How exactly did we end up in the middle of the Nevada desert?
Black Rock City is not a real city.
Black Rock City is a very real city, for a very short time.
Where is Black Rock City, you may ask? Well, it’s in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, an ancient dried up lake bed in the Northwestern corner of the state of Nevada, about two hours north of Reno.
Black Rock City is the 6th biggest city in the state of Nevada during its annual one-week of existence.
You may have already made the guess — Black Rock City is the home of the event known as Burning Man. The event people attend and then never shut up about. If you guessed, congratulations. Incredible deduction skills. Gold star for you. If you have no idea what Burning Man is, or if you’re curious to learn more about what it takes to attend, this might be for you.
I’ll start with addressing the previous statement regarding not being able to shut up about Burning Man: It is totally true. I’ve been exactly once, two years ago, and I bring it up every chance I get. (I promise, I try to restrain myself.)
“Begin at the beginning…”
A very brief (and probably inaccurate) history
Burning Man started out as a group of friends building something for a beach bonfire in northern California in the 1980s. The Man in question supposedly didn’t stand for anything other than some artistic self-expression. (Apparently, their kids even helped build a pet dog for The Man that burned alongside him.) There are also connections to an anarchistic group and probably some other influences that have been forgotten or else not interesting enough to make their way into the lore. However, it should be noted that Larry Harvey, one of the progenitors of Burning Man and arguably the largest individual influence on its culture, had said that he had not seen the cult-classic film Wicker Man until many years after their own bonfire tradition had started. So the connection to the pagan ritual depicted in the film is supposedly coincidental.
Through a series of escalating circumstances, that original bonfire on Baker’s Beach turned into the event we know today as Burning Man. A temporary city that uses a clock face as a map with cross streets of alphabetical order (A through K) that holds - at its peak - 80,000 people.
“…and go on till you come to the end…”
How did we end up going to Burning Man anyway?
Kadin had known about the event for years. News articles and YouTube videos would pop up from time to time, reminding him of its existence. Sometime around the years of 2022 or 2023, he started talking very seriously about his interest in going.
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea. A week in a desert landscape known for dust so sticky and alkaline that it can accelerate rust on every vulnerable surface, destroy your hair, cause something called Playa Foot, and get whipped up into massive dust storms did not sound like my idea of a good time.
Don’t get me wrong, I can rough it. I might complain the whole time, but the stubborn part of me will do a lot to prove I can Do The Thing. I’ll carry a heavy backpack and hike miles and miles to sleep on a little inflatable mat and eat a rehydrated meal while being bit by bugs if it means I get the bragging rights that go along with it. I’ll spend an entire 90+ degree summer covered head-to-toe in a Tyvek suit, rubber gloves, full-face mask, and ear protection, grinding fiberglass in an old boat if it means that someday I can prove to the naysayers that our sailboat endeavor was not only possible, but that we made it happen through pure grit.
(Are bragging rights and spite the correct motivations? Perhaps not, but I’d argue that they are effective…)
All that said, this sounded like it could be too much for me. I like to be clean. I will carry the weight of extra clothes and toiletries on a backpacking trip if it means I can feel clean when I go to sleep on my little inflatable mat. I cook myself in a full body tyvek suit, mask, gloves, and a shower cap just to keep as much dust off of me as possible.
I wasn’t convinced that being clean was possible at this event. Every video and image I saw of Burning Man was nothing but dust, dust, and more dust. People rolled in it and made dust angels like it was a snow day. I assumed they must be on some good drugs.
Despite all the dusty images we consumed, Kadin was still really into the idea. He was turning 40 in November of 2024, and I think a small part of him wanted to do something adventurous and different before he said goodbye to his 30s. My real problem is that I really like him. All he has to do is look at me with those Wall-E eyebrows, and I give in to his every whim.
So, I did what I do best - I started researching.
I knew that to get there, we would drive our campervan, Oberon, which was named to complement our perpetually under-construction sailboat Titania. The van is an old, retired work vehicle that we had converted into an exceptionally comfy but simple adventure-mobile. Taking the van meant we could turn this into an extended road-trip that could include the Pacific Northwest, which had long been on my list to visit. I figured that if I could visit new state and national parks, tolerating Burning Man would totally be worth it.
