The road in and the gates to Black Rock City reopened earlier than expected this morning, at 6 a.m., following Monday's freak rain storm that destroyed a legion of Burners' early camp-set-up and balls-tripping dreams. Here's hoping everyone found an acceptable place to stay in Reno yesterday, and that they did not so drunk at the Silver Legacy casino that the drive in today had to be further delayed for hangover reasons.

Organizers and law enforcement shut the gates Monday after so much standing water had accumulated on the playa and the road in that it was "un-driveable," as the Chronicle reports.

Here's a photo from Monday of a bevy of RVs parked next to the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, waiting to get on their way.
Hundreds of people also parked and camped in a Walmart parking lot across the street from that resort, so that was sad.

The following notice went out at 10 p.m. last night, and thus the latest crew of arrivals have been crawling through the gates for the past several hours.

And, in case you've never seen it, please just enjoy this letter that Dr. Dre supposedly sent to his girlfriend in 1995 after stumbling upon that year's Burning Man, back when only 5,000 "crazy, naked motherfuckers" went.

[BurningMan/Twitter]
[KRNV]
[MAI]