Perseid Meteor Shower Trip to the Black Rock Playa

with Friends of The Black Rock

August 14-16, 2015

The Friends of the Blackrock/High Rock (FBR) was sponsoring a camp outing to view the Perseid Meteor Shower in what they called "the deep playa" on August 14-16, 2015, and I thought I'd check it out.  I once saw this shower while soaking in a wild hot spring somewhere near the geographic center of Nevada and it was an awesome show.

The shower had its peak a few days before this trip, but with the darkness of the playa, we were still promised a active sky.

I got everything packed on Friday morning and set out at a leisurely pace for the remote campsite.  Luckily, FBR had some really good directions to this site, which is basically featureless, and I made it to the site with only one accidental "detour." 

We entered the playa at the 12 Mile Access Road and drove approx. 13 miles into the playa, so it was deep.  For a large part of the drive in, I had a tailwind, which is usually a good thing, however, this tailwind blew all of the playa dust I was kicking up ahead of me, so it was like driving in a snow storm whiteout.

We arrived around 5:30 PM and the wind was still raging, so we sat in the truck for over an hour, and luckily, the wind began to finally die down. 

I set up the Bobcat and enjoyed a beautiful desert sunset.

The last sun

The dogs seemed to really like the soft playa on their feet

After having a nice dinner and settling in a bit, it was time to go watch the sky.  There were probably only 40-50 people here on Friday and that number would more than double on Saturday.

Mother Nature gave us a beautiful show Friday night and the later it got, the more we saw.  Several miles to the south of our camp, Burning Man construction was well underway and it gave us a little light pollution, but that was okay because the meteors, for the most part, were in the northern sky.

I brought out my night vision goggles and they were a big hit.  You can see stars you didn't know were there, even in the darkest of skies.

A view through the NVGs

Some viewers brought cots to avoid the dreaded "Meteor Shower Neck Cramp Syndrome"

We watched the sky until a little after midnight and by then, most of us were calling it a night.  It was such a pleasure to camp with such a great group of people.

The next morning, FBR provided breakfast for everyone and then there were a couple of exploratory outings you could go on if you wanted.  One group was going to check out a number of the areas hot springs and the other group, the one I chose to go on, were going to drive out to a geode site that was almost three hours away.

One of the tour briefings.

This big Airstream became "Camp Central"

Rosa was getting the breakfast stuff put away, so she could lead the geode outing

So, we finally started off for the geode site after being warned about the very rough road and steep climb up to the actual site.  We had a caravan of about 6 vehicles and a couple open cab 4 seater quads, who unfortunately, had to eat an awful lot of our playa dust on our way to the site.

If only the road would have been this nice all the way

On the way, we stopped for a quick visit to Black Rock Hot Springs, which were beautiful.  I was told that you can soak in the shallow springs if you get in on the side furthest from the intake.  I dipped my hand in the water and it seemed to be a very nice soaking temperature, but not on a 100 degree day like today.

I didn't forget Porky this time--he chose not to soak today

After the short visit, we were back on the road, which got worse with every mile.

This was two hours into the trek and we still had about 45 minutes to go.  The bladders of the crew dictated this stop!

This was one of the steeper climbs and I still don't know how that little crossover SUV made it all the way

 Due to the limited parking space at the mine site, a lot of us chose to stop here, which was about a quarter of a mile short of the site.

Ahh, the open space

The geode site is mid way up, but I parked here.

Dexter said to hell with this heat and preferred the shade of the truck to a bunch of old rocks up on a hill.  He was happy to snooze here while we explored the area.

Dexter may have had the right idea all along

What a beautiful vista point

The miners at work. 

We found a lot of geodes, but unfortunately, none of them were those big fat ones full of purple crystals that you see in rock shops.  Most of the ones we found were the size of large strawberries.

Who needs shade?

Nick is cracking a few of them open on site

Rita's hunting through the tailing pile for a gem or two

I know they're hard to see, but on the rusty ridge, to the right of the rock  on top, you can see the silhouette of 3-4 big horn sheep.  They were very interested in what we were up to and they watched us for over 20 minutes.

After stocking up on rocks, we had the 2 1/2 hour drive back to camp to look forward to.

Back at camp, it was time to get the feed on.  FBR provided a lot of the food and the rest was done pot luck style.

Michael, a.k.a. H.O.T., fired up the smoker

Michael threw on a couple of large pork roasts and the extra grill space was there for anyone who brought something to cook

A little Nevada familiarization is always a good way to wait for the food

I don't know what kind of knife he was using to get a watermelon slice like that, but
I can attest that he was sober...

I had to laugh at David Book (tan hat on the right) because he looked like he was sitting at the little kids table

A double sided buffet line--always a good sign

Mmmm, need meat!

An awesome way to let dinner get settled

I honestly don't have any words to describe this photo, other than to say that
Burning Man is close by...

When it got dark, we set up around the main camp again and watched the "stars" streak across the sky once more.  There were definitely fewer meteors than the night before, but I don't think anyone cared.  We were all out in the middle of nowhere with each other and we all care deeply for this part of Nevada.  You may have to look a little harder for the beauty in this part of the world, but if you stop for just a moment and look, it's everywhere.

Sage advice

I got back home with a filthy truck (inside and out), sunburned ears and an exhausted dog.  Isn't it GREAT?