Southern California's High Desert Region
The High Desert is an unofficial and vaguely-defined geographic area of southern California located to the northeast of the San Gabriel Mountains. The term "High Desert" is used most commonly by the news media, especially in weather forecasts, and in the names of businesses and organizations. The term "High Desert" serves to differentiate it from southern California's Low Desert.
The major metropolitan centers in the region are primarily centered around the cities of Palmdale and Victorville. Palmdale, the largest city in the High Desert, is located in the Antelope Valley, with Lancaster, and is the area's largest and most populous region with a metro area of just over 500,000.
The Victor Valley area, which includes such areas as Victorville, Hesperia, Adelanto, Apple Valley, and Lucerne Valley, boasts a population around 300,000. The Barstow area, to the north of Victor Valley, and the Morongo Basin near the Joshua Tree National Park each have populations of around 60,000.
Though very sparsely populated outside of the Antelope and Victor Valleys, many small communities dot the region, especially along Interstate 15, Interstate 40, and US Highway 395, with towns like Baker having an economy that exists almost entirely to provide service for highway travelers, especially those traveling between Las Vegas and Southern California's major population centers.