regions

While the Mojave Desert itself is sparsely populated, it has increasingly become urbanized in recent years. Las Vegas, Nevada is the largest city in the Mojave, with a metropolitan population of around 1.9 million in 2006. Palmdale is the largest city in California in the desert, and over 850,000 people live in areas of the Mojave attached to the Greater Los Angeles metroplex, including Palmdale, Lancaster, Victorville and Hesperia – these areas are referred to as the "High Desert." Smaller cities in the Mojave include St. George, Lake Havasu City, Kingman, Laughlin and Bullhead City, and Pahrump. All have experienced rapid population growth since 1990.

Towns with fewer than 30,000 people in the Mojave include Barstow, California, Needles, California, Ridgecrest, California, Mesquite, Nevada, Hurricane, Utah, Moapa Valley, Nevada, California City, California, Twentynine Palms, California and Mojave, California.

The Mojave Desert contains a number of ghost towns, the most significant of these being the silver-mining town of Calico, California and the old railroad depot of Kelso. Some of the other ghost towns are of the more modern variety, created when Route 66 (and the lesser-known US Highway 91) were abandoned in favor of the Interstates. The Mojave Desert is crossed by major highways Interstate 15, Interstate 40, US Highway 395 and US Highway 95.

As much of the Mojave is in the Basin and Range Region, few long streams cross the desert. The Mojave River is an important source of water for the southern parts of the desert. The Amargosa River flows from the Great Basin Desert south to near Beatty, Nevada, then underground through Ash Meadows before returning to the surface near Shoshone, California and ending in Death Valley. A part of the Colorado River traverses the far eastern portion of the Mojave.

Tourism

The Mojave Desert is one of the most popular tourism spots in North America, primarily because of gambling mecca Las Vegas. The desert is also known for its scenic beauty, with four national parks – Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Zion and Grand Canyon all within the desert or adjoining it. Lakes Mead, Mohave and Havasu provide watersport recreation, and sand dunes in the region entice off-road enthusiasts.

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