A Little Road Trip Across The Desert

I attended a conference for work in Las Vegas earlier this week, and decided to drive out there from San Diego rather than fly. Two of us from the office drove out on Wednesday morning, just in time to catch most of the rain heading up the Cajon Pass. There was pretty much no visibility until we got out past Victorville. At Barstow we turned off from I-15 (the route that goes straight to Las Vegas) and headed east on I-40 until we got to Kelbaker Road. From there we drove north through the Mojave Preserve, first to the restored train station at Kelso, then northeast across the Preserve until we connected back up with I-15 just west of the Nevada border. Not long after we got off the freeway we found a little dirt road that went up to a radio tower, and got this view looking out towards the southwest.

They've restored the train station in Kelso, but have not quite gotten around to the old Post Office yet. The roadway could use a bit of work too.

The views from the Kelso-Cima-Nipton road were pretty nice, especially with the storm clouds.

On our way back from Las Vegas on Friday we travelled south on US 95, then west on Old Route 66 for a while, then south to Twentynine Palms. We stopped for dinner in Palm Springs and then headed over the mountains to San Diego.

At Amboy we stopped to check out Roy's, one of the iconic spots along old Route 66. We got there just as a group of German tourists on Harleys were lining up to take a picture in front of the famous sign.

Click here to see a few more shots from our quick trip out to Las Vegas, including one of John in the Kelso jail.