List of North American deserts

This list of North American deserts identifies areas of the continent that receive less than annual precipitation. The "North American Desert" is also the term for a large list of ecoregions in the [United States (EPA)|U.S. Level 1 ecoregion (EPA)] of the North American Cordillera, in the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome. The continent's deserts are largely between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre Oriental on the east, and the rain shadow–creating Cascades, Sierra [Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada], Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges on the west. The North American xeric region of over includes three major deserts, numerous smaller deserts, and large non-desert arid regions in the Western United States and in northeastern, central, and northwestern Mexico.

Overview

The following are three major hot and dry deserts in North America, all located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.

The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest hot desert in North America, located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Its total area is.
The Sonoran Desert is a desert located in the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. It is the second largest hot desert in North America. Its total area is.
The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California and Southern Nevada. Its total area is.

The largest cold desert is the Great Basin Desert, which encompasses much of the northern Basin and Range Province, north of the Mojave Desert.
Other cold deserts lie within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau regions.

Desert ecoregions

Listed from north to south, distinct North American desert regions include:

Great Kobuk Sand Dunes three small deserts in northwestern Alaska, part of the Kobuk Valley National Park
Yukon - Carcross Desert, smallest desert in the world
Washington – British Columbia – Idaho – Wyoming – Oregon – Nevada
*Much of the Columbia Basin is desert, such as the
**Channeled Scablands, a desert in the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington
*Most of the Snake River Plain (ecoregion) is sagebrush steppe, but barren lava fields form small deserts, such as
**Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho
*The Wyoming Basin is dominated by arid grasslands and shrub steppe, but also contains the
**Red Desert (Wyoming)
*Owyhee Desert, in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and southeastern Oregon.
**Y P Desert, a portion of the Owyhee Desert in Idaho
*Oregon High Desert, aka "Great Sandy Desert", eastern Oregon
**Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed.
*Northwest Lahontan subregion in Nevada-part of the Northern Basin and Range (ecoregion)
**Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed.
Great Basin Desert
*Nevada, dominated by sagebrush steppe
**Forty Mile Desert, in northwest Nevada
**Smoke Creek Desert, Nevada
**Carson Desert
*Utah
**Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah
**Sevier Desert surrounds the intermittent, salty Sevier Lake
***Black Rock Desert volcanic field
**Escalante Desert
Colorado Plateau
*Utah
**San Rafael Desert, the drier portions of the San Rafael Swell
*Colorado, dominated by pinyon–juniper woodlands, but contains desert areas where unfavorable soil conditions exist:
**Bisti Badlands Desert, New Mexico
**Painted Desert, Arizona
Mojave Desert
*California ; and parts of western Arizona, southern Nevada, and a small portion of Utah.
**Death Valley, California
*Amargosa Desert, Nevada
Sonoran Desert
*Colorado Desert, Southern California
**Yuha Desert, Imperial Valley, California
*Yuma Desert, southwest Arizona
*Lechuguilla Desert, southwest Arizona
*Tule Desert (Arizona) and Sonora, Mexico
*Gran Desierto de Altar, Sonora, Mexico
*Baja California desert, State of Baja California, Mexico
**Vizcaíno Desert, central State of Baja California, Mexico
Chihuahuan Desert
*Trans-Pecos Desert, west Texas
*White Sands, unusual gypsum dune field in New Mexico

Western arid regions of North America

The separately defined western arid regions of North America are continental regions of aridity based on available water in addition to rain shadow–diminished rainfall and which have many non-desert shrub-steppe and xeric shrublands in addition to desert ecosystems and ecoregions. This large arid region of includes: deserts, such as the Great Basin Desert and Sonoran Desert; and the non-desert arid region areas in the Great Basin arid region, Colorado Plateau, Mexican Plateau, and others. This arid region extends from the top of the North American Desert in Washington and Idaho southward into Mexico in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The 'western arid region' is east of and discontiguous from the Mojave Desert, unlike the southwestern Great Basin deserts adjacent with ecotones to the northern Mojave Desert.