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Pacific Northwest Roadtrip

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Hi All,

First time poster, apologies if I screw-up any of the etiquette!

My wife and I are kicking off a 2.5 week road trip from the SF Bay Area to Banff at the beginning of September. I've scanned a handful of blogs and this site for tips on driving this route, but haven't found much and would welcome tips from those driving.

We are thinking about the following nights, which generally follow the SC routes except for the mid-Oregon coast.
  • SF
  • 1 x Coos Bay, OR (Oceanside Beachfront RV resort): SF --> Petaluma SC --> Ukiah SC --> Eureka SC --> Coos Bay
  • 1 x ?Manzanita?, OR via 101 on one charge (220 mi)
  • 1 x Olympia, WA (Family)
  • 1 x Kamloops Alberta
  • 5 x Banff (Friends)
  • 2 x Portland (Friends)
  • 2 x Bend (Family)
  • SF
Any suggestions or things we can't miss along the route? We've been following the development of the SCs along the coast, specifically in Crescent city and Bandon. Thanks all ahead of time!

Cheers,

John
 
Bandon dunes if ur a golfer.
Sea lions caves in Florence, or.
Tillamook factory tour
Haystack rock in cannon beach.
Goonies museum in Astoria, OR.

Mt. St Helens
Lemays auto museum in Tacoma
Glass museum in Tacoma
Future of flight museum in Everett

Near bend or, check out the lava fields on McKenzie hwy.
 
There are lots of interesting things in Portland. If you like books, there is Powells City of Books, the second largest bookstore in the US. There are great places to eat too, Portland is a foody city. Portland prides itself on being weird, so there are many strange and wonderful things in the city, it all depends what you're into.

Outside of Portland there is the Columbia Gorge and the waterfalls, only 30-40 minutes east of town. SR-14 on the north side of the Gorge is a fun road to drive in a Tesla as long as you don't get stuck behind a slowpoke. There are also the volcanoes, seeing Mt Hood, Mt Rainier, and Mt St Helens are all different experiences, but each is a nice outing. The Sandy supercharger is situated for people about to make the 6000 climb up Mt Hood. If you're going one direction via I-5, there is Crater Lake in southern Oregon.

Highway 101 in Washington doesn't have the superchargers built yet, but Olympic National Park has the world's only temperate rain forest.
 
I have a couple of charging thoughts. Since you're talking about the mid Oregon coast, are you planning to use any of the Aerovironment CHAdeMO stations? They have a pretty good network if you have the CHAdeMO adapter.
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You can pay $7.50 for any individual charging session (Pay with Plugshare from your phone works) or just get the full month unlimited for $20 if you're going to use it a few times.

Also, at the end, where you're mentioning Bend and back to SF, there are some pretty good charging resources in Klamath Falls if you want to take highway 97 back down. The Oregon Institute of Tech. is an 80A one that would be especially great if you have the higher amp charger in your car.
 
Wow -- fantastic suggestions. Thanks all for the time/generosity.

Quick thoughts
  • Unfortunately, I don't have a CHAdeMO adapter, and they look fairly pricey for the short term gain (before 101 SCs)
  • We'll definitely hit Tillamook & the future of flight museum
  • I'll have a look at 97, great suggestion
  • Given the advice, we'll definitely make a jaunt out to the Gorge from Portland
Questions
  • Did you find that most RV parks or campsites are electric vehicle friendly
  • I am most nervous about the first 2-3 days along the coast without super-chargers. I am keeping those to ~230 mile days, which is one full charge, but will be counting on toping off during lunch or another break to make it?
  • Were
Cheers,

John

PS: In case it benefits anyone, I found some great road trip gear
 
Another suggestion, if you want to see another nice air museum the Spruce Goose is the centerpiece of a large aircraft collection at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, OR. McMinnville is also the heart of the Oregon wine country. There are lots of places to do wine tasting and a number have chargers for EVs. Oregon's climate is perfect for pinot noir grapes and a lot of great pinots come from that area.

