I’ve been coming to this place since I was a little kid and have always wondered about the name, Alvord Desert. It is an 84 square-mile dry lake bed that is Oregon’s place for you to try breaking land speed records (see Tragic Tracks). I have always thought it was odd to call this flat spot a “desert” when it is the tiniest speck on the edge of the 190,000 square-mile Great Basin, North America’s largest desert.

As for the experience, it is hard to beat the feeling of rolling smoothly onto this flat surface after several hours of rocky desert toil. Just how fast will this machine go? Here is place to find out.