Perseids on the Playa 2016 - Black Rock Desert (Pershing County, Nevada)

*Photo courtesy of Google

For a couple of years, I have wanted to camp out on the near-lifeless playa of the Black Rock Desert. Fortuitously, the Friends of Black Rock organization announced that they were organizing a campout to view the annual Persied Meteor Shower this year. The meteor shower itself was predicted to be the best show of the year by astronomers. After letting the organizer know that I was planning to join the festivities, it was simply a matter of packing the jeep and heading out towards Gerlach, NV, which is a couple of hours northeast of Reno.

I had researched the directions a bit, but relying mostly on the GPS coordinates given ended up taking me on a adventure in and of itself. After driving 20ish miles down a rough gravel road, I finally found an entrance to the playa. The Black Rock Desert Playa is a dusty, dry soil that that contains no visible vegetation or life of any kind. It forms a nearly white expanse for many miles in every direction and driving on it can be a lot of fun. On occasion, the land speed record is challenged in this desert. With only a vague idea of where I was headed, I drove around on the playa for bit until I finally saw what appeared to be cars in the distance. I headed straight for them, and as luck would have it, it was the group I was looking for.

After a short discussion with one of the members of the organizing committee, I found a suitable campsite the end of the horseshoe formed by the other campers. In truth, the playa is perfectly flat with absolutely zero features or flora, and so, pretty much any spot one picks is as suitable as any other. I quickly set up my tent and chair and struck up a conversation with my new neighbors, Dave from Reno and Amber from Susanville. They offered to share their dinner and a glass of wine, which was very generous, but I had popped open a beer and started preparing my own dinner. We enjoyed a some nice conversation while we awaited the setting moon and approaching darkness. 

Eventually, Dave and Amber joined some other campers on a visit to a nearby hot spring on the edge of the desert. This area is full of the and I was invited, but instead chose to crash for a couple of hours. My plan was to hit the bed (or bag, as the case may be) at about 9 or 10 pm and then wake around 2 am in order to see the meteor shower without the distracting light pollution provided by the moon.

When I awoke to my alarm clock, the sky was dark and from the sounds (or lack thereof) from my 60-ish fellow campers, I suspected I had chose the perfect time to view the stellar show. I grabbed my folding chair, a cold beer, and walked several yards beyond camp out into to the desert. Kicking back and enjoying the hoppy character of a Great Basin Ichthyosaur, I looked to the dark sky to see watch the wonders reveal themselves. The milky way is clearly visible out there so far away from city lights, and as I gazed on it and pondered the mysteries of both the universe and my own personal place in it, I was delighted to see a number of meteors streak through the sky. 

I focused my attention to the northeast, where the majority of the meteors were supposed to radiate from. They came in flurries - five or six in a row within seconds of each other, and then nothing for 4 or 5 minutes. They left short streaks of light across the sky, but lasted no more than a second, if that. Over the course of the hour or so I sat enjoying my beer, I saw upwards of 50 meteors, and considering I could only watch a small section of the sky, it seems like the astronomers were correct, and this meteor shower was one for the books.

Finally crashing a bit after 3 am, I slept soundly, only awaking to the rising sun. I quickly, broke camp and headed back towards Reno. I had plans in the afternoon and still a long drive ahead of me. The outing was very worth it though, and I will look for future opportunities to visit this stark, but beautiful landscape.