Black Rock Desert

Black Rock Desert High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area (Bureau Of Land Management), Designated 2000; Site Of Burning Man · Gerlach, Nevada

The Black Rock Desert is a vast dry lake bed, or playa, in the far northwest of Nevada, reached through the tiny town of Gerlach about two hours north of Reno. The flat, hard, cracked surface of pale alkaline mud stretches for tens of miles and is often described as one of the flattest large places on earth, flat enough that cars have set world land-speed records on it and in 1997 ThrustSSC broke the sound barrier here. It lies inside the Black Rock Desert-High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which also protects the Applegate-Lassen emigrant trail, the landmark of Black Rock Point, hot springs and the wagon ruts of High Rock Canyon. For about a week ending on Labor Day it hosts Burning Man, which builds a temporary city of tens of thousands; the rest of the year the playa is open, free and nearly empty, with no services, no marked roads, silence, huge skies and some of the darkest nights in the country. When wet it is impassable, and in a dust storm you can lose all sense of direction.

County Road 34 near Gerlach, Gerlach, Nevada, 89412, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the playa and the National Conservation Area are open all day and night year-round with no gate and no fee, except where the BLM closes areas for the Burning Man event and its set-up and clean-up weeks, for seasonal wildlife protection in places such as High Rock Canyon, or for other permitted events. Gerlach's fuel, food and motel keep short, irregular hours and close some days. The traps that ruin a trip are driving onto a playa still wet from rain, arriving during the festival closures, running out of fuel after finding Gerlach's pump closed, and getting lost in a dust storm with no waypoint. Confirm current conditions before relying on them.

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