ELMER’S BOTTLE TREE RANCH

These are my favorite stops on the drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. And if you can only stop at one place, make it this one. Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch between Victorville and Barstow. This is an amazing California roadside stop. Elmer collected all of these bottles along with his dad out from the desert, brought them here to their front yard, and made trees out of them. Admission is free. Parking is free. You just park on the highway and you come in here, explore, take some magnificent selfies to get here off of the Interstate 15 in Victorville. Take the 18 and drive about 11 miles on route 18, and then just park right in front and come on in. The gate is open most daytime hours. If you find the gate closed, well then just enjoy it from the outside. You can still take some really rewarding selfies outside the fence. You can walk on both sides of the fence and see it from around, but if the gate is open, definitely come on in! Enjoy! And if you really enjoyed it, they have a donation pot you can leave a few bucks for Elmer’s son, who is the one who runs and maintains this today.

Barstow around the outlet mall

Well, if all that bottle ranch exploring has left you hungry, now is a great time to make a pit stop into the commercial hub of Barstow around the outlet mall. Not to visit the outlet mall, but because there’s a ton of restaurants around here. In particular, the world’s largest In-N-Out burger.

This is typically my eating stop on the way between Vegas and LA. Uh, what am I like to get here? Double, double. No onions. Extra. Everything super delicious.

BARSTOW STATION

All right, if McDonald’s is more your speed, then you can check out a really interesting McDonald’s at the next stop, which is Barstow Station. This is a rest stop that’s been built using old train cars. And the McDonald’s has actually built inside these train cars. You can get your Mickey D’s and then eat inside a train car, which I think is pretty cool. No, this is actually not a train station. It is a Greyhound station.

Harvey House

But if you want to see Bartos actual train station, it’s here at the Harvey House. This was built in 1910. And trains. They still come by. So this station was a restaurant and a hotel. You can go in and see the ballroom that’s still there, public restrooms inside and in the parking lot. There are some really neat railroad cars that are worthwhile to check out too. And you can get up close and personal to the trains here as they go by. And it’s kind of cool.

PEGGY SUE’S 50S DINER

Another great stop if you’re hungry or just to look around is Peggy Sue’s 50s diner.

This is the oldest diner in California along the Interstate 15, and they serve classic diner food. They’ve also got a pizza parlor in the back. It’s a really interesting place to just walk around, because in addition to the food, there’s a gift shop you can get ice cream, and then in the back make sure not to miss. The dine-saur Park, not Dinosaur Park. If you’ve got kids, they’re sure to enjoy it because they got all these statues of dinosaurs. Oh, and pink flamingos too.

Oh, and make sure not to miss in the gift shop the only bejeweled cheeseburger in your moat, California. You’ll be able to check that one off your bucket list now.

CALICO GHOST TOWN

Just four miles down Ghost Town Road on the other side of the Interstate 15 from Peggy Sue’s Diner is Calico Ghost Town. This is the real not very farm ghost town why well, this is an old silver mine from the 1800s. They took a lot of silver out of here. It became abandoned. Walter, not the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, but this place from the mining company and turned it into a little bit of a ghost town theme park. Admission is $8 for adults to come in. That’ll give you admission to walk around and check out the place so you can check out the shops you can eat at the restaurants, you can do a little bit of hiking if you want to take a train ride, or you want to go into the mine on a walking tour. Those are all going to cost you a few more bucks.

Like the train ride is about five bucks and the walking tour of the mine is a little bit more. But overall pretty fun and definitely worth an hour or two. Stop on your way to Vegas. I know just about four miles down the hill from the Calico Ghost Town mine is my favorite rest stop on the drive.

EDDIE WORLD

Eddie World is a great place to get gas, get snacks, and use the restroom. And while there are tons of gas stations, you can do all those things along the way. This one’s the best one. Why? First, tons of gas pumps two. They got tons of Tesla chargers. Three. Inside it’s really big. So they’ve got like tons of snacks. They got a restaurant in the back. They sell ice cream, coffee. If you want to eat some of the food you bought here, they have a really big seating area with views out onto the mountains, and they have really clean restrooms. And if you’re a fan of the Lakers, definitely get to the back and check out the original floor of the forum where the Lakers used to play back in the day.

