Mojave National Preserve (U.S. National Park Service) Desert solitude in Southern California Singing sand dunes, cinder cone volcanoes, a large Joshua tree forest, and carpets of spring wildflowers are all found within this 1.6-million-acre park.

The Mojave Desert occupies approximately 43,750 square miles and is considered the smallest and driest desert in the United States. The Mojave Desert is situated in a transitional zone between the Great Basin Desert to the north and the Sonoran Desert to the south (mainly between 34 and 38°N latitudes).

Mojave Desert, arid region of southeastern California and portions of Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, U.S. It was named for the Mojave people. The Mojave Desert occupies more than 25,000 square miles (65,000 square km) and joins the Sonoran, Great Basin, and Chihuahuan deserts in forming the North American Desert.

The Mojave Desert spans four states: California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. In California, it takes up 20 million acres—about one-fifth of the state. The western deserts represent the largest intact ecosystem in the 48 contiguous states.

The Mojave Desert stretches from the wedge-shaped Antelope Valley eastward across the Colorado River and into Arizona. Bordering the Sonoran Colorado Desert and running north to and along the majestic Sierra Nevada mountain range, the land in between is anything but what we first imagine a desert to be, flat and featureless.

Though arid and harsh, the Mojave Desert is home to over 200 endemic plant species and only one kind of tree, the Joshua Tree.