Keep Your Eyes On The Horizon

A day at El Mirage and what high speed on a dry lake bed is like

“You can go as fast as you like.” Words gear heads dream of hearing. At El Mirage Recreation Area those dreams come true. Speed is always something that will be both alluring and elusive to drivers. Speed limits apply whether you are in the congested traffic of a city or not. At the lake bed no speed limits means drivers can finally get to explore big speed numbers in a relatively safe manner. So bring something fast! 

El Mirage is located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, about an hour and a half drive north east of Los Angeles. If you feel like you are driving out in the middle of nowhere and pass various ghost towns, your heading in the right direction. The lake bed itself is 6.2 miles long and 1.9 miles wide (at its widest point). There are also some surrounding trails just off the lake bed that eventually lead to a small mountain range if you wanted to explore something with a bit more texture. 

At the gate there is a fee of $15 per vehicle. For a full day of high speed runs, the limiting factor then becomes how much fuel you have. The price is $30 for a full week, if say, you wanted to camp or do a photo shoot. Many companies opt to use El Mirage for commercial advertising and when you are there, its easy to see why. The lake bed acts as a giant blank canvas which can be helpful in creating high contrast imagery. Eventually though you will get the inevitable itch to use whatever vehicle is available to drive as fast as humanly possible. 

Speaking of texture, the playa of El Mirage is a hard packed dirt surface with tiny cracks that are mostly unnoticeable. At times tires can screech along the surface as the grip isn’t the same as asphalt. Depending on how much power and tire you have, launching a vehicle can be tricky here. A couple things worth noting is it can be extremely hot and dry here, and winds tend to pick up in the afternoon so the earlier arrival the better. Bring food, water, chapstick and anything else to make your day more comfortable, because the closest functioning town isn’t close by. 

Trips to a place like El mirage end up being more enjoyable with other people. I’m not usually a numbers person, but when it comes to driving here, the numbers are all that really matter. Its all in good fun, but seeing if you can reach just a few MPH higher than a buddy makes for some entertaining competition among friends. 

When the tires first touch the surface of the lake bed and you realize how flat it really can be, your first instinct is to floor it (or at least mine is). Honestly, its entertaining to whiz along watching for big numbers on the speedometer. Personally, I haven’t yet brought anything wildly powerful to El Mirage. I’ve played around with quads/ UTV’s, and two Ford F150s, but one of these being a 3.5 Ecoboost, actually proved to be quite impressive. 

Against an Ecoboost Mustang and Kevin’s BMW 330i, the F150 shockingly, reached 100 MPH quicker. The thing is though F150s are electronically limited to that 100 MPH (that I so proudly sprinted to) and dry lake beds aren’t necessarily about being quick. Its highest top speed you are after here. Once I ran into the limiter those guys quickly caught and passed me traveling at upwards of 130 MPH. Brett brought a Lexus NX along just for kicks, but the CUV ended up proving to be formidable off the line thanks to its all wheel drive. Another day, TJ took an Aston Martin V8 Vantage to an eye watering 180 MPH, proving just how exhillerating a day at El Mirage can truly be. Let me remind you, this is all legal driving, for $15!

Ultimately it is the responsibility of the driver to maintain control of their vehicle and pay attention to any traffic that may be traveling on the lake bed surface. This is where the “mirage” part starts to sink in. At high speeds, on this flat of a surface with very little for the eye to focus on to as points of spacial reference, its easy to lose track of closing speeds of other obstacles/ vehicles so maintaining a large distance from others becomes crucial. Keep track of your speed and understand that braking, handling, and overall vehicle dynamics change on this type of surface. 

Next time I find myself at El Mirage I hope to be driving something much faster. The land speed record at this lake bed is 312.1 MPH. I’m not sure many of us will achieve anything close to that, but considering El Mirage Recreation Area allows any type of vehicle to enter the lake bed so long as the vehicle is registered/ specially permitted who knows what will show up racing across the surface.