Los Angeles to Grand Canyon in SR- Y (Recommendations)

[JSiz22]

Hi all,

First post on the site. I'm road tripping from the Los Angeles area to the Grand Canyon in a few days. I have a SR-Y (so 244 on the battery). The Tesla route planner is sending me a strange (and long) way on this trip. It seems like there are shorter options with possible superchargers from the 15 to I-40. ABRP and EV Trip Planner are also sending me on different routes, so I'm trying to get a gauge on the best way to go here.

1. Has anyone made this drive recently? Route recommendations?
2. If I leave L.A. with a full charge , then go to the Barstow SC and charge up, will I be able to reach the Needles supercharger comfortably? Even with the elevation change? From there it seems easier (Kingman and onto Williams for a quick stop).

Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!

J

 

[socal_my]

Please share your experience too as I want to visit Grand Canyon sometime next month or so. I have an SR MY too.
Not sure how it will route from LA, here are some details of someone who travelled from San Diego. Note that it's an LR MY

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/nm3ja5

 

[SDM44]

We just drove this route last year during Thanksgiving (in our ICE car), went up I-15 and cut over to 40 at Barstow and drove towards Needles and stayed on 40 all the way until you get to the 64 and then to the south entrance at Grand Canyon Junction.

On Google maps, it's 145 miles from Barstow to Needles, so maybe the EV Trip Planner thinks that's pushing it on a SR. From what I remember, it's a mostly flat drive but you're slowly climbing in elevation so you would be using more energy on that stretch. Plus, if you look at the supercharger map there's only 4 chargers in Needles that are 150kW, which is enough to charge with but no telling if there's going to be a line waiting to charge.

After Needles, there's another supercharger in Kingman only 64 miles away and in a SR you would need to top it off up there before the 145 mile drive from Kingman to Grand Canyon Junction (again going uphill for the most part, although there were some up & down parts on the freeway from what I remember). In Kingman, there's only 6 chargers that are 150kW, and from there to Grand Canyon Junction you're pushing it going uphill in elevation in a SR. In fact, last year during Thanksgiving the Grand Canyon Junction superchargers weren't open yet and you would have to charge in Flagstaff (back tracking quite a bit).

I assume EV Trip Planner is telling you to take the 10 all the way out to Phoenix and then the 17 up to Flagstaff, which is a way longer drive but much safer in a SR model Tesla since there's a bunch of superchargers along that route. I would feel comfortable going the 15 to 40 to 64 route in a LR or even Performance, but probably not in a SR.

 

[JSiz22]

Please share your experience too as I want to visit Grand Canyon sometime next month or so. I have an SR MY too.
Not sure how it will route from LA, here are some details of someone who travelled from San Diego. Note that it's an LR MY

https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/comments/nm3ja5

Will do! And thanks for the link.

 

[JSiz22]

We just drove this route last year during Thanksgiving (in our ICE car), went up I-15 and cut over to 40 at Barstow and drove towards Needles and stayed on 40 all the way until you get to the 64 and then to the south entrance at Grand Canyon Junction.

On Google maps, it's 145 miles from Barstow to Needles, so maybe the EV Trip Planner thinks that's pushing it on a SR. From what I remember, it's a mostly flat drive but you're slowly climbing in elevation so you would be using more energy on that stretch. Plus, if you look at the supercharger map there's only 4 chargers in Needles that are 150kW, which is enough to charge with but no telling if there's going to be a line waiting to charge.

After Needles, there's another supercharger in Kingman only 64 miles away and in a SR you would need to top it off up there before the 145 mile drive from Kingman to Grand Canyon Junction (again going uphill for the most part, although there were some up & down parts on the freeway from what I remember). In Kingman, there's only 6 chargers that are 150kW, and from there to Grand Canyon Junction you're pushing it going uphill in elevation in a SR. In fact, last year during Thanksgiving the Grand Canyon Junction superchargers weren't open yet and you would have to charge in Flagstaff (back tracking quite a bit).

I assume EV Trip Planner is telling you to take the 10 all the way out to Phoenix and then the 17 up to Flagstaff, which is a way longer drive but much safer in a SR model Tesla since there's a bunch of superchargers along that route. I would feel comfortable going the 15 to 40 to 64 route in a LR or even Performance, but probably not in a SR.

You're spot on. Basically, the Tesla route planner takes me down past Joshua Tree out on the 10 and into Arizona where we cut up northeast on the 60 to hit the Wickenburg SC, skirt around the Phoenix area on the 74, then up the 17. (Trip estimate is 10 plus hours).

EV Trip Planner is sending me NORTH of the Mojave Desert. And ABRP says the "quickest route" is also past Joshua and up the 17.

Now, just to add one more wrinkle to this. Every once in a while I'll put our Grand Canyon hotel in the Tesla Route Planner and it will occasionally send me to Barstow -- > Needles --- > Kingman. (Trip estimate around 9 hours compared to previous route of 10 hours) If we go this way I was also planning on stopping off in Williams for a quick bite and maybe charge up there before heading up toward the Canyon. But your post is basically confirming what I've been thinking, that shooting over the 40 may be a little dicey if trip conditions aren't perfect.

 

[avs007]

How funny! My friend is on vacation right now with his Model 3 SR+ at the grand canyon going to Los Angeles... I was just talking to him, and he ended up going to Joshua Tree, which wasn't originally on his itinerary... If that's the route you came up with, it totally makes sense why he made a detour to visit Joshua Tree on his way to Los Angeles from the Grand Canyon.