A baked, barren wilderness to those who first visit, the Mojave Desert is a land of coyotes, tortoises, hawks, rattlesnakes, mesquite, juniper and of course, Joshua trees. It’s a place of severe contrasts: searingly hot days and bone-chilling nights, violent dust devils, mystifying mirages and spellbinding sunsets. El Mirage Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County. The lake is located about 9 miles (14 km) west-northwest of the town of Adelanto and 10 mi (16 km) north of Highway 18 in San Bernardino County. The dry lake, at an elevation of 2,840 ft (870 m), is approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) long. Most people may not be as familiar with El Mirage Lake as with its neighbor to the north by 30 miles or so, Rogers Dry Lake, the central geographic feature of Edwards Air Force Base. There the golden age of test flight saw the birth of manned turbojet flight, Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier and on the morning of April 14, 1981, the wheels of Space Shuttle Columbia touch down for the first time.