I covered the other day my love for U.S. Highway 95. To me, it is the quint or hexa essential desert highway in America. However, there is another highway that is pretty close to matching 95's position. In fact, this highway shares some roadway in the Las Vegas area, 22 miles to be exact.
That would be...
Like 95, it spends more than half of its length in the desert, and nowhere is the highway more at home than in Nevada, where is runs for 527 miles.
I have been on 93 for its entire length in Arizona and Nevada, and a little chunk in southern Idaho as far as Twin Falls. It is about as nowhere as it gets in those runs, with one little advantage over 95: 93 for the most part is more direct, whereas 95 winds around a lot in Nevada and Oregon direction-wise.
So let us take a look at this highway from its southern end: Wickenburg, Arizona. It actually begins as a traffic circle with U.S. 60 going west and 93 going northwest. From there, the highway travels sometimes two-lane, often four-lane, through the emptiness of desert, though scenic at times with mountains around all the time.
Incidentally, U.S. 93 between Wickenburg and I 40 was once one of the deadliest roads in America due to its formerly entire 2-lane existence and some blind curves, plus the truck travel, since 93 was the fastest and clearest route to Phoenix since I 40 to I 17 in Flagstaff was often snowed in.
93 joins I 40 for 23 miles to Kingman, where it exits and runs through desert lands as an at grade expressway, though the exit for AZ 68 to Bullhead City and Laughlin is freeway-grade. The expressway to the Nevada line has seen better times. More than 20 years ago when I would visit my grandma in Sun City West, Arizona, I would take 93 all the way to where it ended, then 60. Between the Hoover Dam and I 40, 93 was in pretty good shape then. Now it is full of potholes, at least in the northbound direction. However, good things are coming down the line, but with a potential catch...
At the Nevada line, 93 becomes a freeway and shares road with the sudden appearance of the fairly new Interstate 11. It passes over Hoover Dam and then after 2 miles it turns south and then west to bypass Boulder City proper to the north. It picks up U.S. 95 just before heading northwest to Railroad Pass and then into the Las Vegas Valley.
Before 2010, 93 went down a steep set of switchbacks to cross Hoover Dam and then switchbacked up again to head into Boulder City. West of Boulder City was where 95 joined just a half mile of where it joins now and after a traffic light at Railroad Pass, beocme a freeway. The events of 9/11/2001 resulted in trucks being disallowed on the dam, instead being detoured down 95 and then NV163 and finally AZ 68 back to 93,a 100 mile detour from what was once about 80 miles. In 2010, a new bypass was opened over Black Canyon and the dam, once again allowing trucks to take the more direct route into Arizona. When I 11 opened for its initial 23 miles in 2018, 93 was rerouted onto it just west of the Hoover Dam Bypass.
I 11/U.S. 95/93 enter the Las Vegas Valley in a fairly westerly direction before turning northwest after the CC 215 interchange. Between southern Henderson and Downtown Las Vegas, 93 and 95 once ran along Boulder Highway/Fremont Street, being gradually rerouted along the freeway as it was built. For 30 years, this freeway was also known as I 515, changed completely over to I 11 in 2024.
At the Spaghetti Bowl interchange with I 15, 93 joins with 15 northbound into the not-so-glitzy North Las Vegas and then climbs up to Apex where Las Vegas Boulevard crosses it. At this point, I 15/U.S. 93 leave the Las Vegas Valley officially. Six miles down the freeway, 93 exits 15 and restarts its desert trek and wow it it a trek!
Between I 15 and the small town of Alamo is 73 miles of pure desert, and if one travels around sunrise, the colors on the mountains are striking. Along the way, 93 has a turnoff for NV 168, which runs to Moapa and is the former routing of 93, when it ended in Moapa.
Note: if and when Interstate 11 is completed to the Phoenix area, U.S. 93 will be redundant as a route and will likely be truncated to I 15 and not even reach Las Vegas anymore.
After Alamo and Ash Springs, 93 meets the end of NV 375 (the Extraterrestrial Highway) and curves to the east for a little over 40 miles before turning north again. Passing through Caliente and then bypassing Pioche, 93 enters a vast barren valley before meeting U.S. 6 and U.S. 50 to run west together to Ely.
I distinctly remember going on a 4th grade trip 22 years ago on this route. On the bus, I closed my eyes for a bit and when I opened them, we were coming to that junction and the weather had turned cold, windy and snowy! And it was early May!
In Ely, the 3 routes separate...50 and 6 had been running together from western Utah for over 150 miles...almost like 93 came and caused a breakup, but that's me giving human qualities to highways.
U.S. 50 heads west into the empty yet fascinating heart of Nevada as tthe Loneliest Highway in America, later reaching Carson City and Lake Tahoe; 6 heads southwest as possible the second loneliest road toward Tonopah; 93 heads north, continuing into the desert. Over 120 miles away, 93 junctions with Interstate 80 in Wells, then continues through the barenness to Jackpot where there are some "last chance" casinos before crossing into Idaho.
Incidentally, between Ely and Wells, 93 branches off sister route U.S. 93A to shortcut to West Wendover which is another last chance town before corssing into Utah. 93A used to be part of U.S. 50 decades ago as well as a general path of the Lincoln Highway.
In Idaho, 93 continues 42 miles to the town of Twin Falls, one of Idaho's major cities, though not precisely a metropolis. After crossing the Snake River Canyon and intercting Interstate 84, 93 continues into the desert, but also tends to follow rivers as well as go through several small hamlets such as Shoshone, Arco, Challis, and Salmon before climbing into the Bitterroot mountain range. 93 also shares road with both U.S. 20 and U.S. 26 through south central Idaho.
It is noticeable that southern Idaho is more barren golden desert, but as U.S. 93 heads further north, the greenery is more plentiful, gaining many evergreen trees along the highway's sides as it enters the Bitterroots.
After ascending to Lost Trail Pass, 93 enters Montana and starts a long downhill through the mountains before taking a more straight route north through the town of Hamilton. 93 takes on U.S. 12 in Lolo and they continue together to the major town of Missoula. 93 and 12 separate just south of downtown, and 93 goes through the western portion of Missoula before meeting Interstate 90 for a 5-miles stand before exiting north to wind through more hilly territory before servicing the western side of Flathead Lake, which serves as the "Lake Tahoe" of Montana due to its size...my words, not Montana's . North of the lake, 93 serves the city of Kalispell and meets U.S. 2. Seventeen miles after is Whitefish after which 93 goes through wooden areas before reaching Eureka, the last town before heading to the Canadian border, on the other side of which is British Columbia Route 93...the legend continues Canada style I guess.
Like it's longer brother 95, U.S. 93 sees greener lands to the north as a "reward" for all of its desert "suffering". It is quite a fascinating road in all of its many terrains. I am not sure if I will live to see if 93 is truncated to I 15 in southern Nevada, but that will be a sad day for sure. U.S. 93 has been an important road for decades that connected Phoenix to Las Vegas. While a freeway does make safer and faster, a heritage tends to die when the old road is built over to left to the side...much like Route 66.
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