Spelling The correct spelling for the name of the desert is Mojave. However, in other contexts the same word is sometimes spelt Mohave, for example in the name of Lake Mohave . The Mojave Desert occupies a huge area of southern California, from the southern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains roughly as far south as Interstate 10, where it meets the Colorado Desert . The Mojave also stretches east across southern Nevada and into the extreme southwestern corner of Utah. Some sources maintain that the Mojave Desert is not a separate desert but simply a transition zone between the Great Basin Desert and the Sonoran Desert .
Death Valley lies near the border between the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin Desert .
The Mojave Desert covers an area of approximately 25,000 square miles. For comparison, the total area of Scotland, including the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands and other islands, is 30,147 square miles. Description After climbing out the Los Angeles basin over the Cajun Summit Interstate 15 crosses the Mojave to Las Vegas. On every occasion that we have done this journey, always in late May or early June, there has been a most distinct line where the L.A. smog cloud finishes and the temperature rises from the mid-seventies to over a hundred. For first-time visitors to the USA, this is where you learn that having the car windows open won't make things any cooler, since the actual desert air itself is hot.