Which desert is the largest in the United States?

The largest desert in the United States is the Great Basin Desert.

It is a cold-temperate desert spread mainly across Nevada and Utah, with extensions into eastern California and parts of Idaho and Oregon. Unlike the hot deserts farther south, it has snowy winters, high-elevation valleys, and mountain ranges running roughly north to south.

The name can cause confusion because the Great Basin is also a much broader hydrological region—an area whose rivers and lakes do not drain to the ocean. The Great Basin Desert is the ecological desert within that region, and its boundaries do not perfectly match state lines or the wider basin.

The Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts are all major U.S. deserts, but they are smaller or extend substantially into Mexico. The Great Basin is also notable for sagebrush valleys, pinyon-juniper woodland, and isolated mountain “islands” that support distinct plant and animal communities.