El Mirage, California, was a place I’d always heard about but didn’t really understand. It’s basically a 6 mile long dry lake used by by fans of off-road vehicles and seen in movies, car commercials and ad shots.
What I really wasn’t prepared for was how much fun it was. When you drive up, it looks like…well, it looks like a flat desert. You can see dusters forming in the distance, fascinating twisters of dirt rising up from the ground to create funnels that race across the landscape. They’re not like the tornadoes of Oklahoma that form in the sky and drop down to scoop up everything in their path.
When you drive at El Mirage, you can literally chase the lake…or the mirage of the lake. You can drive as fast as you can and never catch it. It’s always up ahead of you. I’m not the greatest thrill seeker…I hate heights…but I do like to go fast. At El Mirage, you can drive as fast as you want to because there is nothing to run into unless there are other drivers out there. You can go in circles, drive straight ahead, anything you can imagine. As fast as you can… We saw a couple of motorcycle drivers, but it was quiet on the day we were there. It was a beautiful California sunshine day with a wide open desert, mountains in the background, dusters forming and all you had to do was press the accelerator and go! Awesome fun!
Confetti Thoughts 