Not an issue today--

Sign at the edge of Washoe Lake, washed away when the lake refilled. When the lake was dry there were problems with 4x4s and ATVs venturing out onto the playa, which could be annoying--but at least any damage they left was ephemeral!

I helped a grad student with a geophysical survey the last time the lake dried up, in the early 90s. We drove out onto the lakebed then, but we were Official, y'see. We also had an early version of GPS, so that we just could drive to a measurement station and push a button to record its coordinates. Big improvement over a theodolite and chain in the old days! ;)