Summer road trip - Stevensville MT to Gardnerville NV

[VivaLasVegas]

Hi!! First (BIG) road trip, first post! Planning Huntington Beach CA to Yellowstone (via NV and Utah), to Stevensville MT, to Gardenerville NV, and head home back to SoCal!
QUESTION, which route is better to take heading south from Stevensville to Gardnerville I 12/95 or I 93? both appear to be small 2 lane highways? I 12/95 saves 50 miles, but looking for safe and scenic due to Im traveling alone with 2 kids.

Any additional advise welcomed!! Thank you in advance!

[glc]

Welcome to RTA!

I would take US-93 to I-80 to I-580/US-395. Note that this is a 1.5 to 2 day drive, Elko NV would have the best choices of hotels for an overnight, you will need to get out of Stevensville early in the morning. If you leave Stevensville around noon or so, I'd stop in Twin Falls ID.

[DonnaR57]

Elko has a BUNCH of motels, in all price ranges. Note that because it's Nevada, most of them have casinos or at least some slot machines. Depending on the age of your children, you might want to pick one with a pool. We stayed at the Gold Country Inn and Casino there, back in summer '14. Our room was clean, and the pool was very nice at the end of the day, too. We had come down US-93 from Twin Falls (started at Driggs, ID that morning) then headed west on I-80 before pulling into Elko.


Donna