The state of Arizona contains three of the four deserts in the United States. The state is known for scorching temperatures and dry heat. The Chihuahuan Desert, the largest in North America, is located in Mexico and the United States. The Chihuahuan Desert snakes into the western part of Arizona. Arizona also contains part of the Mojave Desert. The Mojave touches the northeast corner of the state. The last desert that calls Arizona home is the Sonoran Desert. The Sonoran covers Arizona cities such as Tuscon and Phoenix.
California is another state that contains multiple deserts. The Great Basin Desert touches the central eastern part of the state. California also contains a good portion of the Mojave Desert. The Great Basin Desert and the Mojave Desert include the Death Valley region of California. Joshua Tree Park is also located in the Mojave Desert. The arid regions of California lie east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Sonoran Desert covers the southeast corner of California. The cities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Coachella are in the Sonoran Desert.
The Great Basin Desert touches the southeastern corner of Idaho. Known for its more mountainous areas, there is still a desert area within the state. This is what makes the Great Basin Desert a cool desert due to the northern latitude.
Nevada shares deserts with California. The Mojave Desert sweeps across the entire southern part of the state where it meets the Great Basin Desert. The Great Basin Desert almost covers the rest of the entire state of Nevada. There are only pockets of Nevada that do not lie in the desert, however, they are still very arid and hot.
New Mexico is home to part of the Chihuahuan Desert. The desert spans 175,000 square miles. The Chihuahuan Desert enters the United States at the border of Mexico and New Mexico, stretching to the northeast corner of the state. The desert is bordered by the Sierra Madre mountain range which is what caused the landscape to become a desert.
Texas also shares the Chihuahuan Desert with Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. The southwestern part of Texas hosts the Chihuahuan Desert. The expansive Chihuahuan Desert is larger than the state of California. The Chihuahuan Desert parts of Texas range from desert to semi-arid but temperatures are still sizzling.
Another unlikely desert state is Utah. The Mojave and the Great Basin Deserts invade the mountainous state of Utah. The cool desert temperatures and latitude of the Great Basin Desert make it tricky to identify Utah as a state containing deserts. The Mojave Desert touches a tiny piece of the southwestern tip of Utah.
