El Mirage Dry Lake

This area is managed by the BLM and is a popular weekend OHV area. The area covers over 27,000 acres which includes the Shadow Mountains and the dry lakebed. The lakebed will be closed if it is wet, but the surrounding area will still be open.

The entrance is a paved road with speed bumps. Near the Visitor’s Center there are pay machines that take cash and credit cards or you can pay inside, if the Visitor’s Center is open. The fee is $15 nightly, $30 weekly or $90 annually.

You can dry camp anywhere along the shore of the lakebed or anywhere else you chose to camp, boondocking style. There are about 15 “developed” dispersed camping sites that have ramadas, tables and fire pits located on Mountain View Road. This road is in pretty good shape and is maintained. It’s dusty and gets a lot of use, especially on the weekends with campers and day trippers. There are plenty of places to camp with any size rig. Large groups will usually camp together here with all their OHV toys.

There are pit toilets on Mountain View Road as well as out on the lakebed. At the entrance there is an ATV technical course. It is an open riding area but there are also well marked trails and sandy washes.

Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) holds land speed races here several times a year. These are huge events with a lot of overnight spectators. The lakebed is also popular with landsailers, ultralights, RC planes as well as filming of movies, commercials and music videos.

It can get windy, dusty and hot here! This is a great place to star gaze. We have camped both on the lakebed and at the “developed” sites many times by ourselves and with a group. We have OHV toys, a landsailer and RC planes. Weekends are busy, race weekends are very busy (but fun), midweek is very quiet. We always pick up trash that has been blown, broken glass and nails after a stay there.

We arrived on a Thursday and went to the local RV park to fill up water, and while we were there we found out it was the opening weekend for a big race on the lakebed. The place filled up quick, but you were never too close to your neighbors. It was a rocking weekend of music and fun, was so jealous of everyone with their toys! Definitely recommend coming to check one of the races out, however the wind kind of put a damper on things, some of the strongest winds, you couldn't even see most of the race. After the weekend we had the place to ourselves, which was a nice change of pace after the wild weekend. The Joshua trees are awesome, the landscape is really beautiful and the sunsets are on point. It's really important to note, the trash at this BLM site is absolutely horrible. It made me so sad. We cleaned up BAGS and bags left behind from our neighbors of beer cans and food. There is so much trash caked into the bushes. I spoke with the ranger and she said it's common to see this much, and that they are constantly trying to tackle it with volunteers. I think it would help if they got some trashcans, but for now it's a real problem. The local towns, Adelanto and Victorville, have everything you need. No problems getting in with a 34 foot travel trailer at all. There are several developed spots with picnic tables but you can camp wherever. Expect people coming and going, but a ton of privacy over all!

There are 2 parts to this OHV area. The dry lakebed mostly used by wind powered vehicles/toys and the other 24,400 acres is a desert terrain OHV playground. You can camp on the shores of the lakebed where any size RV will fit. In the OHV area most campsites will handle the biggest RVs too, but a few won’t.

If you want to be on the lakebed call the office to make sure it’s open. They close it when it gets wet.