One of the nicest things about Reno is that it ends. You head out of town, town stops, and you are is the wide open spaces of Nevada. To experience this pleasant phenomenon, the wife and I went north over the weekend to the Black Rock Desert High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area. Locals condense that mouthful to the Black Rock or Black Rock Desert. This where Burning Man is held, but it is a vast area of mountains, canyons, meadows, and its most famous feature, the playa where Black Rock City sprouts once a year and world land speed records have been established. This is one of the flattest places on Earth.

On this trip, we drove out on the playa for many miles (major fun if you can handle the dust), then continued north on the main road to camp at Soldier Meadows. If you know where to go, there are some excellent hot springs for soaking, so that's where we went, being hot springs types. Used to be the area was a free-for-all for camping and 4-wheeling, but the BLM has done a great job of creating designated camp sites and restricting traffic to established main roads. All in all, it's a vast improvement over having people camp on top of the springs, build fire rings everywhere, spread toilet paper across the landscape, and crunch the vegetation willy nilly. It really torques me out to come across people who get a proprietary attitude about about public land that is easily shared by all just by applying a little common courtesy.

This is extremely rough country, so know what you are doing, or at least go with someone who does. Next year, we will do this a little earlier as it was already hot during the day and the insects were numerous enough to be annoying. Still, it was relaxing to get out for a couple of days, away from the city's racket and bright lights. You'll never know how many stars there are until you spend a moonless night in the desert.

Warning: In spring and early summer, some of the Soldier Meadows hot springs have chiggers living in the grasses near the water. These things are nearly microscopic, but if they get on you, you'll soon be covered with extremely itchy red welts (yes, personal experience is my teacher). Unlike mosquito bites, chiggers keep on itching for days. Before stripping down for a soak, check around the water for tiny red mites, which are the adult version. If you see these critters, back away and no one will get hurt. As an additional precaution, I'd suggest you scrub down with soap as soon as possible.