curse with every step or every mile traveled. I first saw the Black Rock Desert and the playa surface of the ancient Lake Lahontan back in 2002. It's captured my mind and spirit like few places in America ever have. And it's not just because of Burning Man. The Black Rock is indeed a special place. It's a place worth visiting...and protecting. 5 Stars? More like 5x5, a placement on my The Mythical 6th Star list, and one place where the mere mention of it's name makes me smile. read more