Trip planning to Utah

[WADan]

We are planning to do our first long trip with MY from Seattle to Utah to see the national parks. Any advice as far as itinerary (how many days to see the top 5(?) national parks), where to stay (with charging in mind) etc...
Since this is our first long trip, so I am worried about charging. Should I get an adapter for destination chargers?
Thanks so much.

 

[SilverSp33d3r]

Zion has a hotel with great destination chargers. (Not affiliated Cable Mountain Lodge) I was successful in traveling S.E Utah parks from SoCal in a s60 back in 2018/2019. Just use the tesla nav to guide you and you will be fine.

 

[jcanoe]

We are planning to do our first long trip with MY from Seattle to Utah to see the national parks. Any advice as far as itinerary (how many days to see the top 5(?) national parks), where to stay (with charging in mind) etc...
Since this is our first long trip, so I am worried about charging. Should I get an adapter for destination chargers?
Thanks so much.

Do you plan on staying at campgrounds? If so then the NEMA 14-50 plug adapter and the TT-30 plug adapter (this one is not sold by Tesla, you can puchase at EVSEAdapters). Otherwise just bring your J1772 adapter and your Mobile Connector kit that came with the Tesla and you will be fine.

Highly recommend ABetterRoutePlanner as a route planning tool you can access on the web or on your phone as an app.

 

[Impaler]

We are planning to do our first long trip with MY from Seattle to Utah to see the national parks. Any advice as far as itinerary (how many days to see the top 5(?) national parks), where to stay (with charging in mind) etc...
Since this is our first long trip, so I am worried about charging. Should I get an adapter for destination chargers?
Thanks so much.

Utah is gorgeous, you'll really enjoy the views. My recommendation on chargers to bring for any major road trip:

- Mobile Connector with NEMA 5-15 and 5-20 (3-4 miles/hour, better than nothing. I didn't have the right TT-30 adapter when I first went camping, and even in camp mode, the 5-15 adapter with UMC kept the SOC high enough to not drain much).
- NEMA 14-50 adapter (29 miles/hour)
- TT-30 - as another poster said, get the right one, so you don't have to remember to manually set the car's current acceptance rate to 24A at a camp site:
- J1772 - also recommend a charger lock, like this one - will prevent someone from disconnecting you when you're not there

I don't consider the CHedEMO adpater essential, but I also went and got it. Not cheap at $400, but gives me maximum access to networks in addition to Superchargers. As Tesla says, having this will give you the most charging options of any EV on the planet.

I just throw all the above in the frunk and I'm set.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Dennisis]

If you've never been there you'll be amazed - pictures don't do it justice. Moab is the primo spot for Arches, Canyonlands, and visiting Dead Horse point which is actually a state park. Charging is available, check the map. When done in Moab drive south a bit and check out Monument Valley, which is what most people see in films etc... You could then drive west and stay in Kanab and visit Zion and Bryce Canyon, though Springdale is at the main entrance and gets most of the traffic. The new Days Inn in Kanab has good destination chargers and there's surprisingly good food to be had in town. I've never done all the parks in one trip but with time and planning it can be done. Just don't over-schedule - take your time and soak it all in. Anyway, my thoughts...

 

[PagodaY]

Green River Overlook and Grand View Point Overlook! So many places, too little time is the expression that will come to mind when visiting the Moab area. By all means, if you have the time (4-5 days), take a canoe trip down the Green River - absolutely spectacular!

In addition to A Better Route Planner, allstays.com and rvparky.com are great resources for locating information on campgrounds with electrical services.

 

[Flyguy3]

I agree with Moab! They have super chargers in town and the access to Arches and Canyonlands from Moab is easy.

 

[drtimhill]

I was planning on doing this exact same trip this summer so all the replies were doubly useful!

 

[threeputts]

My wife and I went on a trip in this area three years ago, we visited Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon. They were all worth seeing but to us Bryce would be at the bottom of the list of must sees. Zion was impressive and the Grand Canyon (which neither of us had ever seen) blew me away - pictures just don't cut it. We also toured Antelope canyon in Page AZ which is a different experience than the national parks. You can look at the pictures online and decide if it's something you're interested in, it's a different experience than the national parks as it's small. I'd go again but not in the summertime. We are planning to visit Arches and Canyonlands on our next trip whenever that happens.

Edit: If you do stop in Page check out Glen Canyon Dam - it's just 8 feet shorter than Hoover Dam.

