Just South of the Cottonwood Creek campsite is the turnoff of Soldier Meadow road to actually drive out onto the dry lakebed playa.  It’s similar to the salt flats in Utah only not made of salt. (I checked. NOT salt.) We were cruising along pretty good with the cruise control set at like 45 and then we look up and notice that “hey, those tire tracks look wet!”.  Fun fact about the playa: when it gets wet, it turns into a material similar to wet concrete.  Which means that you’re stuck and stuck good! 😮 Jason takes the Jeep and it’s trusty little trailer out of the main path and onto the raw playa where it looks to be drier.  We made it through but carried on with a bit more caution.  The Jeep doesn’t have a winch and there are no trees out here anyway. Help is still 60 miles south in Gerlach. Good luck!

We made it safely off the playa and into the town of Gerlach, NV for food, fuel, and supplies.  The fuel is overpriced and Gerlach has the only restaurant until you get back into California.  The Black Rock Desert is the site of the annual “Burning Man” festival.  I get the impression that that’s what keeps this town alive.  I lied a little bit… we got fuel in Gerlach, but the convenience store is in the next town over, Empire.  I gotta say, I think I was the only female in the entire town of Empire.  I felt safer out in the middle of the desert. :/ Needless to say, it was a quick stop.  So the Jeep is full of fuel and we are full of cool ranch doritos.  From Empire/Gerlach we decided to head back up north into Oregon.  The town of Fields in Oregon has really good milkshakes and burgers, so that was a good enough reason as any to make that a destination!