Will be doing this roadtrip soon.

Feedback and advice from those w/ experience on the routes will be appreciated.

Places to stop, eat, roads to avoid., etc.

Obviously, Fresno and Bartow are just places to sleep.

Thanks.

 

is your main stop vegas? I thought everyone just went down the 5 then cut over from LA to vegas

 

that would be the normal operating procedure, but i've been meaning to check out King's Canyon for awhile now, so this is the best route given the restraints I face.

thanks.

 

I've heard many good things about King's Canyon. Awesome place apparently.

 

when i go to Vegas i usually take:

I5 South
46 east thru Wasco
99 South
58 East thru Barstow
15 East/North to Vegas

 

same for me. 58 is the one that goes around the mountain with 55mph turns posted right? i was driving a pontaic montana and i was hitting those turns at 80+. this was late at night with no cars around except for one. using both lanes for apex. a buick was trying to follow me probably thinking if the van can do it, so can i. that buick just stayed in one lane and almost understeered into the wall.

 

cool places to eat?

 

just skip fresno and barstow all together and drive straight to Vegas. I have done that drive (or at least very close to it) about 30 times.

There is nothing interesting between here and Vegas to stop at other than Buttonwillow.

 

Actually Kings Cyn is really awesome, but its pretty much the better part of a full days side trip just to get there.

Nice twisties getting up there and back though.

Rather than coming back out to Fresno, another route to consider would be going through Sequoia and staying in the mountains to cut over to the Owens Valley north of Ridgecrest.

You could include Death Valley on this route as well, kind of depends on how much time you have to explore on the way.

 

we're planning on hiking for a few hours in King's canyon, so I don't want to tackle such a long drive afterwards.

gotta ask: what's at buttonwillow?

seeing this is a car forum, I'm thinking either strippers or race track or both

 

pay attention to the gas prices, and tell us about it afterward =]

 

Interesting.

How long will that alternate route take to complete to las vegas? The difficult part is figuring out which roads are 25 mph and which ones can be done "faster".

We need to be in vegas by noon Sunday, but don;t want to drive more than 5 hrs any any one time (except for the long straight trip back).

 

46 east thru Wasco:
Becareful of oncoming traffic on this two lane road, especially at night. Its flat, straight and can be hard to tell when opposing traffic is actually comming at you in your lane.

15 East/North to Vegas:
Ty to resist going for a land speed record, this highway is heavily patrolled by The Man.

 

man the drive down to kings canyon is phenomenal. lots of twisties and NO ONE in site. You do have to watch for deer though.

I agree with everybody else. Get a tent cabin in Sequoia, then wake up in the morning and blow through Fresno and Barstow.

 

when in fresno....run from the cops.

Or so my brother in law says...haaaa. Aparently they have a VERY strict no chase policy.


On kidding aside though.....I know it sounds strange but many bay area folks have never done it. Drive over the Golden Gate bridge. Do some touristy ****.

I worked there for 7 years and last year I did my anniversary weekend with the lady there and had a BLAST as I had never done the touristy stuff before.

I can get you some info on vegas and fresno as I know folks in both.