Best Non-early arrival time?

justfred · Post by **justfred** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:45 am

All,

(Like many others) I missed the boat on early arrival passes, so for the first year in 10 I'll be streaming in with the mongol horde. I've heard that showing up at the gate from around 6PM Sunday to 6AM Monday probably means at least six hours wait in line, but probably fun. Getting there between dawn and mid-day means waiting it out in the heat, and getting there at dusk seems to be when a lot of others end up arriving. What's your feeling on when the best time to arrive would be? I already have camp space, so that isn't a problem, but I'm driving up from San Diego so I get there about 12 hours after I take off. I've got a busy day Tuesday, so I guess I'm going to have to choose the lesser of one of the evils.

Eugene Sands: Are you gonna hurt me?
Raymond: You afraid?
Eugene Sands: No, I'm just trying to plan my day.

phil · Post by **phil** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:10 am

Louise and I generally choose to arrive about 4:00 at our campsite. This lets us set up camp as the heat wanes. The trade-off is having space: if our camping group is full, we get there tenish in the morning so that we have more room. It's all a trade-off, eventually.

Cooky · Post by **Cooky** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:33 pm

One of my favorite times to arrive is just about sunrise. Usually quick in the gate and it's cool enough to set up my tent and shade before the heat of the day.

A note on trying to get there when the gate opens Sunday night... Last year folks arriving many hours before midnight without early entry passes were put in D lot to wait until the official opening time. Some ended up waiting in D lot a lot longer than the folks who timed their arrival on to the gate road line to be when the gate opened at 11:59 PM. With the tightness on early entry passes this year I'm not sure I'd want to be stuck in D lot with the horde or in line when the land rush hits at midnight. Then again it's Burning Man so even if I'm waiting in line it's a good time.

mode-of-operation · Post by **mode-of-operation** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:58 am

Here's a question!! If I arrive on Wednesday will there be line waiting to enter. More specifically late in the day cause I'm driving in from Las Vegas. And what kind of wait could I expect?

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:56 am

mode-of-operation wrote:Here's a question!! If I arrive on Wednesday will there be line waiting to enter. More specifically late in the day cause I'm driving in from Las Vegas. And what kind of wait could I expect?

to subjective for a simple answer......

the line could be short or long, which is relative.
probably not as bad as Sun/Mon but, it there's a dust storm or other reason to close the road in....well, the line can get long.......

in general, it'll be shorter than early week.