Las Vegas, NV
We're on the final stop on our trip home from Florida. Had a rather short trip from Flagstaff to Las Vegas this morning. It was made even shorter by the fact that we are now back in our home time zone - now we don't have to add any hours to our Fitbits for the correct time.
Trip from Flagstaff was uneventful. The countryside outside Flagstaff reminded us of the Reno-Tahoe area. A little higher elevation, but the same mountains and pine trees. I-40 out of Flagstaff is coincident with the old Route 66 going over to Kingman. As I think I've mentioned before, the only casualty were the small towns on the old 66 - they got by passed by the interstate and so the local motels and cafes died off. They're now replaced by some gas stations and motels at the interstate exits.
We had breakfast in Kingman and decided to try a different way to US 93. I think we missed a turn somewhere because we ended up in the desert north of Kingman. Looking at the map, we decided not to turn around, but rather to take some local roads and eventually hook up with US 93. It was way out of the way, but we got to see some interesting countryside. Actually, if we continued on the road, we would have ended up at the Grand Canyon Skywalk operated by the local Native American tribe. That wasn't on our itinerary, so we turned and went over to Dolan Springs (quite a metropolitan area). You've got to wonder what those people do out there. A little too far to commute to Kingman, so there must be some employment out there somewhere).
When we finally got on US 93, we really enjoyed the scenic countryside. Barren mountains, beautiful rock formations and glimpses of the Colorado River as it flowed south toward Laughlin and eventually to Mexico. Ended up on the new US 11 which bypasses Boulder City which always was a significant traffic jam through the middle of town. Now you just zoom over the Colorado River on a four-lane divided highway which connects with the bypasses around Las Vegas. Went from 7000' in Flagstaff to around 2100' in Las Vegas. Weather went the opposite way - from 29 in Flagstaff to 75 in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow we head for a neat bed and breakfast which we know about in Reno, NV :-)
Trip from Flagstaff was uneventful. The countryside outside Flagstaff reminded us of the Reno-Tahoe area. A little higher elevation, but the same mountains and pine trees. I-40 out of Flagstaff is coincident with the old Route 66 going over to Kingman. As I think I've mentioned before, the only casualty were the small towns on the old 66 - they got by passed by the interstate and so the local motels and cafes died off. They're now replaced by some gas stations and motels at the interstate exits.
We had breakfast in Kingman and decided to try a different way to US 93. I think we missed a turn somewhere because we ended up in the desert north of Kingman. Looking at the map, we decided not to turn around, but rather to take some local roads and eventually hook up with US 93. It was way out of the way, but we got to see some interesting countryside. Actually, if we continued on the road, we would have ended up at the Grand Canyon Skywalk operated by the local Native American tribe. That wasn't on our itinerary, so we turned and went over to Dolan Springs (quite a metropolitan area). You've got to wonder what those people do out there. A little too far to commute to Kingman, so there must be some employment out there somewhere).
When we finally got on US 93, we really enjoyed the scenic countryside. Barren mountains, beautiful rock formations and glimpses of the Colorado River as it flowed south toward Laughlin and eventually to Mexico. Ended up on the new US 11 which bypasses Boulder City which always was a significant traffic jam through the middle of town. Now you just zoom over the Colorado River on a four-lane divided highway which connects with the bypasses around Las Vegas. Went from 7000' in Flagstaff to around 2100' in Las Vegas. Weather went the opposite way - from 29 in Flagstaff to 75 in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow we head for a neat bed and breakfast which we know about in Reno, NV :-)
Comments
Post a Comment