I suggest using the trip planner to plot to the next charging stop. If you find yourself getting too low and it looks dicey whether you will make it or not, slow down. The car is more efficient at 55 than 65 (maximum efficiency is around 25-30 mph, but you'd get a ticket doing that on 101). Also make sure you can access plugshare.com from the car. It will tell you where all the chargers are and if you need an emergency charge, it can guide you to one that's close. Getting stuck charging for a couple of hours on a slow charger is annoying, but it beats running out of juice in the battery.
 
if I was going to see a factory, it would be Boeing and not Tillamook. If you are into planes, there is a nice Airplane Museum in Seattle, but the name escapes me. I like Seal Beach, halfway up the Oregon Coast, at lower tides. I have vacationed in Seaside, OR for years, like that little town for lots of reasons. Have fun.
 
if I was going to see a factory, it would be Boeing and not Tillamook. If you are into planes, there is a nice Airplane Museum in Seattle, but the name escapes me. I like Seal Beach, halfway up the Oregon Coast, at lower tides. I have vacationed in Seaside, OR for years, like that little town for lots of reasons. Have fun.

Museum of Flight at Boeing Field.
 
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You might consider returning from British Columbia via the Okanogan Wine country on U.S. Highway 97. There is a Tesla Supercharger at Ellensberg and a very good string of 80A chargers from Osoyoos, BC to Wenatchee. Wenatchee also has an Aerovironment L3. Most of this route follows the Ice Age Floods drainage along the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers. Crossing points to Interstate 5 are Highway 20 with good 80A chargers available, Highway 20 with L3 and L2 chargers available and Interstate 90 with some L3 and a Tesla SC at Ellensberg.
 
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That would depend if you want to see planes being assembled or cheese curds curding. Free samples are available at the tillamook cheese factory, I don't think Boeing has free samples ;)

I got spoiled with the Boeing factory when I worked there. As an employee I could pretty much go anywhere in any of the commercial factories as long as I didn't interfere with anybody getting their job done. After my self guided tour of the Everett plant I took the public tour when I had some friends visiting from California.

The public tour went some places I hadn't been and the tour guide told me some things I didn't know, but there is something sublime about standing underneath a 747. You have aluminum stretching out in all directions, more than you think humanly possible.

This may be the last chance to see a 747 under construction, sales have been so poor Boeing is considering discontinuing it. Long range twin jets have pretty much eaten up the 747 market.
 
Fantastic -- thanks for the additional tips. We'll
  • Stop by the Boeing museum. I am very interested in flying. Most of my flying is normal SEL, but my dream is to buy an amphibious Aircam and get a dock spot for it somewhere in the Bay Area.
  • Make sure to go through Prairie Creek.
It would be perfect timing if Crescent City is up by then. I am trying to plan our trip assuming no new SCs are coming online, but it would make the trip a lot easier.

We're also adding a couple of stops for some kiteboarding along the Oregon coast, specifically Floras Lake & Astoria in case anyone has a rec on them. Additionally, I while we are @ Banff, I think we're going to drive the road from Banff to Jasper for a long day trip, stopping to recharge at the Fairmont up there. Anyone done that? Too long for a day?

Separately, in case anyone else is planning a road trip, I ran across two helpful things doing more research
  1. iOS app called RoadTrippers -- highly helpful for stringing together, and holding, a multi-stop root
  2. iOS app called Remote S -- I've had this for a while, but only read recently that it has camping mode built in somewhere (I still need to find)
Thanks again all!

Cheers,

John


Skip Petaluma and just use Ukiah to get to Eureka from the bay area. North of Eureka 45 miles or so is prairie Creek which is beautiful, I always go that way instead of the bypass and highly recommend it!


Also, the crescent city Supercharger should be running in a week or so.
 
Fantastic -- thanks for the additional tips. We'll
  • Stop by the Boeing museum. I am very interested in flying. Most of my flying is normal SEL, but my dream is to buy an amphibious Aircam and get a dock spot for it somewhere in the Bay Area.
  • Make sure to go through Prairie Creek.
John

I didn't mention it case you weren't that into aircraft, but there are some other nice air museums. Paul Allen (one of the founders of Microsoft) has been collecting rare WW II vintage aircraft and restoring them to flying condition. He has a flyable Japanese Oscar. It's an early model with a two bladed prop. He also has a P-40C and a Bf-109E.

The museum is in Everett at the same airport as the Boeing plant (Paine Field). They have flying days a couple of times a month where they fly the old aircraft. There is also an air museum in Tiliamook that I haven't been to, but they have some rarities there too. There is a wrecked B-17E recovered from a New Guinea swamp that has bounced around from one museum to another. I'm not sure if the Tiliamook museum still has it, but it was there at one point.