Why are predator drones being used over civilian California? A couple of months back I was going on a road trip through California and stopped by a dry lake called El Mirage Lake. It's a very tacky area requiring a permit to enter.  

My friend and I showed up near midnight and could hear a VERY low-flying aircraft. I happened to have a flashlight with a 800&nbsp;m beam distance and using it we could clearly see a Predator drone less than 500 feet over the ground. 

The drone was flying an autonomous rectangular course over the lake all night, but the next morning it had changed altitude and was flying a few thousand feet over the lake - high enough that it just looked like a normal airplane.  

For 30 minutes or so there was a Cessna following behind it which was very strange... Would it be a human monitoring the drone for some reason?

Anyway, as a current civilian I feel like there's something wrong with military aircraft being used as surveillance over public area, not to mention it seems a little pointless. Why is the government (or at least state of California) using equipment like this for useless reasons?

I have a pretty bad photo of it using a telephoto lens that I can post later as proof that is was actually a Predator drone.
An article from 2001, TESTING SPY PLANES GRAY BUTTE AIRFIELD TO BE REOPENED says,


  General Atomics, which makes the Predator in San Diego, has been conducting final production tests and checkout flights at El Mirage, three miles inside the San Bernardino County line.


See also EL MIRAGE FLIGHT TEST FACILITY