Cottonwood, I need to get to know you. You travel right where I want to start going in my MS90D. I have family in Farmington, NM and have never driven in a Tesla over a mountain pass - namely, Wolf Creek. I'm thinking of asking an Alamosa, CO business to participate in the Telsa Destination Charger program, would love your opinion on that. Alamosa is dead-center of my travels to Farmington from COS, and I calculate just an hour or so at 80-amps would get me to the Four Corners area. What do you think?
By the way, great Photoshop job. Your Tesla is sitting in snow but is spotless.
PM me, and we can chat.
If you can find a business that would host a Tesla Destination Charger in Alamosa, that would be a wonderful addition to the
San Luis Valley. Use this form to for contact with Tesla about Destination Chargers:
Destination Charging Contact Form
I did a little investigation, and the route via Salida and Pagosa is not too bad for getting from Colorado Springs to Farmington. See below for results from
EV Trip Planner.
While the Alamosa route is a little faster (0:26), it is more road miles at higher speed uses more rated miles (18 rated miles). In terms of charging time plus driving time, those almost cancel out. While the J-Plugs in Salida and Pagosa are 70 Amps vs the 80 Amps of an HPWC, both locations have nominal 240 Volt power rather than the more typical nominal 208 Volt connection at many commercial operations; once again almost a wash. I assume that you have dual chargers to make full use of 70 and 80 Amp chargers.
If I were doing this trip, I would do a 100% charge timed to finish an hour or so before departure, range mode off, turning cabin heat on for the last 30-60 minutes before departure to preheat the cabin, then turn range mode on for maximum driving efficiency, and head off to Salida. Plan on an hour or so of charging there, drive to Pagosa, charge another hour or so, and head on to Farmington.
In my opinion, both Salida and Farmington are much more interesting places to spend an hour or so than 2+ hours in Alamosa.
Except for very big dumps (once every few years), when the west side of Wolf Creek Pass can be closed for avalanche control, Wolf Creek Pass is a pretty good all weather route. Poncha Pass is no big deal, I have not driven La Veta Pass in a long time, and have no experience on La Manga Pass. Of course, put on good winter tires. I strongly recommend the Nokian Hakka R2's.
Here are a couple of other
EV Trip Planner runs that I did in this research.:
BTW, not PhotoShopping... Here is a cropped part of that picture showing more detail of the car. I guess that gun metal gray does a pretty good job of hiding winter road muck. Look at the icicles around the wheel wells and the darker grey road muck on the lower side panels.