Never Drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on a Holiday Weekend
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Las Vegas to Los Angeles Road Trip Itinerary (or Vice Versa)
Jump To: Seven Magic Mountains | Bonnie & Clyde Death Car | Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch
Hour ten. I can’t take it anymore. I pull over to the first gas station I see to stretch my atrophying muscles and buy a late night “dinner” of a donut and some hot cheetos – the food of survival mode. I jump up and down a couple times and say a small prayer to no-one; God was not present here. I’m on the drive home to Los Angeles from Las Vegas on the worst possible day to be on the drive to LA from Vegas; that’s right, it’s the Monday of Memorial Day weekend, and I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Too obvious to be a pro-tip: if interested in taking some roadside attraction detours on the route between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, spend at least two seconds longer than I did giving some thought to the time of year.
Background: with a long weekend ahead, I decided to utilize my time to visit a friend in Las Vegas. I’d never been to Vegas before, plus there are so many cool roadside attractions on the drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that I wanted to check out. Many birds with one stone! On the Friday it only took me the typical 4 ½ – 5 hours to arrive, which fueled my false sense of security later when I anticipated a similar drive back. I didn’t make any stops that first day either, since I was anxious to get there and start the weekend.
Some of my favorite attractions in Las Vegas included the Michael Jackson ONE show by Cirque du Soleil (search deals on tickets here or here), the Pawn Stars shop, and a pool party at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. But my Vegas experience was not the detour – that was wholly intentional. It was the ensuing return trip that went not-so-according-to-plan.
My road trip back to Los Angeles on Monday began a bit late in the morning. Once I got on the road, I had a handful of objectives: to see the Seven Magic Mountains art installation just outside Vegas on Interstate 15, the Bonnie & Clyde death car at Whiskey Pete’s casino in Primm, and Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande along Route 66. My intentions were so pure. I was so young and naïve.
Did you know you can take a Pawn Stars tour or a Las Vegas Reality Show VIP Tour? 😂
Seven Magic Mountains
The drive to Seven Magic Mountains is simple, as it’s close outside of Vegas. If it won’t come up on your cell phone map, follow road signs to take the correct exit (25, to Sloan Rd) off I-15 S onto a dirt road which will bring you directly to the art installation. Once you’re on that road there aren’t any further signs, so after a few miles you may start to wonder if you’re in the right place. Hang in there; 7-10 miles in you’ll begin to see the Mountains growing in the distance.
Witnessing them is an uncanny experience. The colors are so vibrant and bright against the neutral wash of the desert, and their sheer enormity interrupts what is otherwise only flatlands. They look random and alien, like a modern day Stonehenge. Apparently Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone meant to “[offer] a creative critique of the simulacra of destinations like Las Vegas.”
According to Rondinone, the location is physically and symbolically mid-way between the natural and the artificial: the natural is expressed by the mountain ranges, desert, and Jean Dry Lake backdrop, and the artificial is expressed by the highway and the constant flow of traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
– ‘About’ Seven Magic Mountains
Bonnie & Clyde Death Car
After Seven Magic Mountains, I got back on the road enthused and ready to find the town of Primm, Nevada, and thus began my descent into hell.
My first hint that something was amiss were the 40+ cars piled up waiting to get gas at the station I wanted to pull into. It was apocalyptic. I chalked it up to it being the first gas station since Vegas and decided to wait until the next town to fill up. Unfortunately that decision wouldn’t spare me, as I’d still spend another 30 minutes exactly where I was, stuck behind a line of cars all trying to get up the ramp onto the freeway.
After the ramp, things only got worse. From Seven Magic Mountains to Primm is supposed to be 20 minutes. It took me something like 3 hours. The entire highway was at a complete standstill and there were no alternative routes. The desert sun beat down through our collective windows, and I took the idea from surrounding drivers to hang my clothes up around the car to provide some shade. Thankfully I had water with me, but it didn’t prevent me from experiencing some dizziness as the hours wore on. I tried to invest all my mental energy in listening to podcasts and told myself there must be a car wreck or something further up the road and that, once I passed, I’d be in the clear. “The best thing a girl can be in this world is a beautiful little fool.”
When I finally made it to Primm I spent some time collecting myself – what day was it? What year was it? I finally got gas and food, and, in my stubbornness and in honor of my lifelong obsession with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, I staggered towards Whiskey Pete’s knowing it would put me further behind on time. Worth it.
The artifacts they have are truly incredible – Clyde’s still-bloodied shirt, gifts that he’d created for his sister while in prison, and of course, the bullet-riddled Ford V8 that drove the couple to their infamous death in Gibsland, Louisiana in May of 1934 (the death site is only a few hours from where I grew up – read about my visit to the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Site and Museum here). It turns out Al Capone’s bulletproof car is also on display here in Primm, though the bullet holes added to his car were staged.
Louisiana: Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Site and Museum
The sun would be setting soon. After all the time I’d spent, I was still in a city that is normally four hours from home, and any other day I’d be back by now. I decided Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch would have to wait, so I buckled down, fired up the podcasts, and put the pedal to the….well I tapped the pedal slightly every few minutes. After four more hours and one mental break came the donut and cheetos moment, and an hour and a half after that I somehow arrived, beaten but not broken.
And you know what? I would still do it all again. No matter what it takes, the opportunity to discover an unfamiliar city and explore new places or pieces of history is always worth grabbing at, and hanging onto for dear life. The Los Angeles lifestyle has been a strange thing for me, because people are so opposed to venturing anywhere inconvenient. “Do I have to drive more than 15 minutes? Pfft.” “Does it require waking up early? Pfft.” “Will I spend more time getting to the destination than being at the destination? Pfft.” I understand it to a certain extent; I do my fair share of complaining about my daily commute, and my truck fits in exactly zero parking spots in this city. But we live in a major metropolis, surrounded by thousands of interesting places throughout the rest of the state, and all of it is wide open to us. When I lived in New York, if something cool was happening in a different borough, you made the effort to get on the train for 45 minutes and go there, and you praised the fact that such ease was possible (unless all the trains were breaking down that day, or there were delays, or…ok so every kind of transportation has its problems). If you don’t want to put in the effort to experience your surroundings in places like this, why live somewhere so expensive?
Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch
So I elect to maintain my determination. I did end up visiting Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch the next weekend, and a few of the nearby Route 66 museums and roadside shops in Oro Grande, California too.
Elmer’s is like a junkyard fairytale (coincidentally how I would also describe my life), full of whimsy and color as the sunlight diffracts through glass bottles to a soundtrack of makeshift wind chimes and birdsong. I’ve visited a handful of other roadside attractions like this in America that I would describe as found object palaces.
Somehow all the details made sense together, but as I wound through the maze of repurposed artifacts I found myself imagining the origin story behind each individual piece. I got the distinct feeling that everything on display had led a life of its own before ending up here, and now our paths were entwining. It’s the same feeling I get when I set foot in any foreign environment that I’ve always heard of in the abstract, but am only just now visiting in person – that feeling of joining together, of bridging the gap. Of becoming a part of the world.
🏨 Find budget hostels in Las Vegas here and standard hotel options here.
🏕️ Find free or paid campsites near Los Angeles or Las Vegas via The Dyrt.
✈️ Coming to California/Nevada from further afield? Use an Airalo eSIM for affordable international cell data and don’t forget to protect your investment with travel insurance.
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