In early May, Mary Ann and I made another road trip, the first one in my new vehicle, the 4Runner. This time we went up to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Black Rock Desert is a barren area of Nevada north of Reno that is primarily a vast dry lakebed, the playa, surrounded by several mountain ranges (the Calicos, the Selenites, the Kammas and the Black Rock range). The area takes its name from a pyramid shaped black rock at the northern end of the playa that although relatively small in size is quite distinctive in its color compared to all the other mountains around it. Apparently it was a landmark for the early wagon trains that brought settlers across the continent to Oregon and California. These days the area is more well known for being the location of the annual Burning Man Festival where some 70,000 people gather on the playa for a week of weird and crazy happenings.
Reno Post Office
We drove up Auburn on Friday morning and stopped off for coffee in Reno at the very splendid old Post Office in Reno. The Post Office building, now no longer a Post Office, is a wonderful art deco structure and the interior has many beautiful old fittings from its time as a Post Office (PO Boxes, Counters, Doors, Lifts). What attention to detail they paid when they created these beautiful public buildings back in the 1930’s. Apparently the building, like many other post offices of the period, had an impressive mural. It was unfortunately painted over by one of the Postmasters who wasn’t a supporter of the WPA and the New Deal who funded the building and its artwork.
Pyramid Lake
After filling the tank in Reno we headed north to the shores of Pyramid Lake and the town of Sutcliffe. Pyramid Lake is the end point of the Truckee River which flows out of Lake Tahoe and then out into Nevada and down to Reno before ending up in Pyramid Lake which has no outflow. The contrast of the blue lake and the brown desert hills of Nevada is really quite stunning. The town of Sutcliffe is not much to shout about - a scruffy and obviously very poor town with what looks like a majority Native American population. We sat at the edge of the lake by the local marina and ate our lunch, a Nugget burrito warmed on the engine.
White Pelicans on Pyramid Lake
Pyramid Lake is home to a colony of White Pelicans. We sat and watched a few of these beautiful birds cruise up and down the lake in front of us.
One of the major fish species in the lake is the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout - the largest freshwater trout. After damming the Truckee River and cutting off their breeding ground, they became extinct in the lake in 1939. Subsequently similar species have been found elsewhere in Nevada and repopulated in the lake and apparently now they are doing relatively well again.
At the south end of the lake is the town of Nixon where there is a Paiute Indian Museum. The museum was quite small but it does a great job of explaining the history of the Paiute tribe. As you can imagine there is not much for the US Government or the settlers to be proud of in the way the Paiute have been treated.
From Nixon it is a 60 mile drive north to Gerlach alongside the now dry lake bed of Lake Winnemucca (a remnant of the ancient Lake Lahontan which at one time covered the majority of this part of Nevada. Pyramid Lake is the sole surviving remnant). Nearing Gerlach we passed a large gypsum plant in the town of Empire. There is nothing in the town of Empire except for the Gypsum plant and a large storage facility full of RVs. I can only assume this storage is for the thousands of Burners that visit the Black Rock Desert every year for the Burning Man celebrations. They must park their RVs for the year and only use them for one week.
Gerlach, Nevada
Gerlach also has little to offer though it does have a hotel and at least one bar and a store. We continued on to scout out the meeting point for our Nature Walk that we had scheduled for the next morning - this was at a place called Fly Ranch about 30 miles north of Gerlach.
Returning south we drove onto the dry lake bed, the playa, and looked for a place to camp. There are miles upon miles of perfectly flat playa and you can drive anywhere you want on it. We chose a remote spot away from the edge of the playa but close enough so that it was only a short walk into the bushes to take care of any bodily functions.
The Campsite on the Playa
It was a remarkable campsite - out there in the middle of this huge flat plain with no one else around. After the wind died down at sunset it was pleasantly warm and really beautiful.
In the morning we packed up from our playa campsite and drove to meet our tour guides for what was advertised as a Nature Walk. It was actually a walk around an area where several “art installations” from various Burning Man festivals had been placed followed by a walk to view a geyser created by an uncapped geothermal well. There was nature to be seen but it was skewed towards man made artifacts quite a bit.
After the immense success of the Burning Man Festivals, the group that organized it formed a non-profit and bought an adjacent ranch, Fly Ranch. On this ranch they have relocated some art pieces from different years - the Bone Tree, the Narwhal, Baba Yaga’s House, a Labyrinth, etc. Also on the property there is a geyser that has produced an impressive cone of calcium and silica deposits over the 60 or so years of its existence.
Fly Ranch Geyser
It is perhaps this geyser that is the most impressive thing about the site. Natural springs and geysers exist all around the area but in the 1960’s a geothermal energy company looking for commercial opportunities drilled a well. It turned out to be not commercially viable so it was capped and abandoned. The cap failed and water has been spewing from the ground ever since producing this magnificent structure of multi-colored travertine, calcium carbonate and other minerals.
