4647-mile Road Trip through the American West

[dauger]

Hello my TMC friends,

I am very excited to share how I took my family on a 20-day 4647-mile road trip entirely using my S this summer:

Tesla Model S - "American West" Road Trip

Starting from California, we traveled through 10 western states to see National Parks and beautiful sites including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Petrified Forest, Capitol Reef, Bryce, and the Million Dollar Highway. I documented everything, including the performance of the car while executing the trip using both Supercharger and Destination Charging. With this I have 10,767 miles of all-electric road trips under my belt. Everything worked and we had a great time! Please enjoy!

 

[ucmndd]

What an amazing trip. Thanks for sharing. Bookmarked this for reference later!

Love all the pics with the clean car. Something tells me there were more than a few undocumented car wash detours.

 

[Wshowell]

Might be borrowing all your hard work and planning a similar trip next summer for my little clan. Thank you!

 

[dauger]

What an amazing trip. Thanks for sharing. Bookmarked this for reference later!

Love all the pics with the clean car. Something tells me there were more than a few undocumented car wash detours.

Thanks very much!
Yes, good point! It's a long enough trip to fit in a couple car washes (it got super dirty in Durango), and they're documented, but you'll see the last week of the trip nature did a lot of "cleaning" for me.

 

[dauger]

Might be borrowing all your hard work and planning a similar trip next summer for my little clan. Thank you!

Please do! I hope it's helpful and educational, especially that it can be done.
New chargers seem to be appearing all the time, making such trips yet easier. As I was proofing my web pages today, I checked the maps and found a new Destination Charging hotel in Tropic, UT, that I would have used if it was online when I was booking.

 

[f205v]

Beautiful places, perfect roadtrip!

 

[Half Dollar Bill]

Hello my TMC friends,

I am very excited to share how I took my family on a 20-day 4647-mile road trip entirely using my S this summer:

Very nice! Reminds me of our trip out west a few years ago. Still trying to make the time to do it again.
26+ chargers would give you a running start. Want to join the contest?
Superchargers Visited

 

[dauger]

Beautiful places, perfect roadtrip!

Thanks so very much! It was a great experience.

 

[Oldschool496]

Thanks very much!
Yes, good point! It's a long enough trip to fit in a couple car washes (it got super dirty in Durango), and they're documented, but you'll see the last week of the trip nature did a lot of "cleaning" for me.

Awesome trip, may I ask how many of you traveled in that S? Must be smaller ones in the family?

Yes on nature cleaning. These cars in a stiff rain clean themselves really well. In fact last trip I took was 3000 miles Southeastern US. Our S was really dirty. I literally squirted it off with a hose at a Supercharger, got on the highway real fast and it looked like I had taken it to a car wash by the next stop.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

 

[dauger]

Awesome trip, may I ask how many of you traveled in that S? Must be smaller ones in the family?

Yes on nature cleaning. These cars in a stiff rain clean themselves really well. In fact last trip I took was 3000 miles Southeastern US. Our S was really dirty. I literally squirted it off with a hose at a Supercharger, got on the highway real fast and it looked like I had taken it to a car wash by the next stop.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

Thanks very much. We're a family of four. My children were 11 and 7 during the trip. In sign language, we're signaling the "Hello" tones from "Close Encounters" here:

Here are the children at Veteran Geyser in Yellowstone taking in a whiff:

In many of the car pictures, they're inside the car too; zoom in and you might spot them. Enjoy!

 

[Promo714]

I saw you mention on another site you were the sole driver on this trip. I'm leaving in just over a week to drive by myself from Orange County, CA to Nashville in my Model 3. I had an MS before and feel like the driving experience is about the same (for me). I never did a long trip in my S, but am looking forward to this drive through states I've never seen before. I'm trying to plan how many miles/hours I can do in a day. If I was driving an ICE, I would assume less (maybe no more than 9 hours/day driving) because of fatigue. However, with the Tesla and EAP I assume fatigue will be less. With your recent experience, what do you think?

Just an FYI--I'm driving out there to meet grandchild #9. My wife is already there and will drive back with me (and share the driving duties). We plan to take our time coming back and see what we can see. But for my solo trip, I want to get out there ASAP.

 

[mspohr]

I saw you mention on another site you were the sole driver on this trip. I'm leaving in just over a week to drive by myself from Orange County, CA to Nashville in my Model 3. I had an MS before and feel like the driving experience is about the same (for me). I never did a long trip in my S, but am looking forward to this drive through states I've never seen before. I'm trying to plan how many miles/hours I can do in a day. If I was driving an ICE, I would assume less (maybe no more than 9 hours/day driving) because of fatigue. However, with the Tesla and EAP I assume fatigue will be less. With your recent experience, what do you think?

Just an FYI--I'm driving out there to meet grandchild #9. My wife is already there and will drive back with me (and share the driving duties). We plan to take our time coming back and see what we can see. But for my solo trip, I want to get out there ASAP.

I've found on long trips that the cars are very comfortable and much lower stress than ICE (less noise, vibration, smooth) and the stops for charging help. It's good to get out and walk around for a few minutes every few hours. It may take longer because of the stops for charging but it's much less stressful.

 

[Oldschool496]

I've found on long trips that the cars are very comfortable and much lower stress than ICE (less noise, vibration, smooth) and the stops for charging help. It's good to get out and walk around for a few minutes every few hours. It may take longer because of the stops for charging but it's much less stressful.

Much less stress by stopping and resting/charging and you arrive so much better off everyday. Who would have thought.