 

[Dennisis]

My wife and I went on a trip in this area three years ago, we visited Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon. They were all worth seeing but to us Bryce would be at the bottom of the list of must sees. Zion was impressive and the Grand Canyon (which neither of us had ever seen) blew me away - pictures just don't cut it. We also toured Antelope canyon in Page AZ which is a different experience than the national parks. You can look at the pictures online and decide if it's something you're interested in, it's a different experience than the national parks as it's small. I'd go again but not in the summertime. We are planning to visit Arches and Canyonlands on our next trip whenever that happens.

Edit: If you do stop in Page check out Glen Canyon Dam - it's just 8 feet shorter than Hoover Dam.

Agree on comment re Bryce and would add when going through Page go a few miles south to check out Horseshoe bend - everyone has seen pics of this.

 

[threeputts]

- J1772 - also recommend a charger lock, like this one - will prevent someone from disconnecting you when you're not there

How does this thing work? Does it somehow only allow the J1772 plug to be disconnected from the adapter when the adapter is disconnected from the car?

 

[Impaler]

How does this thing work? Does it somehow only allow the J1772 plug to be disconnected from the adapter when the adapter is disconnected from the car?

You just slide the adapter over the Tesla adapter, and once the plug is in, someone is unable to depress the button to disconnect the J1772 plug until you release it via the car.

 

[Foxtrotter]

We are planning to do our first long trip with MY from Seattle to Utah to see the national parks. Any advice as far as itinerary (how many days to see the top 5(?) national parks), where to stay (with charging in mind) etc...
Since this is our first long trip, so I am worried about charging. Should I get an adapter for destination chargers?
Thanks so much.

Stop worrying and relax. No adapter is needed for Tesla destination chargers. Use plugshare to identify places with level 2 (Ji772) chargers as well as Tesla destination chargers. I assume that the little black cylindrical tesla to J1772 adapter still comes "free" with the Model Y. There are a lot of places to stay with such chargers. We stayed for several days fall 2019 at a Best Western in Springdale that had two L2 chargers and only once had another car charging at the same time. There are actually a lot of superchargers in Utah. Take a look at Plugshare or the tesla.com supercharger/destination charger map in the energy section. More up to date info on superchargers can be found on superchargeinfo.com

We also stayed and used destination chargers in Kanab and at Cliff dweller's lodge. These enabled us to do the N Rim easily. The run from Page up to Blanding is easy unless you want to do a lot of driving around in between. We used a J1772 along the way for a couple hours charging while we had breakfast. Love Navajo frybread. At Mesa Verde, the hotel has one destination charger and one J1772 so that was easy as well. We're looking at the Moab, Arches area for late spring this year and there are just a lot of charging places there. So relax and check things out online. A better route planner can also help with estimates of usage when there are big changes in elevation.

Only the N Rim made me nervous on our trip. Don't worry about other adapters at all. The only time we have even used the "charger" that came with the car was when we were visiting friends or AirBnb's that had 220V outlets with 3 or 4 prong receptacles. Tesla sells the adapters for those online and they could be used at RV parks but we have never had to do that. I would strongly just recommend finding destination and J1772 chargers at the hotels that you stay at. Then you waste none of your time charging. In some areas these are found only at high end hotels but in others such as Utah, even lower mid-range motels often have them.

Now if Tesla would put a supercharger in Ely Nevada and one in Salmon Idaho, I'd be really happy.

Good Luck.

 

[Dennisis]

If you've never been there you'll be amazed - pictures don't do it justice. Moab is the primo spot for Arches, Canyonlands, and visiting Dead Horse point which is actually a state park. Charging is available, check the map. When done in Moab drive south a bit and check out Monument Valley, which is what most people see in films etc... You could then drive west and stay in Kanab and visit Zion and Bryce Canyon, though Springdale is at the main entrance and gets most of the traffic. The new Days Inn in Kanab has good destination chargers and there's surprisingly good food to be had in town. I've never done all the parks in one trip but with time and planning it can be done. Just don't over-schedule - take your time and soak it all in. Anyway, my thoughts...

Edit: Whoops! Not Days Inn in Kanab, La Quinta! Big difference.....

 

[Rottenapplr]

Tesla can reach byrce and zion? I thought there were no superchargers there.

 

[frankvb]

Tesla can reach byrce and zion? I thought there were no superchargers there.

St. George is the nearest to Zion.

 

[WADan]

St. George is the nearest to Zion.

Google map shows one in St. George and one in Cedar City.

 

[Rottenapplr]

lol what was I think with that post about no chargers

 

[everydaychris]

Cool thanks for the information. Not to hijak the thread but we are doing a road trip from CA to Oregon so this advice is awesome!