Yosemite to Las Vegas

[Guest]

Hi all

I just wondered if there was a preferred route to travel between Yosemite and Las Vegas (we are doing the trip in one go in August) and any ideas on where we could stop for breakfast and lunch.

Many thanks

[400ixl]

If the aim is to get from point to point the across to the 95 and down would be the quickest route. Around 7 hours.

You could go via the 395 and across death valley (would make for a 11 hour+ day though but scenery is amazing and lots of things to do Like the Darwin Ghost town, Badwater etc.

Alternatively you could continue on the 395 to Barstow and come across that way. There is Peggy Sue's Diner in Barstow which is a 60's themed diner. But that's about 5 hours into the drive. Around 8.5-9 hours

Lastly, you could go down via the I15 to Bakersfield and across via Barstow which is about an 8 -8.5 hour drive but boring interstate for most of it.

Personally if you haven't done death valley I'd go down that route and it you can stay overnight there and then head into Vegas for the middle of the next day.

[Guest]

Thanks very much for the info. Likely to be the direct route I think. We are looking at doing Peggy Sues/ghost town on route to LA.

Thanks again

[jdouds]

Hi we did this in 2016 , tioga pass stunning and then onto the 95 . We left el portal at 10 o'clock and arrived vegas strip at 4.30. We had breakfast at bnb and had a couple of stops for snack and coffee. On these trips make sure tank full and perhaps a cool bag for some cool drinks, limited number of places to refuel.

[UncleLatch]

Originally Posted by jdouds

Hi we did this in 2016 , tioga pass stunning and then onto the 95 . We left el portal at 10 o'clock and arrived vegas strip at 4.30. We had breakfast at bnb and had a couple of stops for snack and coffee. On these trips make sure tank full and perhaps a cool bag for some cool drinks, limited number of places to refuel.

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Somewhat like our experience. We left Yosemite about 2.00pm via Tioga Pass and arrived in LV about 9.00pm with a stop for a Maccy D on the way. Would echo the fuel stop caution, we passed one sign saying next fuel in 90 miles
It was long day ( we had driven to Yosemite from SF that morning, not something I'd advise) but the sun setting over Death Valley was a sight I'll remember for a long time.

[Colette-S]

Following this as we are doing the same journey in July...

[Guest]

Thanks all, I think we have decided on setting off from Valley Lodge around 7 and stopping somewhere like Lee Vining for brekkie then taking the 395 and 190 through Death Valley.

Thanks for the info on fuel stops.

[tfmay]

Sounds interesting, we want to to this next year in either April or June (restricted to school hols) so following out of curiosity... out of comfort zone of Florida which we are just back from but we all said we must do west coast next time after 13yrs of Florida!

[Cloverlady]

We went the other direction from Vegas early morning and drove through Death Valley, taking detours to see Badwater Basin, and to do Artist's Drive (both of these I can thoroughly recommend! )
We took our time stopping here and there a lot and spent time out of the car also at places like the sand dunes en route (amazing! Some fantastic huge tall dust devil mini tornadoes here which made brilliant photos!)

It was a very long day for us AND we stayed overnight at Bakersfield!.
We continued our journey up to Yosemite the next day.

I'm sure you could do it in one day by not going down via Bakersfield (we went in April and some roads were shut) but it will be a LONG day as you will be amazed by so much scenery and interesting things to see on the way. You'll love it!

[jdouds]

Cloverlady think you may have missed the point . It's via tioga pass which is a much shorter route.