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Road Trip Question for Long Desert SW Multi Stop Trip

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Hi, i want to drive from LA to Colorado for a family wedding but stop in Zion or Northern grand canon rim along the way for 2-3 days. I have never driven this far in my car and the nav doesn't have multi-stop trip support. I love the tesla nav otherwise and find it very accurate for a few other trips i've taken to Vegas and the bay area. I'm afraid to get out into some remote Utah town and stuck. Google maps shows some roads that i am not sure have super chargers on them.

Any recommendations on how to best plan this trip?
 
Use A Better Routeplanner to plan your trip. In the car use the nav, but I'd stop at the Superchargers ABRP suggests. While charging, enter the next Supercharger as the destination. Then watch the charge remaining at destination on the nav. The nav will tell you when you can stop charging and head to the next Supercharger. I usually make sure that we have an estimated 15% to 20% remaining at destination even if the nav says we can make it with less. If you're in a situation the nav can't handle (like multiple destinations before Supercharging) then follow ABRP. When driving around Las Vegas I know we need a minimum charge to make it to our first Supercharger when we leave. And most important, if charge is running low (watch the charge remaining at destination while driving), slow down. You are much more efficient at slower speeds.

Think about staying at a hotel with a destination charger if you stop out in the boonies.
 
My wife and I just did this trip a few days ago (Anaheim - Denver, with stops at Zion National, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Grand Canyon/Parashant Monument). It was extremely smooth. The worst thing we had to do was back track after Zion. There’s a supercharger in St. George, UT that we stopped at before going to Zion, then we back tracked back to that same Supercharger at St George before heading to the next supercharger on route 15 in Beaver, UT and Bryce Canyon. A little note that we didn’t see on PlugShare is that Zion Visitors Center has a couple EV Charging Stations in the parking lot, and if we known that we may have been able to charge at Zion Visitors Center and go straight to Beaver Supercharger instead of backtracking... but that’s okay. We didn’t mind the extra 45 min or whatever it was after a long day of hiking. We enjoyed sitting in the A/C.

As far as the Northern Trim of Grand Canyon, I’m assuming you’re talking about the Grand Canyon/Parashant National Monument side. Going from St George, UT supercharger to there takes you on a 20+ mile dirt road. It’ll take an hour plus to get there, but you’ll certainly have enough battery for the trip. Just be careful with the car! It’s a really cool dirt road and it’s empty and beautiful, but certainly not the best for the suspension.

Good luck. You’re gonna love the trip.
 
I just took a trip from Chicago to Moab, UT. Didn’t think too much. I only used ABRP to get an idea of how far apart between each SC stops. I usually give it a 50 to 100 miles buffer. If the next charging stop is 150 miles away, I’ll just charge to 250 miles.
One thing worth mentioning is that ABRP does not know if a SC is closed. While I was charging at Brush, CO, ABRP suggested me to skip Lakewood, CO (97 miles away) and charge at Idaho Springs, CO (120 miles away) next. But it didn’t know that Idaho Springs SC was closed. Luckily I was playing with the Navi while it was charging and the Tesla navigation told me that SC was closed. So I charged at Lakewood instead. If I didn’t check the onboard navigation, I might have arrived to a close SC with 10% left.
My advise is, always check the onboard navigation to make sure all your planned SC stops are open.
 
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Hi, i want to drive from LA to Colorado for a family wedding but stop in Zion or Northern grand canon rim along the way for 2-3 days. I have never driven this far in my car and the nav doesn't have multi-stop trip support. I love the tesla nav otherwise and find it very accurate for a few other trips i've taken to Vegas and the bay area. I'm afraid to get out into some remote Utah town and stuck. Google maps shows some roads that i am not sure have super chargers on them.

Any recommendations on how to best plan this trip?
There's a few destination Tesla chargers at the hotel west of Zion entrance. check them out for worry free charging. Also like other said, the visitor center has clipper creek. $5 parking.

Zion is my fav national park!
 
