Open camping: choose, measure, and build your site

Find a legal open-camping site

Use the current 2026 City Plan before departure, but treat on-playa markings and people as the final check.

1. Pause before unloading. Park without blocking traffic and survey the whole candidate site on foot.
2. Look for blue survey flags. Trace the apparent boundary in every direction. Do not assume that an empty center means the plot is open.
3. Talk to the neighbors. Ask whether the space is open, where their anchors and vehicle boundaries end, and whether more of their physically present camp is still being parked.
4. Check the street edge. Keep vehicles, bikes, guy lines, stakes, and stored gear out of the traveled road.
5. Check access through the site. Leave a direct, visible route for people to enter and exit, including someone using a mobility device. Larger or serviced camps may have additional official fire-lane requirements.
6. Ask before guessing. If the flags or boundaries remain unclear, ask a Black Rock Ranger or Placement Headquarters before building.

The current city map and the flags on playa control. Availability changes as the city fills, so a preferred clock address is not a plan.

Arrive with three versions of the layout

Draw the camp from above on a simple grid:

• Core: the smallest safe arrangement for the people and equipment arriving in the first vehicle;
• Compact: the expected arrangement with every vehicle, shelter, anchor, water container, and waste container included;
• Flexible: one or two ways to rotate or compress the compact layout when the available space is a different shape.

Do not hold an empty extension for friends arriving later. Share the open space and renegotiate with neighbors as people actually arrive. Make sure every vehicle fits inside the footprint; there is no separate general parking lot for open campers.

Playa tip (community practice - not an official requirement): Give every arriving vehicle a printed core layout and one contact name. If the group becomes separated, the first arrival can build a complete small camp without claiming an oversized perimeter.

Calculate an honest footprint

Measure the deployed system at home. For every object, include the space it really consumes:

• vehicle doors, tailgates, ramps, and a way to leave without dismantling camp;
• shade edges, tent vestibules, guy lines, and every ground anchor;
• water, kitchen, cooler, gray-water, fuel, and closed waste containment;
• internal walking routes and bike parking;
• anything that must remain separated for fire, exhaust, electrical, or spill safety.

The useful number is the smallest enclosing rectangle after the pieces are arranged, not the sum of their catalog footprints:

Planned square feet = layout length in feet × layout width in feet

For example, a small group may fit one 8 x 18-foot vehicle, a 12 x 20-foot shade with the sleeping tent beneath it, a 6 x 10-foot systems strip, bike parking, and a clear internal path inside a 24 x 30-foot rectangle:

24 × 30 = 720 square feet

That 720-square-foot figure is a planning example, not an official allocation. Draw it on a 5-foot grid and verify that all anchors, doors, exhaust paths, and containment stay inside the boundary. If the geometry does not fit, change the layout rather than claiming an invisible buffer.

Build in the right order

1. Walk the proposed perimeter and agree on it with the people already nearby.
2. Mark only the corners needed for the compact layout. Keep markers attended and remove them as the real structures replace them.
3. Position the vehicle so it neither walls off a neighbor nor traps the equipment needed for the build.
4. Anchor shelter and shade before opening bags, packaging, chairs, or other loose items.
5. Establish water, kitchen, gray-water, and waste containment before those systems produce liquid or trash.
6. Place bikes and night lighting without spilling into the road.
7. Walk every edge after dark. Make anchors and lines visible, remove knee-height hazards, and confirm the exit remains clear.

Design for neighbors, roads, fire, and access

• Introduce yourself and identify who should be contacted if something creates noise, light, exhaust, smell, or a safety problem.
• Aim generators, vehicle exhaust, bright lighting, kitchen heat, and waste impacts into your own footprint, not across a neighbor's border.
• Keep city streets clear for pedestrians, water trucks, and emergency vehicles. Give bikes a deliberate parking location.
• Maintain clear internal paths so Rangers and Emergency Services can reach a person quickly.
• Do not assume a neighbor's open path is your fire or service lane. Camps with greater depth, fuel service, or pump-out service must check the current official fire/service-lane rules before building.
• If the camp stores fuel, uses open flame, or operates a generator, follow the specific Burning Man fire, fuel, and electrical guidance. A small camp size does not remove those system-specific duties.

Wind and whiteouts

Anchor every structure for severe wind and close each loose-item bin whenever it is not in use. Keep masks, goggles, and a shelter entrance reachable during the build. If visibility collapses, stop setup, secure what can be secured without standing under a loaded structure, and get people to shelter.

Rain

Choose an elevated dry location for bedding, food, medication, electronics, warm layers, and the camp radio. Keep electrical connections and fuel out of standing water. If rain turns the playa to mud, stop driving and biking; the 2026 Survival Guide reserves wet-area driving for emergency vehicles.

MOOP

Open one build container at a time and immediately capture cut ties, plastic, tape backings, wire ends, packaging, and hardware. Count anchors in and out. Sweep the perimeter and the downwind side daily, not only during departure. Anything left loose can become airborne MOOP before the camp is finished.

Gray water and spills

Place every water-producing activity over containment before using it. Gray water must not be discharged onto the playa, including water from bathing, dishes, cooking, or cooler melt. Use stable, labeled, closed containers with reserve capacity and secondary containment where a leak could spread. Stop the activity immediately if capture or storage fails.

Pack out by reversing the build

Close waste and liquid containers before shade comes down. Pack loose camp contents, then shelter, leaving the anchor-removal and ground-inspection tools accessible. Remove and count every stake, lag screw, line, marker, and fastener. Finish with overlapping MOOP walks in daylight, including beneath vehicles and on the downwind edge. Ask a neighbor to inspect the bare ground with fresh eyes before the last vehicle leaves.

Common mistakes

• Unloading before checking every blue-flag boundary;
• designing for a hoped-for group instead of the people actually present;
• measuring tents and shade but not doors, guy lines, anchors, or bikes;
• using vehicles or caution tape to hold an empty future expansion;
• letting lines, bikes, or camp furniture enter the road;
• pointing exhaust, noise, light, or waste systems toward a neighbor;
• unpacking loose items before shelter and shade are anchored;
• starting a kitchen or shower before gray-water containment is working;
• dropping the final shade while trash and small hardware are still exposed.