I would like to hear from anyone who has driven Colorado 550 between Farmington, NM and Grand Junction, CO (both directions). I'm considering a trip in early September from Tucson to Fort Collins. EV Trip Planner routes me this way traveling north and then through UT on the return. I know there is a 30 Amp Charger in Durango. I have seen a report of a 14-50 plug in Ridgway, but there are no "check-ins" on this plug. I have a P85 with 19" wheels.
Thanks in advance for your knowledge on this route.
ahm
I did the 50/550 GJ to Farmington route in an S85, 19", with a starting range of 262 miles for a 216 mile drive. It can be done without a mid-course charge, but you have to drive very slowly over the 3 three high elevation climbs on this route. A lot of the those elevations climbs are 15 to 30 mph curves anyway, so speed isn't much of an issue going up. Going down hill, I chose to recover energy rather than "coast". For those down hill portions, I occasionally pulled over to let accumulated traffic pass me so I could regen my way down. I think the GPS said this route takes about 6 hours (?) and that's about what I ended up taking. I got to Farmington with about 50 miles range left. I think if I'd know about the elevation changes, I wouldn't have tried this route, but stubborness won out.
My earlier trip in the opposite direction, I tried the more westernly route which is much flatter and a quicker drive. It is almost all two lane road, and I was traveling so slowly (about 50 mph in 65 mph zones), that traffic kept accumulating behind me and I was becoming a hazard, so I chickened out after about 1/2 the route was driven and drove to Moab to charge. There was a lot more traffic on this route than I expected, including several semis, so while I think this route can be driven without a mid-course charge, I didn't prove it out. Hope this helps. Unfortunately, I just shredded all my notes on this trip, so if you need more info, PM me and I'll see if any more brain cells have survived that can provide more detail.
