These Images Of The 9-HOUR Traffic Jam Leaving Burning Man Are Insane

Burning Man is an event on loads of people’s bucket lists, and understandably so! 9 days in the middle of the Nevada desert surrounded by debauched hippies, rich kids and influencers riding steampunk bikes through dust storms and melting their faces off in the sun while tripping on LSD, with insane orgies and DJ sets and art installations all around you for 4 square miles. Or something like that, anyway.

One part you won’t be looking forward to though is the exodus at the end of the event, as evidenced by photos doing the rounds on social media this week. Get a load of this:

Current exit time is 9 hours and 30 minutes. Washoe County has cleared traffic to resume on HWY 34 and HWY 447. We thank all of you for your support and continue to look out for each other as you travel down the road to your destination.

— Burning Man Traffic (@bmantraffic) September 6, 2022

Any updates on traffic? Took me 12 hrs to hit pavement last night/ this morning. Have to head back out for another load

— steven townsend (@stownsend1965) September 5, 2022

My campmate left right after me at 10am today and we ended up in different exodus lanes and she got to gate at 5pm and I am still waiting. All lanes aren’t equal. She went right and we stayed left. Coming up on 12 hours. #BurningMan @bmantraffic

— Julie Wiskirchen (@coolia) September 6, 2022

Welp, I guess that’s what happens when 80,000 people all have to be out of there and return to their 9 – 5s at the same time, and there’s only one way out. Apparently they deal with this (as best they can anyway) with a process called “pulsing”. As explained by Wikipedia:

When the Burning Man ends, and the mass exodus out of Black Rock City begins, a road traffic control procedure called “Pulsing” is used to direct vehicles out of the city. At regular intervals (usually an hour during the peak periods), all vehicles are “pulsed” forward all at once for about a mile along Gate Road. This allows vehicles to stop and turn off their engines, while those at the southernmost mile of the multi-lane Gate Road slowly merge and then turn onto the two-lane Highway 34.

Looking at those photos, I’m not sure I could abide by those road parameters and this “pulsing” tactic when there’s literally open desert all around. Why isn’t there a Mad Max style exodus going on? Either that or just wait an extra day until there’s no traffic. Although I guess you’d need the foresight to take an extra day off work if that’s your plan going in. Sitting in traffic for 9+ hours on a brutal comedown in the scorching hot sun? No thank you.

Although, there is another way of looking at it…