LA area to vegas via 10 and 95?

[crackers8199]

wife and i are driving to vegas friday morning (2018 model 3 w/ aero wheels), and it's looking extremely likely that the cajon pass is going to be a bad time...so we're proceeding with the idea that we're going to have to go out the 10 to desert center, then north on 177 and 62 to 95 and up to vegas that way. has anyone ever done this drive? specifically i'm looking to make sure we can make it from indio to needles - ABRP seems pretty confident we'll be fine, but i'm more curious if anyone has any real world experience since there's no services for most of that drive once we get off the 10 until we get to needles...

 

[PLUS EV]

You didn't say what type of battery your car has, but it's only 168 miles with a ~500 ft. elevation gain and it's unlikely that the weather will be bad in that area so you should be fine. I'd want to charge to 250 rated miles at least just to be safe. Then slow down if necessary. If you have 300 rated miles, you shouldn't have to monitor your speed or arrival SOC at all. There are some decent food options near the Indio supercharger so you should have stuff to do if you decide to do a long charge there. I liked Your Pie Pizza.

You're right about there not being much along that route. There is a gas station/convenience store at Chiriaco Summit and a very small gas station/store at Vidal Junction (or at least there was last time I went through there a few years ago), but that's it.

Another option would be to go via the superchargers at 29 Palms and Primm. It's not as long as the route through Indio and Needles, but you could get caught in the LA/Vegas traffic when you join I-15 50 miles south of Vegas. If you do go that route, be sure to check the road conditions through Mojave National Preserve. Those are some very desolate roads and I know there have been some heavy rains in the past year and there could be some washouts. Amboy is a pretty cool Route 66 ghost town and the depot at Kelso is also worth a look if you do take this route.

Honestly though, I highly doubt either of these alternatives will be faster than just sitting in the traffic on I-15. So if you are up for the adventure and want to check out some different roads, go for it. But if your objective is to get to Vegas as fast as possible, I would just map it out on Google Maps right before you leave (point to point only as drive times don't include traffic when using multiple waypoints) and take whichever looks faster. The Nav will also give you a 2nd opinion, but I would always use Google Maps as a primary source when planning out a long drive with potential for traffic.

 

[crackers8199]

You didn't say what type of battery your car has, but it's only 168 miles with a ~500 ft. elevation gain and it's unlikely that the weather will be bad in that area so you should be fine. I'd want to charge to 250 rated miles at least just to be safe. Then slow down if necessary. If you have 300 rated miles, you shouldn't have to monitor your speed or arrival SOC at all. There are some decent food options near the Indio supercharger so you should have stuff to do if you decide to do a long charge there. I liked Your Pie Pizza.

You're right about there not being much along that route. There is a gas station/convenience store at Chiriaco Summit and a very small gas station/store at Vidal Junction (or at least there was last time I went through there a few years ago), but that's it.

Another option would be to go via the superchargers at 29 Palms and Primm. It's not as long as the route through Indio and Needles, but you could get caught in the LA/Vegas traffic when you join I-15 50 miles south of Vegas. If you do go that route, be sure to check the road conditions through Mojave National Preserve. Those are some very desolate roads and I know there have been some heavy rains in the past year and there could be some washouts. Amboy is a pretty cool Route 66 ghost town and the depot at Kelso is also worth a look if you do take this route.

Honestly though, I highly doubt either of these alternatives will be faster than just sitting in the traffic on I-15. So if you are up for the adventure and want to check out some different roads, go for it. But if your objective is to get to Vegas as fast as possible, I would just map it out on Google Maps right before you leave (point to point only as drive times don't include traffic when using multiple waypoints) and take whichever looks faster. The Nav will also give you a 2nd opinion, but I would always use Google Maps as a primary source when planning out a long drive with potential for traffic.

thanks for the detailed reply!

sorry, i mentioned the year but forgot to mention the battery - it's a 2018 LR RWD. after 5 years or so and 70k miles on the odometer, my rated miles at 100% right now are somewhere in the neighborhood of 290 (give or take 5 miles or so). usually i'm around 293-295 at 100%.

i'm not at all worried about adding the extra travel time, nor worried about the traffic since we're leaving early in the AM (though i'm used to that on vegas trips, autopilot helps a lot)...more worried about driving thru the cajon pass in the snow (and also worried that other idiots might cause wrecks in the pass and lead to me getting stuck there). the weather in the pass itself right now is looking pretty bad all day on friday. as long as the car will have enough range to make it, i'd rather go east, out and around the weather, and have better conditions to drive in even if it takes a little longer.

i had thought about going out to 29 palms and then north from there, but i was worried about the potential for rough weather driving that way as well since there are some higher elevations on that route as well, correct? i figured if i can get out even a little further east and have a better drive it's probably worth it. the forecast for desert center on friday is almost no rain at all, partly cloudy and 65, compared to heavy rain/snow throughout so cal the closer you get to the coast.

 

[PLUS EV]

Oh okay, I didn't realize weather was the primary concern. And yeah, the 29 Palms/Primm route does have some higher elevation. It's rare but you can see snow along that route and this might be one of those times. So taking your proposed route through Indio and Needles would be all low elevation and (mostly?) avoid the snow. I say mostly because Beaumont is 2500 ft and could get some wintry weather, but in this case, I doubt it would be enough to cause significant travel issues. The highest elevation on this route is around Searchlight, NV at 3500 ft, but it looks like it should be dry enough and maybe a bit warmer that far east.

It's pretty rare in these parts, but I have seen snow in the higher elevations of I-5 (Grapevine), I-15 (Mountain Pass), and even I-8 (Tecate Pass) so anything is possible.