Home to Las Vegas
Saturday, October 16, 2021
From the title, it sounds like we are stopping in Las Vegas as usual to do a little gambling on our trip, but this time that’s not the case. We are actually staying at a Hampton Inn in North Las Vegas tonight so no gambling for us. We had hoped to be on the road by 9:00 this morning, but we didn’t quite make it and didn’t get on the road until 9:55. We usually take two short driving days to get to Las Vegas, but today we are doing it all in one day, not a bad drive, but a little long.
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| The 4-Runner is loaded and ready to go. |
The day went mostly well, but there were a few hiccups. We ran into heavy traffic due to some construction around Bakersfield that delayed us a bit and then when we decided to stop in Tehachapi for lunch, we found they were having an outdoor street festival and the town was very crowded with nowhere to park and the restaurants full. We gave up on lunch in town and drove up the road a bit and ended up eating a hamburger at a fast-food place.
One very good thing today, at least for those of us who rely on Highway 58 to get from Bakersfield to Interstate 15 in Barstow, it is now four-lane freeway all the way. Almost two years ago, when we made our last trip to Las Vegas before the pandemic, they were working on the last segment and now it’s all done. It sure makes that drive a lot easier.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, except for an accident in Las Vegas that brought traffic on I-15 to a stop. We still managed to get to our hotel by 5:00 PM, so despite the delays, not a bad day. Tomorrow is the final leg of our journey to Escalante where we’ll be spending the rest of the week.
Las Vegas to Escalante, Utah
Sunday, October 17, 2021
We got a later start than we wanted today as neither one of us slept very well last night. Our hotel is near the Las Vegas Speedway and it sounded like they were practicing on the street outside, very loud! The air conditioning seemed to be on a cycle that left us either freezing or very hot so that didn’t help our sleep either.
We finally got on the road around 10:00 and headed north on I-15 until Mesquite, NV near the Arizona border where we stopped and bought groceries. After we left Mesquite we ran into a construction zone that narrowed I-15 down to one lane and traffic came to a complete stop and it took us over a half an hour to get through it. Normally there isn’t much traffic on that stretch of highway, but I guess there were lots of people from Utah heading home after a weekend of gambling in Las Vegas.
We followed I-15 through St. George, UT and on to Cedar City where we stopped for lunch. From Cedar City we finally got off the freeway and took a much more scenic route. Escalante is out in the middle of nowhere and there is no direct route to get there, but no matter how you get there, the drive is very scenic. We took Highway 14, which goes through the mountains, passed the entrance to Cedar Breaks National Monument, and up and over a 10,000 foot pass before it ends at US Highway 89. It had snowed last week so there was snow on the ground much of the way. The white snow contrasting with the red rock was very beautiful.
Once we hit US89, we only had a short drive north until we turned onto Utah Highway 12, the final leg of our journey to Escalante. Scenic Byway (SB)12 is a Utah scenic byway and has been designated an All American Road, which is well deserved as it is a beautiful drive from one end to the other. On the way to Escalante, it passes Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest and the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.
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| Scenic Highway 12 |
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| Red Rock Canyon |
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| Red Rock Canyon |
Finally, after a wonderful drive on SB12, we arrived at our tiny house in Escalante where we will be staying until next Saturday (more on our tiny house tomorrow). We arrived around 5:00 PM, unloaded the car and settled in to our new home for the next week. Val made a wonderful soup for dinner that really hit the spot and then we relaxed for a while before calling it a night.
Not sure what we will do tomorrow, but we do want to visit the Grand Staircase Inter Agency Visitors Center first thing to find out about road conditions as most of the roads are not paved and only randomly maintained. We will be spending most of our time off-road on this trip so we want to make sure we don’t get in a bad situation.
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