We were driving east on route I 40 when my friend, ((name deleted)) who was driving said"what is that?" Of the right side of the road perhaps five miles away and just in front of some hills we saw a tringular-shaped craft with a few white lights bordering it hovering less than 500 feet off the ground. It also made unusual side to side and sweeping maneuvers and was simultaneously shooting blue streaks of light at the ground underneath it which caused small dust clouds to jump around. We had stopped at the side of the road and were outside of our van watching this object and basically both concuded that this flying object was making movements that no craft we knew of could make. After about 10 minutes of our watching this object it suddenly shot straight upward and disappeared frow our view. We did not report this sooner as we did not know of this internet site and after awhile could not remember the exact date as we had made a lot of trips between Los Angeles and Arizona during a two month period to buy property. We are now aware that there is a USMC testing base in that area but do not believe this was a military craft.((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD))