Black Rock Desert

This is Judy Strauss (at Burning Man 2011), who loved the Black Rock Playa so much that she set up her gongs each year to provide a meditation experience for all comers.

At Burning Man 2015 we photographed these artists putting the finishing touches on their Playa installation.

The Serpent Mother is a 168′ long evocation of a skeletal serpent coiled around her egg in a monstrous but maternal gesture.

Before art cars are certified to roam the open Playa at night they must be inspected at the DMV (Department of Mutant Vehicles).

With its Old West theme, the "Brand-UR-Ass N More" theme camp at Black Rock City features a distinctive cattle-branding corral and saloon.

Led by Judy and accompanied by Wyatt, gong meditation is open to all each day at the "Brand Ur Ass 'n More" theme camp at Burning Man.

In May of 2013 we drove 2.5 hours from Reno toward the Black Rock Desert and then began a 7-mile hike up about 1,000 feet to the top of this spectacularly scenic granite plateau.

Located on private property just above the east side of the Black Rock Playa, the Frog Pond can most easily be accessed from Empire on a 15 miles washboard rumble on the Jungo Road.

The hillsides west of Soldier Meadows Ranch rise up gently to the Applegate emigrant trail up through High Rock Canyon. Along the way there are several hot spring features.

This linear pool was dug to channel water away from the nearby railroad tracks. The ditch has created a unique wetland micro ecosystem in this otherwise parched shoulder of the Playa.

While its namesake in Death Valley National Park gets all the attention, this multicolored formation on the long road from Soldier Meadows to Hardin City is seldom visited.

With its 312 hot springs Nevada can boast more thermal features than any other state. Many are benign oases in the desert, beckoning the traveler to enjoy a soak in splendid isolation.

She was able to enjoy running in the vastness of Nevada's open spaces for only two years, as we moved to Reno when she was already an old lady of 16.

This massive formation stands sentinel on a rise above the northeastern end of the Smoke Creek Desert.

Near the town of Gerlach the tip of the Smoke Creek Desert empties into the blue haze twilight of the Black Rock Desert playa.

Located on a gated parcel of private property within the million-acre Black Rock Desert, Fly Geyser was created accidentally in 1964 from a geothermal test well inadequately capped.

At the edge of the known world of Burning Man, before the fence that defines the Forbidden Zone of the deep Playa, the Lounge at the End of the World played music from sunrise to sunrise.