The gates to Black Rock City 2024 opened at 12:01AM on Sunday, August 25th, and the event ended on Labor Day, Monday, September 2nd. Our wedding anniversary is September 6th.
So, I decided to give Kadin the biggest anniversary gift so far - I spent months reading about what we would need, what would be required of us to survive the event, whether or not we should join a group camp, how long it would take to get there, on, and on, and on, until it was finally time to buy the tickets.
We had no success when the main ticket sale opened. We sat at our respective computers for several hours, to no avail.
But just a few weeks later, we had a notification that resale tickets were available. Thankfully, this isn’t a Ticketmaster situation. We only paid a small transfer fee, otherwise our tickets and vehicle pass cost the same as if we had bought them outright during the primary sale.
Tickets in-hand and several more months to go, Kadin worked on prepping the van for the long voyage. He did all the usual tune-ups you’d expect: spark plugs, oil change, etc. He also found a specialized water tank that fits in the spare-wheel outlet under the van (which goes unused because the spare is now mounted on the back.) And he installed (with monumental effort) a differential locker so that we could reliably take our two-wheel-drive vehicle off-road for remote camping.
The van has a roof rack mounted on top, which carries solar panels that connect to a battery bank inside that runs our refrigerator, lights, and a fan that is mounted in the rear window. He also added a hard-top storage container so that we could carry tools and extra fuel. Mounted to the side of the rack is a pull-out canopy. For our time at Burning Man, we planned to close up the van and sleep in the tent that attaches to the canopy, so that we could keep the interior as dust-free as possible. Our Burner friends who live in our city, Phoenix and Luna, generously gave us their old foldable cots so that we wouldn’t be on our little inflatable camping mats for 8 nights straight.
I slowly collected the various supplies we would definitely need, and a lot of stuff we might need. Some of those things included:
Second-hand clothes from thrift shops. A lot of them were crazy styles and bright colors we normally wouldn’t wear in our day-to-day life. I made a few items, too.
A kiddie pool to act as an evaporation pond so that we could use our outdoor shower. The playa easily turns into thick, gooey mud, (as seen on TV in 2023) so all waste water has to be captured and either evaporated or packed-out and disposed of in an appropriate drainage.
Aluminet tarps and lag bolts to build a structure around our tent for shade and reinforcement for potential high winds.
LED lights for our bikes for night safety. I also made decorations for the bikes, and a homemade insulated box to carry snacks and necessities on my bike throughout the day.
A lot of snacks, toiletries, and cleaning supplies both for during the event and for afterward. I wasn’t sure what nearby stores would have (I’ve read tales of local Walmarts being sold out of stuff because of the influx of Burners.)
Snowboarding goggles and masks for dusty days, spare bike parts and tune-up materials, duct tape, and lots of other dooddads for emergencies.
So, there was a lot of stuff. This isn’t even close to a comprehensive list. I am a big believer in “better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it”. My life motto is In Omnia Paratus, a Latin phrase that means “Prepared In All Things”. Sometimes, that means I overpack. Oops.
All of this prep work was not just me being my usual over-prepared self, but I was trying to align with one of the 10 principles of Burning Man, which are the set of guidelines to manage the culture of the city. That principle, Radical Self Reliance, means you should be coming to the event fully prepared to be responsible for your own well-being.
This doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help if you need it, but instead encourages you not to show up to such a hostile climate carrying nothing but a single flask of water and a dream. The people who do this are often (but certainly not always) lingerie-clad, supermodel-looking women who are derisively called “Sparkle Ponies.” They’re there to look good and have a good time, but rely on everyone else to meet their needs.
We received help from several people once we arrived. A neighbor in an RV didn’t think our shade setup was adequate, so they gave us a spare aluminet tarp and lag bolts to borrow for the duration. (They were right, shading all 3 exposed sides of the tent was the way to go. We were being cheap.)
Another neighbor who had an entire tent turned into a closet invited Kadin to borrow anything he needed, which ended up being a beautifully embroidered coat on a very chilly evening.