Other than at the geyser site the ranch owners have a rule that no photos can be taken of the property or the Burning Man artifacts. That’s a bit of a shame but there are plenty of examples on the internet here.
After the “Nature Walk” we drove back to Gerlach and filled up with gas before heading out north again along the dirt road towards Soldier Meadows.
The Calico Mountains
The road passes beside the beautifully colored Calico Mountains and up the west side of the valley extending north out of the Black Rock Playa. There were many hot springs and old mine sites along the way according to the map but we couldn’t identify many, if any, of them. We passed Mud Lake (so called because of it’s muddy color) and went up to Soldier Meadow Ranch. The ranch appeared to offer accommodation and food but later research showed it to have closed in 2018. Soldier Meadow was not the idyllic spot the name might suggest. It was in its day a camp for the cavalry who protected the travelers through the area in the mid 1800’s. At this point we were all tired of driving so we headed up Fly Canyon where we thought there might be campsites. We were quite surprised to find a nice little campsite overlooking the valley below with its own perfectly circular pool fed by a hot spring. The water temperature was perfect - not too hot, and not too cold.
Our Campsite Hot Spring
We pitched our tent above the hot spring and then set off on a little run up Fly Canyon. Not too far, just 3 miles as I am still recovering from injury. Just enough to get over the long bouncy ride up the valley. Up Fly Canyon we came across a marker for the Applegate Trail. The Applegate Trail was a wagon trail in the mid 1800’s that was designed to be a safer route into Oregon and Northern California than the prior routes. Given the nature of the land in this area today it is hard to imagine what privations and difficulties those early travelers experienced along their way. They were tougher then. The next day we saw many more of these historic trail markers - made out of railway track with an engraved plaque with a quote from one of the early traveler’s diaries.
Applegate Trail Marker
That evening the winds were quite strong and the tent really took a beating. I had hoped that the wind would die down at sunset as it did the previous evening but that was not to be. The wind continued on and it was not at all pleasant. For a long while we sat inside the tent drinking beer and eating cheese and crackers before braving the outside world and cooking dinner. Cooking was a bit of a stretch, it was heating Bolognese sauce and boiling water for pasta.
We had quite the noisy night as the wind continued more or less the whole time. The poor old tent was flapping around like a banshee. Nevertheless we had a pretty decent night’s sleep.
The next morning after breakfast we decided to take advantage of our own private hot spring. The wind had died down a bit and the spring itself was more sheltered than our campsite. It was a wonderful way to start the day. A cup of coffee for me and a cup of tea for Mary Ann and a float in a perfectly warmed pool.
Breakfast in the hot spring
We broke camp and headed south. This time on the western side of the valley towards the playa at Black Rock. This is the old Applegate Trail that we ran up the previous night. It was a rougher road than yesterday’s route but it was quite passable for the 4Runner, which, by the way, behaved perfectly.
Double Hot Spring
The way down the east side of the valley passes several hot springs. One of the major ones was the Double Hot Springs where the water is seriously hot (180 degrees F). The pools there look beautiful but they are seriously dangerous. There are warning signs around the pools letting you know that you would die if you fell in. Back in 2000 a couple jumped in to save their dogs who had somehow fallen into the water. The dogs died, the woman died, and the man had burns on 80% of his body. The family sued the BLM for not providing the site with sufficient warnings. That has now been remedied.
Warnings at Double Hot Springs
At Black Rock Point there is another hot pool, quite a large one. This one is more temperate and people do go in it but the color of the water does not look that good - it’s a milky muddy blue. Black Rock is the rock formation at the head of the playa that gives its name to the area. It is not large but its color is in striking contrast to the surrounding rocks and so it is quite the landmark. We lunched there on our engine warmed burrito before moving on to the playa itself.
Black Rock
On the playa we decided to head towards Gerlach again. It is a totally flat and wide expanse that you can drive anywhere on. You just had to keep moving between the two mountain ranges and you would end up in Gerlach. People do get stuck out on the playa as it doesn’t take much rain to make it a muddy impassable mess. We were warned numerous times to avoid any darker areas that might be wet and to make sure that we were kicking up dust behind us - if there’s no dust then there’s likely moisture around. We had a lot of fun driving 50 - 60 mph in the middle of the playa. Of course this is the place where the land speed record of an unimaginable 763 mph was set in 1997 by Andy Green, a fellow Brit.
Black Rock Playa
We had been warned not to try and get into Gerlach from the playa so we took an exit to the south over the UP train tracks and took the dirt road adjacent to the playa towards the main road. At that point we were finished with our travels so we headed south to Fernley, then Reno and home.
There are more photos here.
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