?? on Vegas to L. Tahoe drive in Jan.
Nov 9th, 2001, 06:26 PM
#1
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?? on Vegas to L. Tahoe drive in Jan.
My wife and I will be traveling from the East Coast to Las Vegas in January and are considering a side trip to Lake Tahoe to ski. I know we could fly and that it is not a short drive but that is okay. My question is: what are the best routes and are these routes passable in the winter? Would appreciate advice. Thanks in advance.
Nov 9th, 2001, 06:57 PM
#3
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If you are driving from Las Vegas I think Mammoth is a getter ski desination and a better place to go. You drive from Vegas to route 395 and turn north. You might need snow tires as you get near Mammoth mountain. You will have better sking and snow there until spring.
Nov 9th, 2001, 10:32 PM
#4
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You can ski a lot closer to Las Vegas at Mt. Charleston, Lee Canyon. It is less than an hour north. Certainly not Tahoe, but okay for a day or two. I guess it depends on what you are looking for.
If your heart is set on Tahoe, I would recommend flying into Reno-Cannon and renting a skierized car. This is maybe a 45 minute flight from McCarren in Vegas. You can get from Reno to Northstar or Squaw Valley in an hour to an an hour and a half, weather permitting. The skierized car should be fully prepared for travel in inclement conditions.
But if you want to drive, you can go up 95 all the way, maybe 8 hours. You go through some pretty desolate country, but pretty at times and salted along the way with funky little towns like Beatty, Luning, Mina, Tonopah, hawthorne, etc. A lot of the landscape has been used in Westerns, including the Walker Lake area, where a Clint Eastwood film was made. Many of these spots are played out mining areas.
If you wanted to go to Mammoth, I do not recommend what the other poster said, which was not very clear, but sounded like taking Interstate 15 from Vegas west into California and catching US 395 north just west of Victorville near the Cajon Pass. This would be the long way. There are other routes to cut over to 395 from 95 through Death Valley that would be shorter. If you take the Death Valley cutoff, you can go through Bodie National Park. Bodie has a very colorful history and is preserved in sort of a state of arrested decay.
I would not worry too much about the weather on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is usually fairly uncomplicated to get all the way to the Mammoth junction in good weather and take the turnoff before any bad conditions are encountered during a storm. All the same, you need to stay on top of the weather a few days in advance so you don't get in trouble. I recommend you get a good map and maybe the AAA California/Nevada guide and refer to it.
Another alternative is a side trip to Big Bear Lake, near San Bernardino. That might be the shortest from Vegas in terms of a drive, maybe 4 hours.
Best of luck.
If your heart is set on Tahoe, I would recommend flying into Reno-Cannon and renting a skierized car. This is maybe a 45 minute flight from McCarren in Vegas. You can get from Reno to Northstar or Squaw Valley in an hour to an an hour and a half, weather permitting. The skierized car should be fully prepared for travel in inclement conditions.
But if you want to drive, you can go up 95 all the way, maybe 8 hours. You go through some pretty desolate country, but pretty at times and salted along the way with funky little towns like Beatty, Luning, Mina, Tonopah, hawthorne, etc. A lot of the landscape has been used in Westerns, including the Walker Lake area, where a Clint Eastwood film was made. Many of these spots are played out mining areas.
If you wanted to go to Mammoth, I do not recommend what the other poster said, which was not very clear, but sounded like taking Interstate 15 from Vegas west into California and catching US 395 north just west of Victorville near the Cajon Pass. This would be the long way. There are other routes to cut over to 395 from 95 through Death Valley that would be shorter. If you take the Death Valley cutoff, you can go through Bodie National Park. Bodie has a very colorful history and is preserved in sort of a state of arrested decay.
I would not worry too much about the weather on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is usually fairly uncomplicated to get all the way to the Mammoth junction in good weather and take the turnoff before any bad conditions are encountered during a storm. All the same, you need to stay on top of the weather a few days in advance so you don't get in trouble. I recommend you get a good map and maybe the AAA California/Nevada guide and refer to it.
Another alternative is a side trip to Big Bear Lake, near San Bernardino. That might be the shortest from Vegas in terms of a drive, maybe 4 hours.
Best of luck.
Nov 10th, 2001, 07:42 AM
#5
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Tahoe is no "side trip" from Vegas. Unless you fly, or have lots of time. Lake Tahoe is beautiful and well worth the trip. We have been in a drought for a couple of years now, and wouldn`t guarantee much in the snow department either, but who knows? I live in Reno. If you do drive, don`t go through the Nevada desert up to Reno. It`s a long, boring drive. The passes around Tahoe are sometime snowed in,(not often) and it is possible you could be sitting in traffic for 8 hours, waiting for a road to open. You can get a cheap southwest ticket and fly from Vegas, which is what I would recommend, if you really want to go. No place is more beautiful in all this world than Tahoe, I don`t think! Good luck!
