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Driving Directions


How to get to Burning Man from British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, even Northern California!


Note: Updated versions of these directions can be found on gwally.com/directions/. This page is no longer updated.


New Map! (updated 8/20/02)
We are working on a new pdf map with all of the special places for Burners highlighted. The directions are not quite finished and the map is in progress. However, we would love some comments on how the map prints. If you can, download it (it's 268 KB) and let us know what you think of the map.
http://www.arfarfarf.com/burningman/directions/or_map.pdf


Forest Fire Update
All roads leading to Burning Man are clear. Please check the California Caltrans page and the ODOT page for updates. They are located on the links page.

Welcome to ARF's Detailed Driving Directions to Burning Man. We have created our very own directions to the event. There is nothing wrong with the directions on the Burning Man Web site if you are coming from anywhere south of Sacramento, CA, east of Helena, Montana or Winnemucca, NV. But for those of us who are coming from the north, the directions on the Burning Man Web site are a bit inadequate.

Since Burning Man is all about participation, ARF decided to create the most detailed directions we could so that anyone from a first timer to a seasoned veteran would find something useful. We update information all year long so that we

This year we have finally flushed out two routes across Oregon to follow. The traditional route takes you from Eugene through Klamath Falls, OR, then Alturas, CA, and finally to Cedarville, CA and on to Gerlach, NV. The hot springs route we are suggesting takes you from Eugene, past the very lovely Summer Lake Hot Springs, through Lakeview, OR, then Cedarville, CA, and on to Gerlach, NV. The route is actually faster than the traditional route, and it offers you a wonderful place to shower and clean up on the route back to your home.

Why not just take I-80 like Burning Man suggests?

Interstate 80 is the only route to take if you happen to be coming from the Bay Area, or any point east of Winnemucca, NV. It is even a good route to take from Sacramento, not to mention every part of the state south of this point. But if you live in Northern California in places like Lockwood, California or farther north in Oregon or Washington, you can cut 6 or more hours of driving time by heading east to a city like Alturas, then on to Cedarville, CA.

The same is true if you are coming from Alberta, Idaho or Montana. The northern part of Nevada has very few decent roads that head to Gerlach, NV. If you have a clear interstate to Winnemucca, then it is worthwhile heading south to Interstate 80.

Another great aspect of the northern route is how rural it really is. There is stretches of road where there is literally nothing there. There is no point on the I-80 route from the West that is as remote as the stretch of 395 from Cedarville, CA to Gerlach, NV. Salt Lake City to Winnemucca is even more desolate, but it's following an Interstate as opposed to a rural highway.

These directions are to help people find the best route from Eugene, Oregon to Gerlach, Nevada and point out interesting things to do along the way and be a helpful guide for those that make the journey. People coming from Oregon, Idaho, Washington Northern California or Canada undertake a journey that nobody from the Bay Area, Utah or Reno and parts south, east and west gets to experience. The majority of the people attending the event come from Interstate 80 and turn off at Fernley, NV and drive along a fairly desolate road to Gerlach, NV. For people in the Northwest, the nearest Interstate is Interstate is I-5 and you leave that back in Eugene, Oregon. For the next 300 miles, you get to drive on old state highways and roads that most people forgot.

It is an interesting journey.

We attempt to do our best in explain what type of environment you will be facing. In general, you will only find gas stations in the towns mentioned. There are very few stores or retail establishments along the way. Remember when we say a town closes at 6:00 PM, we mean that all the stores in town lock their doors at 6:00 PM. When we say that there is nothing there, we mean there is literally no retail establishments of any kind.

Mileage Table

Vancouver, BC
 
Seattle 141 mi
3 hr
Tacoma 34 mi
.75 hr
174 mi
3.25 hr
Portland, OR 143 mi
2.5 hr
173 mi
3 hr
315 mi
5.5 hr
Eugene, OR 112 mi
2 hr
258 mi
4.5 hr
288 mi
5.0 hr
425 mi
7.5 hr
La Pine, OR 121 mi
3.5 hr
191 mi
4.75 hr
326 mi
7 hr
357 mi
7.5 hr
497 mi
10 hr
Klamath Falls, OR 108 mi
2.5 hr
168 mi
4.5 hr
280 mi
6 hr
422 mi
8.25 hr
452 mi
8.75 hr
592 mi
11.0 hr
Paisley, OR 141 mi
3.25 hr
100 mi
2.5 hr
221 mi
6.0 hr
291 mi
7.25 hr
427 mi
9.5 hr
457 mi
10 hr
598 mi
12.5 hr
Lakeview, OR 45 mi
1 hr
97 mi
2.25 hr
145 mi
3.5 hr
266 mi
8.0 hr
375 mi
8 hr
517 mi
10.3 hr
547 mi
10.8 hr
688 mi
13.5 hr
Alturas, CA 54 mi
2.0 hr
99 mi
3.0 hr
99 mi
3.5 hr
205 mi
6.0 hr
270 mi
7.5 hr
377 mi
9.2 hr
520 mi
11.5 hr
550 mi
12.0 hr
690 mi
14.6 hr
Cedarville, CA 23 mi
1 hr
65 mi
2.0 hr
110 mi
3.5 hr
121 mi
4.5 hr
227 mi
6.75 hr
292 mi
8.5 hr
400 mi
10 hr
541 mi
12.5 hr
572 mi
13 hr
710 mi
15.5 hr
Gerlach 83 mi
2.5 hr
107 mi
3.3 hr
148 mi
4.7 hr
194 mi
6 hr
245 mi
7 hr
351 mi
9.3 hr
416 mi
11 hr
524 mi
13 hr
660 mi
15 hr
700 mi
15.5 hr
835 mi
18.0 hr

A few notes about the grid mileage table
The times between points has been adjusted due to local variations such as mileage on the road and road conditions. For instance, it takes 1 hour to go between Alturas and Cedarville (23 mi), because there is a 6,200' pass to cross.

Live traffic cameras & Road Conditions

We're not sure what good they will do, but we found live traffic cameras and other Web pages, so we included those as well.

BurningMan



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Main Page

Route 1
Route 2
Route 3
Mileage Calculator

Alturas
Cedarville
Eagleville
Gerlach
Klamath Falls Lakeview
La Pine
Summer Lake Hot Springs

Border Crossing
Driving tips
Clean the road
Renting trucks
Links