disclaimer: this is for weekend 1 car camping with a group of 7 cars who drove out from los angeles @ 130am.

#1 tip for weekend 2: check the traffic report before you head out for possible construction closures near morongo casino.

we stumbled upon some lame construction traffic around the morongo casino. the freeway merged down to one lane causing a long backup. we had to leave later due to friends flying in @ 1130pm.

1am: We started our journey from LA early thursday morning. plugged in the address and was shocked at the 4am arrival time. started to panic to do research and found out about the huge traffic jam around the casino with the confirmed posts here on reddit. there could be a alternate route through the mountains some friends took which saved 30 minutes.

530am: finally past all the traffic and made it into the grassy parking queue. DO NOT drive south on jefferson to enter the toll booth grassy parking queue. we made the mistake and were met with police directing us to continue driving east on avenue 52 to follow the line which is now wrapping around the venue. panic begins because we need to pee. you need to be driving west on avenue 52 because traffic cones were set up to have cars entering this way. because we went south on jefferson then east on avenue 52 we were forced to go north on monroe and make a u-turn a significant way down because they had barricades in place along monroe to deter people from making uturns.

FOR CAR CAMPING YOU NEED TO DRIVE SOUTH ON MONROE TO THEN DRIVE WEST ON AVENUE 52 TO ENTER THE TOLL BOOTH GRASSY SECURITY CHECKPOINT.

*they could make changes though to be more efficient for weekend 2. we all know this is a bonus in the wknd 1 vs wknd 2 debate, but i digress. again this is my recap and my suggestion based off of this past weekend and my most recent experiences.

615-630am?: made it from toll booth entrance to security checkpoint area in about 45 min to an hour. didnt seem long tbh. our cars were just excited to use a port o pottie and grub on some munchies. our line was zooming though (we would later find out why). when we entered past the gate we chose the 3rd line from the left based off of availability (there were fewer cars lined up. reminder we had 7 cars. we thought hey be more efficient and spread the love and have multiple cars in multiple lines. in theory it worked but created a hassle later.

a few moments later...

security check: greeted by a friendly female security guard who asked us to step out of the vehicle, to empty our pockets of any personal items, and advised they will search the vehicle for any glass, weapons, drugs, metal stakes, and anything on the prohibited list. keep in mind still with an amazing attitude and vibe. after she confirmed no weapons were on us. (both myself and my wife were wearing shorts and a hoodie with crocs) she mentioned something along the lines like i see youre wearing shorts and not concealing weapons you can move on. she did not physically pat us down. *i did however witness people in other lines getting pat down/searched. and our other cars in a different line did get pat down.

car check: we then proceeded to allow the guard to enter our vehicle and she checked our glove compartment, center console, cupholders, under the seat. my truck/tacoma was organized. labeled storage bins, tetris style packing, easily identifiable bags for tent, chairs, canopy etc. plus our cooler was organized and our canned modelos were still in box. we started to open up the rear back doors to allow her to go through our already opened up duffle bags of clothes and personal items were her taking a quick glance and making a reference of how ready we were. made her way to the truck bed and i was ready to unstrap the ratchet tie downs but she stopped me and said i trust you guys. theres no need to ruin anyones weekend. circled our sticker and said have fun!

i really wanted to go indepth about this experience as i hope she maintained that vibe and others can also report in the comments to give her "virtual flowers".

ok anyway...this was where the shit show started to happen.

630 ish: had our camping sticker and wristband scanned. given our trash bags and advised to follow the line of cars.

now imagine how many security check lines there are that now have to funnel into 1 lane. it took a minute for the cars to crawl through.

700am: made it past then finally got greeted with another volunteer/employee and was asked if we were going straight to setup camp or waiting for other car. again, we had 7 cars so i was given a w i assume for waiting and told to proceed forward then turn right. after doing so was greeted by another worker to confirm the same thing and drove into waiting area C. there seemed to be 4 staging areas: A / B / C / D. staging D seemed to be primarily for preferred camping lot 8. whereas ABC were for us peasants.

705am: we now had 2 of our 7 cars in the waiting area. 5 more to go. slowly but surely they trickled in but we had one straggler.

9am: yes......it took our 7th car 2 hours to meet us. FAIL. we were hangry. tired. sad because we know we are in the outer lots and not 5a/5b. where are we going to be. basically every weekend 2 camper right now possibly reading this long ass post.

the shit show continues...

910am: now that we have our 7 cars we continue to move down the lane to confirm we are ready to go. we had 2 other parties in front of us. it took us another 30 minutes to then have our turn to move onto the camping area.

*hopefully they streamline this better for weekend 2, but it seemed like this the previous years. its really just the funneling process after each checkpoint thats a time killer.

945am: now in the line moving towards where we plan to setup camp. this was following the main dirt road that borders the camping hub lot 10. we get to one guard who advises to follow the cars. we continue crawling.

diappointed we were because we can already see people setting up camp in lot 4 the back near the hill already.

955am: greeted with another worker who mentioned follow and park in lot 4. whatever it is what it is. follow the leader. get to another worker halfway down lot 7 who stop us and starts to tell us to turn right and follow another set of cars. uh ok hopefully thats a closer spot then lot4 we were hopeful. took the turn and noticed people were setting up in lot 7 along the dirt path along thje wall of el dorado. our group did not like this idea so we asked the worker if we could setup in the other lot cause we didnt want to be next to the dirt road that gets accessed hours, is super dusty, and loud. the worker seemed to understand and just said to tell the other worker to let you through to park in the other lot. when we did just that the worker seemed to be on a power trip and mentioned, but eventually allowed us through.

10am: finally arrived to the parking area and the workers were very strict on power trips and saying we couldnt park back to back and that everyone has to park single file. we were about to take the L but we decided to talk to our neighbors and asked if they had groups and if they just wanted to move cars. so we took it upon ourselves to just move the cars that best fit our lay out plus our neighbors setup. great way to meet our neighbors as well.

11am: we were setup and cracked open my first modelo from lot 4 street 407/408 closer to the wall. it was chill because we had the portopotties close by. a water refill station not too fair and the 24 hour showers were there next to the hills.

other random notes:

- to be quite honest i dont know what lots they filled first. i havent had time to browse reddit yet.

- after taking the walk lot 5a/5b are the new lots that i feel/assume they fill firrst just based off of location being so close to the entrance. i personally would love to camp there in the future because of the trees alone. yea closer to entrance is awesome as well.

- camping hub seemed a bit disappointing this year. i personally didnt go there myself. we walked by silent disco every night to see whats up but went straight to camp. im sure they have great activities we just werent either informed or excited to check it out.

- if you have preferred camping maybe wait a few hours to setup. those pedicabs and their loud music love to use lanes 801 / 802 for their rides. some may love the party vibes others may like more privacy and peace. to each their own. just be aware. those front rows 801 802 had a lot of foot traffic from attendees pedicabs.

hope this helps. sorry for the long post.

just a lil faded am i.

enjoy coachella weekend 2ers!!!