THE MAD GREEK

Okay, our next few stops are in the town of Baker, which is known as the turnoff to Death Valley. But our first one is a place to eat.

The Mad Greek serves up some pretty good Greek food. For $20 you can get their combo, which is their specialty is the lamb beef gyro. Some rice or fries comes with the Ezekiel sauce on the side. You get a drink. They got fountain sodas. For $5. You can get the baklava. They have walnut or pistachio. Lots of place to sit in. This place gets really big. It does get busy for lunch, but here at dinnertime, I’ve got the whole place to myself. And speaking of dinnertime, its night time now.

BAKER THERMOMETER

All right, so let’s go check out the other attractions in Baker. So once you’re done filling up with the Mad Greek, there are two more things you should check out in Baker. One is the gigantic thermometer, in fact. It is the world’s tallest thermometer. Chris, why is there such a big thermometer here? Well, Baker is also the gateway to Death Valley. People that go to Death Valley National Park typically turn off through Baker.

And so it is hot in Death Valley. Some of the hottest recorded temperatures on Earth have been at Death Valley, so it only makes sense to put the world’s tallest thermometer in the Gateway City to Death Valley. In addition to looking at it, there’s also a gift shop down at the bottom.

ALIEN FRESH JERKY

The most unique, weirdest place in Baker is Alien Fresh Jerky. This store, in addition to selling beef jerky with cool, witty names like abducted Cow Jerky, has a whole bunch of beverages you can pick up.

They have alien Donald Trump-who will read your fortune to you. They have a whole bunch of alien merchandise and gifts you could pick up. And then outside the store in the back in the summer, they have the time travel station where you can get, like ice cream and snacks, and then they’re building behind the time travel station, the UFO hotel.

I’m really excited for that to open Construction is smaller than I thought. Like last time I was here a year ago. It hasn’t progressed all that much. But I did hear hammers today. So maybe when you come by you can check out the UFO hotel in addition to picking up some alien fresh jerky.

TERRIBLE ROADHOUSE

All right, now, our first stop in Nevada is a terrible roadhouse. This is a mega gas station. Mega convenience store, even bigger than Eddie’s World. The Chevron station here has over 90 gas pumps. They have over 60 stalls in the restroom, inside the convenience store. Every snack imaginable, every Coke drink imaginable, everything you could want, even like a giant Sasquatch and a casino in here too. If you can’t wait to gamble, you can gamble inside Terrible’s Roadhouse. You can also get a picture with the Las Vegas sign. You know, the Las Vegas sign on the strip. Really busy long lines. Get your picture right here with no line. This is one amazing gas station, convenience store and more. And it’s even kind of funny that its name is terrible because it’s really not that terrible.

SEVEN MAGIC MOUNTAINS

And my final favorite roadside stop on the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is called the Seven Magic Mountains. These are seven stacks of painted rocks. Really? In the middle of the desert? Really? In the middle of nowhere. It’s just six miles, actually, from our previous stop, and there’s no restrooms here, so it’s good that you use the restrooms. Before this was put here in 2016 by an artist originally from Switzerland, and it’s just a really cool place to take a picture. It’s one of those really cool art installations. Why? Because it is just why would you stack these rocks out here and paint them and put them in the middle of the desert? And so many people come here. It is quite busy, just a dirt lot off the side of the 15 you’ll find one port potty and two signs that talk about the art. But a really great place to get a really unique picture. And from here it’s just 30 minutes on the I-15 down to the strip. Actually, the road is on its Las Vegas Boulevard. You could technically take this road all the way to the strip to, and certainly you can do this trip in reverse as well. And if you’re going to do that, then start right here.

Well fellow explorers, if you want to publish your journey though us send yours as well. As usual, I won’t say goodbye because I’m going to see you over there. Take care…