Desert Vibes: 6 Ways to Thrive When Camping in the Desert

Last week I volunteered for the first time ever at a music festival in the Nevada desert. Originally stationed in a pretty valley covered with trees in Northern California, the event had to be moved due to forest fires.

My dreams of frolicking in the forest, getting down to some deep n dirty house beats was dashed. Instead, I would be on the playa, participating in a mini–Burning Man. Not the playa but a playa, roughly an hour southwest of Black Rock itself. There was to be record breaking heat. And wind. Lots of heat and wind.  

And like the type-A person I am, I did the best I could to go into the desert ready for anything. Some things went smoothly, some things… not so much.

Whether you’re gearing up for a Burner renegade or if you’re just a lizard who loves the heat, these 6 tips will help you thrive in the harsh but stunning beauty of the desert.

Bring Lots and Lots (and Lots) of Water.

This should be so obvious that it shouldn’t even be included with this post, but there are some strange folks out there who will literally forget to drink water – like my brother – in their day-to-day lives which seriously baffles me since I can’t go an hour without taking a swig from my Hydro Flask.

Natural water sources in the desert are (in my experience) few and far between. Combined with intense heat and zero shade, it is vital to your survival to bring plenty of water. It is sooo easy to get dehydrated and if you’re not drinking enough water, you greatly increase your chances of heat exhaustion, heat stroke and even death. I know I sound like a narrator spewing the side effects of some weird medication commercial on late-night TV, but it’s true!

Each person should consume at least 1.5 gallons of water per day. If you’re a camel like me, bring more than that. I was at my festival for four days so I should have brought 6 gallons.

I brought 20. Because you never know, ya know? I definitely drank more than 1.5 gallons a day. Water was just about the only thing I didn’t stress about. I even used some of my supply to take a shower. It was glorious.

Beat the Heat

There are some people who don’t mind the heat. There are some people who don’t sweat.

I am not one of those people.

I melt, and have experienced heat exhaustion (and probably heat stroke) more than once. My delicate body just can’t hang – anyone else relate? Nevertheless, I was determined to see this volunteer thing through. I looked at it like a challenge. And I love challenges.

When the temps are high, bring all the things that will keep you cool. You may be thinking, what things? Get a pen, cuz I’m about to give you a grocery list.

Shade. Sun hat. Sunscreen. Cold water (if possible). Spray/mister bottle. Battery operated fans. One of those towels that stays wet and cool. Ten pairs of extra underwear – you’ll thank me. No one likes swamp ass.

A word of warning: to be totally honest, I had all these things and there were moments where I still felt like I was dying. But I do think they helped keep me from severely overheating. Take your own body into consideration and adjust your list accordingly. Maybe you’re like the strange people who were casually taking a stroll around the festival in the middle of the day. If so, I greatly admire you. Either way, prepare yourself.

Secure Yo’ Shit, The Winds Will Hit  

If you’ve been to or heard of Burning Man, then you probably know that the strong winds can bring intense dust storms from out of nowhere, reducing visibility to about zero. They call these storms “white outs”.

The playa I was on was no different. Offering little reprieve from the 103 degree heat, a fine dust coated everything in sight and anything that wasn’t staked down properly was done for.

Your regular ole dinky tent stakes aren’t going to cut it. I watched a large canopy tent get completely trashed, the metal frame twisted in on itself as it tumbled across the dry desert floor.

Invest in some rebar stakes. These puppies are about 3/8 inch thick and have a sort of texture to them which makes them stick in the ground really well. They come in a candy cane shape which prevents tent loops or guy lines from slipping off so easily.

Make sure to bring some tennis balls or pool noodles to cover the exposed metal. No one wants to gash their foot open walking through camp when it’s dark out. Also bring a glove to protect your hand that is stabilizing the bar when hammering it into the ground. One of the creators of the festival wasn’t wearing a glove and gashed his hand open. He had to get stitches – and the ride to the hospital was a long one since the fest was in the middle of nowhere.

If you have a canopy/shade structure, guy lines are an additional security. I had both rebar and guy lines on my canopy and I still had to tighten my lines after each big dust storm. I’m not sure that my structure would have survived if I didn’t have the guy lines.

Ice, Ice, Baby

When it’s hot outside, keeping your food cold is challenging. Ice melts in case you didn’t know. And when the temps go over 90, it melts pretty damn quickly.

My ice melted in two days. I had banked on the fact that there would be an ice vendor at the music festival, but there didn’t end up being one. On the third day, my ice was not only melted, but it was also warm, like bath water.

I wasn’t the only one with this issue. Multiple people ended up leaving the venue to go get ice. I enlisted a couple of kind souls to buy ice for me, but by the time they returned, it was too late. My food had gone bad.

This was a seriously irritating misstep on the festival’s part and I’m still salty about it, but I digress.  There are a few things you can do to ensure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to you.

The most ideal situation is running a 12 volt fridge off of solar power, but if you don’t live in a van/home on wheels, this generally isn’t the cheapest or most convenient option. Generators or portable batteries are other options for running a fridge.

If you want to keep it simple, ice blocks last much longer that cubed ice. Pack your food/drinks tightly around the block then top off with more cubed ice. Keep your cooler in a shaded area. If it’s in your car, cover with a towel and insulate with pillows, keeping it from the sun as much as possible.

If you’re more into DIY projects, I have one for you. I met a man living out of his van at a park in Mt. Shasta, and he was the ultimate minimalist – he didn’t even own a cooler. When I asked him how he kept his food cold, he swore by this trick: take a towel and get it wet with cold water. Place the towel over the items. And that’s it! The heat causes the water in the towel to evaporate, thus carrying away heat from the object and cooling the object in the process.

He said to make sure that the items aren’t in an enclosed space such as a cooler, otherwise the heat will stay trapped, creating humidity and your food will most definitely go bad. Just keep the towel wet throughout the day, and you have yourself a no cost refrigerator.

Dirty n Dusty

The playa, in case you didn’t already know, is the term dubbed for a dry lakebed. The dirt/sand is so fine that it is like a chalky powder, or dust.

The dust will get everywhere. You will be picking it out of your ears and shaking it out of your backpacks for weeks. It will infiltrate every crack and crevice in your car. It will ruin your electronics if you’re not careful.

You will essentially become one with the playa, the dust part of your DNA.

Prepare yourself to get dirty, bring some baby wipes, and embrace it. There’s no way around it so just surrender to the experience of being the literal definition of a dirt bag.

Bring a Bike

Even though the event I worked was only a few hundred strong, it was still spread out enough that I envied those who brought their bikes. As I baked to a crisp in the heat, they were able to coast along the playa with ease, getting from shade structure to shade structure in record time.

My friends let me borrow their bike when I had to run back to my camp during one of my shifts, and it was pure magic, floating along the desert, a breeze cooling me for a few moments.

Biking around gets you places faster and helps you beat the heat. If you’ve got a bike, bring your bike.

There you have it, folks! 6 tips for not just surviving but thriving in this beautifully brutal landscape. Now enjoy these photos of wild horses running at sunset – easily the best part of the festival.

Tell me, what tips and tricks do you have when it comes to desert adventures?