Yet another neighbor who left the event earlier than us offered to pack-out a bag of our trash. A random dude one evening pulled out a roll of gaffer tape and helped me repair my shoe that had broken all the way out in deep playa.
We also received many, many gifts of food and drink.
We could have survived without all of those things. But I think by being prepared and not creating undue burden for others, people are happier to provide assistance and give gifts. No one wants to feel obligated to be the one to make sure you don’t get sick or die out there.
So, all that preparation later, we left our home on August 19th and spent the next 5 days driving across the United States. Almost every night, we would sit in the front seats of the van and eat pre-made bagged salads. Then we worked out at a Planet Fitness, showered there, and slept in their parking lot. (I may or may not have had to take the occasional 2AM pee behind a few parking lot dumpsters. Kadin may or may not have teased me mercilessly for this, calling me Little Dumpster Girl…)
As we drew closer to Nevada, we started seeing RVs with The Man drawn in dust on the windows. There were many U-hauls and other rental trailers with their logos altered in duct tape to say things like “tramp trailer” instead of “ramp trailer” to better align with the principle of Decommodification and the unwritten principle of middle school humor.
We spent a day in Salt Lake City, returning to a few places we had visited previously in 2019 with our friends Frankie and Nicole, including a tea shop just across from Liberty Park, and a French Patisserie with the best breakfast in Mormon Town. It was wonderful and strange to return to a place I thought I would only ever visit once in my life. I had become such a different person since the last time we were there, that the place felt new, too.
On Saturday the 24th, we found a Discount Tire in Reno that was finally successful in balancing the tires on our van (This was our 3rd attempt in a week.)
We sat on little red pleather stools in the waiting area, watching the mechanics work through a window while we waited for news about the gate opening to Black Rock City. There was potential for a rain delay. When we got word it would open on schedule at midnight, we did our final provisioning at a nearby WalMart and made our way towards the town of Gerlach. We stopped for a final fuel-up around 11PM, along with several other Burners, obvious by their overpacked vehicles and faux-fur trimmed boots.
Once we hit the 34, a 2-lane road that cuts through the desert, we knitted into a long line of vehicles that were all headed in the same direction. Something about being in traffic with hundreds of other people who all had the same goal in mind felt exciting.
It reminded me of being a little kid.
Growing up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the most exciting part of the year was the Convention. It is a multi-day event where several thousand people gather together for their shared belief and to engage in an “interchange of encouragement.” As a child, it meant I would see friends that I didn’t see often because they lived far away, and I would get the chance to make new friends. The anticipation would grow as you got closer to the convention center. Traffic would become slower and heavier, and you could tell everyone in the cars around you were headed to the same place based on how they were dressed and the smiles on their faces.
This is exactly how I felt as we got closer to the Black Rock Desert.
We followed the flow of traffic until it eventually turned onto a dirt road. We wound through flagged lanes and passed by signs printed with aphorisms such as “When in doubt, be ridiculous”. It was now about 12:30 at night and my eyes strained to read the words in the dark.
We reached the gate, where our van was very briefly checked for banned items. (Some of those items include pets, extra people, weapons, and live plants.) We rolled forward where we met a greeter who checked our tickets and said “welcome home” and offered to give Kadin a hug.
Okay, a little culty. But ya know, in a nice way.
We were directed to open camping and picked out a spot around 5:15, between the cross streets I and J. We hoped we would be far enough from the big sound camps so that the music might be a little muffled while we slept.
We finally settled in and went to sleep around 1:30AM. Like most nights in the high desert, it was cool outside. We slept soundly, cuddled up in the van.
Sunday morning we awoke, reoriented the van now that we could see what was around us, and set up camp. The spot we chose was pretty deep into the city, making the bike ride to anything interesting a little longer than some might prefer, but we made a good call,because it was peaceful.
We pulled the power bank and fridge out of the van and put them in the tent, running the connection from the solar panels mounted on the van’s roof through a small hole in a zippered opening. I have to say, I felt pretty bougie. We always had cold drinks, fresh food, and pretty much unlimited power to charge devices. We even left a small USB fan running 24/7 to keep the air moving inside.
Once everything was set up, we changed our clothes, decorated our bikes, and got ready to explore Black Rock City for the very first time.
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