El Mirage Dry Lake: Exploring Southern California’s OHV Playground

Take a 90-mile drive east of Los Angeles and you might feel like you’ve landed on another planet. Just north of the Angeles National Forest lies El Mirage Dry Lake — a 6-mile-long dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert that has become one of Southern California’s most unique off-highway recreation areas. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the El Mirage Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Area offers: • Dirt biking and off-road driving • Automobile racing • Gyrocopter and ultralight aircraft operations • Camping beneath wide-open desert skies In this episode of Explore Always, I spend the day exploring the lake bed — proving that even a modest commuter vehicle can have a little fun on the desert floor. Planning a Visit? A permit is required: • $15 Day Use • $30 Weekly • $90 Season Pass For official information, visit the Friends of El Mirage website: https://elmirage.org/ Whether you’re an off-road enthusiast or just looking for a wide-open desert escape, El Mirage offers one of the most unique landscapes in Southern California. — #ElMirage #MojaveDesert #ExploreCalifornia 🌍✈️⛰ Explore Always uncovers the hidden history behind America’s most ambitious projects and overlooked landscapes — exploring infrastructure, environmental turning points, and the decisions that shaped our world. 📘 Follow along on Facebook:   / explorealways