Routes
St George to Vegas
Mar
Getting from St George, UT to Las Vegas via dirt has been on my todo list since moving to St George. The varying terrain, massive amount of trails, and sites along the way make this an intriguing quest.
With a little planning I was able to cobble together a few trails and roads into a route that would get us all the way to Nellis. After pulling the GPX data down from various sites, I had it all put together in Gaia. After packing some tools, a spare tire, and some supplies into the Gladiator, we took off (solo) on the route. We do carry a Garmin In Reach Mini for emergencies.
View the full route on Google Maps
This route does cross pavement a few times and does travel a few miles on pavement. So, it is not completely dirt. However, it’s probably about as close as you can get without going east around The Valley of Fire.
I am also not satisfied with how far away from Vegas this routes exits the dirt. I would like to make some changes to it and get a lot closer to the city.
There’s always a next time!
Total trip time – 7 hours
Total mileage – 168 miles
The Jeep Gladiator was extremely comfortable and capable on this route. I only switched to 4WD to climb a long sand hill, which was actually a short cut – not a required climb. I aired down to 12 PSI for this route and that pressure worked extremely well here.
This route could definitely be done in a 2WD vehicle with high clearance. It might take a little more throttle depending on tire size/tread patch in some places, though.
Proper Air Pressure
Comfort, traction, and puncture resistance are all dependent on having the right pressure in your tires. On this trip, our Jeep Gladiator was running 38″ Nitto Trail Grapplers. With a tire this large, airing up after the trail usually takes quite a while.
This was our first trail test of our new Jeep Gladiator ARB Dual Compressor Mount. It worked extremely well!
View Jeep Gladiator Compressor BracketI am looking forward to doing this trip again, but maybe going behind The Valley of Fire next time, which will drastically increase the risk (further away from the interstate for recovery) and mileage, but I think it could get me a lot closer to the city before getting back onto pavement.
Who’s up for another shot at it???
We exited the dirt and hit I-15 to head into Vegas for a Nashville Hot Chicken at Hattie B’s in the Cosmopolitan’. Can’t beat a good Hot Chicken Sandwich!
Thanks so much for the GPX, I plan on this when it warms up a bit, and i want to take a couple days to do it, no rush and camping.
That sounds like a good trip. I would recommend that trip sooner rather than later. The Vegas desert can get warm. We were out at the Burro Wash trail last weekend and the weather was perfect! Good luck on the trip. Thanks for checking out the blog post!