My wife and I just did this trip a few days ago (Anaheim - Denver, with stops at Zion National, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Grand Canyon/Parashant Monument). It was extremely smooth. The worst thing we had to do was back track after Zion. There’s a supercharger in St. George, UT that we stopped at before going to Zion, then we back tracked back to that same Supercharger at St George before heading to the next supercharger on route 15 in Beaver, UT and Bryce Canyon. A little note that we didn’t see on PlugShare is that Zion Visitors Center has a couple EV Charging Stations in the parking lot, and if we known that we may have been able to charge at Zion Visitors Center and go straight to Beaver Supercharger instead of backtracking... but that’s okay. We didn’t mind the extra 45 min or whatever it was after a long day of hiking. We enjoyed sitting in the A/C.

As far as the Northern Trim of Grand Canyon, I’m assuming you’re talking about the Grand Canyon/Parashant National Monument side. Going from St George, UT supercharger to there takes you on a 20+ mile dirt road. It’ll take an hour plus to get there, but you’ll certainly have enough battery for the trip. Just be careful with the car! It’s a really cool dirt road and it’s empty and beautiful, but certainly not the best for the suspension.

Good luck. You’re gonna love the trip.

Thanks all. Rossboyle I am heading to CO for a wedding and only have 3 nights for something else on the way. If i had to pick one place to go and a nice hotel/spa would you have a preference and recommendation? I will leave on a Saturday, need to be in Durango, CO on Thursday . TIA
 
Thanks all. Rossboyle I am heading to CO for a wedding and only have 3 nights for something else on the way. If i had to pick one place to go and a nice hotel/spa would you have a preference and recommendation? I will leave on a Saturday, need to be in Durango, CO on Thursday . TIA

Wow that’s a tough question. It depends on if you’re looking for a relaxing spa experience first, possible short hiking second. Or if you’re looking for hiking and camping first, with a side of spa. If you’re looking for a spa day first with a possible hike or two as second priority, I would suggest going to Moab, UT. It’s a cute little town that is right next to Arches National Park. You can rent ATVs and do off roading tours which is a blast. You’d be able to do easy hikes that have clear paths. And we did a midnight hike there at Arches under the stars (its opened 24/7) and it was the most beautiful thing my wife and I have ever seen. It’s also more of a built up town/community as compared to Zion or Bryce Canyon area where you could actually find a nice spa to stay at with great food and cold beer.

If you’re looking for hiking first, and spa second, I would suggest Hurricane, UT where Zion National Park is. It’s the biggest town in the area, about 20/25 min from Zion so you’d still be close to civilization and restaurants/bars, but you’d be close enough to Zion where you would spend most of your 3 days. Unlike Arches, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyonlands, etc (all the Natl Parks in the area) Zion you really need all those 3 days to cover the whole park if you’re an avid hiker. But beware, most of those hikes at Zion are for just those people: avid hikers. There are some tough trails there. But if that describes you, then that is certainly the place to go. It’s an avid hikers dream!

Let me know what you decide!
 
Cool Thanks. I’m a casual hiker and my wife is lazy :)

maybe I’ll stop at Zion for a day and then spend a few more at Moab

FYI - Zion is a bit of a cluster right now. Scenic drive is accessible via the park shuttle only (as of July 1st), you have to reserve tickets for it online and they're extremely limited in number (check the park website). We've been here at Zion July 1st & 2nd and the wait times have been up to an hour to get a bus back to the visitors center from inside the park (and we've heard stories of 2 hr+ if trying to get back from the narrows at the very north end). Frankly, I'd suggest Bryce instead right now - everything is open for private vehicles and it's not crazy busy.
 
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I dislike ABRP especially since it cannot display is a SC is closed like eCharcoal stated. The car computer knows what's going on with your trip and can advise you to reduce speed to make it to the next stop among other things. Weather, road conditions, HVAC status, battery temp, etc... ABRP cannot do that.

ABRP is very useful for more accurate consumption estimates in my experience since you can more precisely select the type of car you have and also change speed settings if you like to go fast. I like using it to get a general sense of energy requirements for certain legs of the trip and then navigate using the built in nav system with that extra info in mind.
 
Cool Thanks. I’m a casual hiker and my wife is lazy :)

maybe I’ll stop at Zion for a day and then spend a few more at Moab
That’s right Moab is hot! When we were there it was over 100F everyday. However the rock formations in Arches National Park are absolutely amazing! We did some short hikes to some arches. Definitely hot but still manageable with plenty of water, even for a 5-year-old.