I have driven this route. No way in Hell I'd fly it at night in a VFR only helicopter!
I had my fill of night over the desert when I flew an R22 with my instructor from Scottsdale, AZ to Long Beach, CA two nights before my PPL checkride, and the night before that from Scottsdale to Tuscon, AZ, where I started to get disorientated just before the lights of Tuscon saved me.