LA to Glacier National Park to Yellowstone to LA

[sandrafzane]

Hello all
Thank you for the responses. I live in the Loma Linda/Redlands area - the very far suburbs of LA. I assumed most people on this sight would not know Redlands and so LA is much easier in terms of reference point. I have made it to Vegas in 3 to 3.5 hours before. Many of you made the point about Friday afternoon traffic, which I was not taking into account.

I make it a point to never leave for Vegas after about noon on a Friday. We usually take off about 8 or 9 in the morning. On the few times that I have left on a late Friday it has taken me 5 to 6 hours, and once much longer when they closed all lanes down to airlift someone after a terrible accident.
So probably will stick with the plan to leave on Saturday morning and get to Salt Lake City in one long day.
I would love to get some recommendations on what to see/where to stay when we leave SLC on the way to Glacier. We would be leaving SLC Sunday morning and need to be in the Glacier area by Monday late afternoon.
Again, thank you so much for all your assistance and your feedback. Much appreciated!!
Sandy

[glc]

I think you would be pushing it just a bit too much trying to make SLC in one day - it's 655 miles from Redlands. Fortunately, you have some decent choices for an overnight before you get to SLC - there's a Best Western, a Super 8, and a Motel 6 in Nephi, which is 570 miles, and there's a bunch of hotels in Spanish Fork, Springville, Provo, and the rest of the way into SLC.

Considering you can just about make it from even Nephi to Holland Lake in one day, you have a lot more flexibility if you have the better part of 2 days.

Now - can I suggest an alternative to going through SLC? Head out of LA in the morning and head for Ely, NV. Just north of LV, take US-93. You have 3 choices:

1. Stay on US-93 all the way. Not the shortest or fastest, but it has the only gas stations between Alamo/Ash Springs and Ely. 490 miles.

2. At Ash Springs, take NV-318 to US-6 into Ely. Shortest, fastest, but no gas or any kind of services. 475 miles.

3. At Ash Springs, take NV-375 (The E.T. Highway) through Rachel to Warm Springs, then US-6 to Ely. Longest, no gas on 371 or 6. Rachel has the Little A'Le'Inn, which is basically a lunch counter with outhouses and a couple travel trailers they rent out for motel rooms. 560 miles.

If your vehicle can't drive at least 300 miles on a tank of gas, option (1) is the only one I'd take. Via option (2) it's 240 miles from LV to Ely. Via option (3) it's 300 miles with no gas except in Alamo/Ash Springs *if they are open*.

Ely is a neat little town, they have the old Hotel Nevada downtown, a few chain hotels, and a former Best Western called the Main Motel where I've stayed, it's an old 50's style roadside motel close to downtown. Across the street from the Hotel Nevada behind the Jail House Motel and Casino there's a decent steakhouse called the Cellblock, where you actually eat in an old jail cell.

From Ely, get an early start and take US-93/US-26/US-20 to Craters of the Moon, it's about a 7 hour drive. From there, it's about an hour and a half to Idaho Falls via US-20 which has a wide selection of hotels. From there to Holland Lake, it's about 7 hours.

If you decide to go via SLC, you could head north on I-15 to Dillon MT and spend a night. There's a neat restaurant called Sparky's Garage. It's a total car motif and the food is good. Next day, you can take MT-378 to the Big Hole Battlefield. Continuing on, at Wisdom you can take MT-43 to US-93 and take that on into Missoula. In fact, if you go to Craters of the Moon and stay in Idaho Falls, you might have time to go to Big Hole the next day on your way to Missoula.

[sandrafzane]

GLC thanks for all the info! You have given me a lot to think about. I like the idea of seeing Craters of the Moon and Big Hole Battlefield, although I will have to read up on those places.
Planning the drive there and back is turning out to be the hardest part. I would like to take advantage of what we can see and do as we drive into Holland lake and when we leave Yellowstone, but I am still getting a little overwhelmed by the options. I like what you have laid out so am going to investigate further. We will be driving a 2012 Honda Odyssey mini van - so our gas mileage should be good.
Thanks again for the tips and if you have any more, please feel free to share!
Sandy

[glc]

I show an Odyssey has a 21 gallon tank, so I'd say you have at least a 400 mile range on the highway with a decent reserve - maybe even 500 miles. EPA says 27 or 28 highway depending on transmission so I'd expect a real world 25. If you chose to do so I think you could make it from LV to Ely on one tank easily no matter which of the 3 suggested ways you go. I'd still top it off in Alamo/Ash Springs just to be safe.