If he went straight from home, and never went to "pony express", yes, he could have driven that direction. But the weather would be about the same. US-93 is about the same elevation and is as hilly, as the terrain in Tooele County.
Yes, US-93 bypasses. But are you really going to take a dead body onto a freeway with lots of traffic...or do you go down deserted roads, where there's little traffic? There's really few places to hide a body along I-80. It's busy 24/7.
I've been down all those routes, and know I'd have gone down US-6 to Delta and over US-50. Very little traffic (I last drove in, in January).
My primary belief in a US-50 route (rather than US-93) is due to the search at "Ward". It's several miles south of Ely, on US-50. It's not something he'd pass, if he'd come from the north (US-93). Both areas searched, were on US-50, which is part of the "pony express" route in from Utah.
My scenario is based on him saying where he'd been. I think that was an "excited utterance" to Chris Jones, and the wheels were spinning to get him out of it. So he came up with "smores".
Remember, if he went to "pony express" the first time and was going to move the body, he'd have to go back that way to get it, and move it again.
