Jeep - Offroading, Travel Blog

From Repairs to Red Rock: Our Las Vegas Layover

After our unplanned extended stay in Apache Junction to button up the motorhome repairs, we finally made it northwest toward Las Vegas for just a couple of days in early April 2025. Our route followed U.S. Highway 93 up through Wickenburg, with most of it being four-lane divided highway. We were only here for a couple of nights, but we accomplished our lists.

The drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas follows a mostly four-lane divided highway, but not all the way. North of Wickenburg, U.S. Highway 93 narrows into a two-lane, two-way stretch with limited passing zones and occasional tight curves. The scenery through this section is wide-open desert, with some decent sized hills and in the distant red rock formations of the Mojave desert. A steady climb begins around the Nevada border, at Hoover Dam, where the cross winds and steep grades forces a tight grip on the steering wheel.

Jason also used the stopover to attend ISC West, one of the largest security conferences in the country. Thanks to his FBI InfraGard security membership, he received free admission to the exhibit hall. It is not something he would normally take time to fly out for from Wisconsin, but with the timing and cost lining up, it was worth the visit. It also gave us the chance to meet up with another fellow full-time RVing friend from Wisconsin who works for one of the vendors at the show.

Thousand Trails at Las Vegas

We stayed at Thousand Trails Las Vegas, just off Boulder Highway. Check-in came with a surprise. They required printed proof of insurance and registration for the motorhome before assigning a site. According to them, this is now a standard policy at all parks. We have stayed in hundreds of parks and have never once actually have been asked to provide written proof. We dug out the paper work to show it and then got squeezed into our tiny spot. This was one the the most undesirable we have had at a Thousand Trails property in a while. It was only 40 feet deep for our 39-foot motorhome, and there was no real place to park the Jeep on our spot and fortunately because we did not need to open all of our slides we could park the Jeep up closer to the motorhome. It is also the first time we have been to an RV park that has posted “hours” on their restrooms. If you have to “go” overnight, good luck. Not just locked, but no access codes too!

Rocky Gap Road Trail

This trail may not be overly long, this one section is just enough to cause rentals and stock Jeeps to turn around and go back out toward Las Vegas. There was no go around in this section. This Jeep Badge of Honor Rocky Gap Road Trail reminded us that elevation matters, when it is 80 degrees down in Las Vegas there is still snow up here in April. Jason took a moment to plan his line through the only real technical trail section, which was complicated with the lingering snow.

April weather down below the mountains in Las Vegas was in the 80s during the day and 40s overnight. We specifically made a stop here to get the Rocky Gap Road Jeep Badge of Honor, which starts about an hour southwest of Las Vegas. We ran the trail from the southwest over the mountains and back toward the city, taking just a couple of hours to complete. The city side of the mountain is a very common area for hiking, and we saw several rental Jeeps trying their luck to get through the more gnarly west end. One group made it nearly all the way through but could not get past the one real obstacle at the trailhead from the southwest side.

Rubi takes in the view from high above Red Rock Canyon, peeking over a ledge along Rocky Gap Road. The Jeep’s red High Lift Jack pops against the green and brown of the canyon below, if only the photos could capture the true natural beauty.

 

 

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