Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks

After leaving the Beaver supercharger with essentially a full charge, I struck out off the supercharger path to go to Bryce Canyon National Park. This is a 68 miles drive and I drove cautiously as I was worried about remoteness and mountain elevations etc. Keeping to the speed limit, I used 76 miles of range to get to the shuttle bus stop. The shuttle bus is the way to go at Bryce -- you can only park for an hour at the Visitor Center, and inside the park itself (which is essentially a string of viewing spot along the rim of the "canyon") there is limited parking. The bus makes a continuous loop with one every 10-15 minutes during the day. I didn't ask if there was anywhere I could plug in at the Shuttle bus stop but there were lamp-posts in the parking lot that may have had at least 110...

After spending several hours hiking at Bryce I headed to the supercharger at St. George. Again, the nav on the Tesla really wanted me to go back to the interstate. Instead I wanted to go the "back way" via 89 south and then along highway 9, which cuts through Zion National Park. This was fewer miles and I thought it would be more scenic.

Well, it also is about 6000 feet elevation drop, so no need to worry re: range! I only used 80 miles of range even though I drove 127 miles. So -- total 195 miles between chargers, but actually only used 156 miles of range (250 Wh/mi). The shot below was my dashboard in Zion. This is a BEAUTIFUL drive along highway 9. Since it goes through the park you have to pay the daily park fee ($25) or have a membership card.

It this had kept up I guess I could drive to infinity and beyond.....

Normally the nav on the dashboard shows a straight blue vertical line. Loved the view of the switchbacks!

So one thing I have learned on this trip is that it is super easy and fast to go from supercharger to supercharger. By the time I had plugged in, stretched my legs, found a restroom, and plotted the next leg of the journey, I pretty much had enough range to get to the next stop. When you are heading off the beaten path is when charging time gets more tedious. Once familiar with the routes and terrain it would be much easier than the first time around to judge how much energy you need in the battery to make the trip, but waiting around 1+ hours to get up to "full" on the battery drove me crazy.

On the sightseeing side, both of these parks are spectacular and well worth a visit. In Bryce the rock formations are called hoodoos. They have easy viewing along a high ridge (elev ~9000ft) and there are various hiking routes down to walk within the hoodoos. Of course, that means you have to hike UP again to get out. On my way down, I saw various people coming up and was worried that particularly some of the older folks might not make it back up the steep paths to the rim. Then a couple of hours later when I was going up those endless switchbacks, I noticed people looking at ME with concern in their eyes. Not enough darn oxygen up there!!

Hoodoos from below, on a perfect blue sky Utah day

I think I took this one on the way back up. I tried to pretend I needed to stop frequently to take photographs or have a drink of water, not because I was so short of breath I would keel over if I took another step!

The color variation was really something

buffalo!

Also saw these 3 big horn sheep in Zion

From St. George I drove to Las Vegas to charge. I had read that charger was maybe in a dicey neighborhood. It was dark and Saturday evening when I exited I-15. My nav got mixed up, presumably because of tall buildings messing with the signal. I had to pull over and re-check the maps I had cached ahead of time and then was routed a couple of miles further. It was hard to find and I Was happy there wasn't much traffic, or it would have been even worse (since I was crawling along at 10 mph). The GOOD THING about the Vegas chargers is they are within a well-lit parking structure and the only things on that floor are charging stations, no other parked cars. There is a TESLA sign on the ramp, which is key to knowing where you should pull in. Once in the structure and plugged in, Tesla has put a nice "you are here and here are the other places to visit nearby" sign on the wall. There were a couple of other cars there charging. 

Despite this, I stayed in my car with the doors locked. I think it is good to have chargers in bigger cities so visitors will be able to charge. I also get that having the chargers close to the interstate is a better option than having to drive into town and wasting time and energy to do so. But I hope Tesla or someone else puts another supercharging station along this route, as currently you can't make it from St. George straight to Barstow (281 miles) so you have to stop in Vegas. If I never have to stop at that charging station again, it would be fine with me!

Barstow to San Juan Capistrano is an easy trip, as is SJC to Palm Desert. The JW Marriot here has 4 EV charging stations (two are 14-50) right in their parking lot, no extra charge, first come-first served. Although the new Indio supercharger is only 10 minutes away, it is obviously easier to just park here and charge all night, just like I would at home in my garage. Kudos to JW Marriott for putting these in (and it is Rock Star Parking as far as location too!)