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0 pointsnotJim6y ago0 comments

I strongly prefer to camp in the NF right outside the park or in the park itself, so that rules out the RV campgrounds. I think the L2 stuff you're seeing is in the Seattle metro, there's nothing near Rainier. I'm coming from Portland, so it'd be way out of my way to go to Seattle.

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ratsbane6y ago

Hmm, now I'm thinking about how I would plan a trip like that... Google Maps shows 139 miles from Portland to Mt. Rainier. My Model 3 (long-range, RWD) has about 306 miles range at the moment (after 42,000 miles) so I could almost go there and back without charging, but altitude changes and low temperatures will crimp the range a bit.

Are you familiar with Alexander's Lodge? (https://alexanderslodge.com/) It looks like they have a couple of Tesla Destination Chargers, which typically work at around 40mph, (40 miles of range for each hour of charge) so it would work to drive there, charge for an hour or two, and have enough range to comfortably drive back to Portland in a day or two.

Of course, that doesn't mean the Model 3 is right for you in every way, but it's interesting to think through scenarios like this.

(edit) https://www.plugshare.com/location/79838

notJimOP6y ago

Yeah, Alexander's Lodge comes up a fair amount when I was researching this. Overall, the trip is like, barely doable, but then you have to consider that from Ohanapecosh (one of the major campgrounds) to Sunrise (where a lot of hikes start) is 30 miles, so in a 2-day trip, that could easily be an extra 60-120 miles of driving. On longer 3 or 4 day trips, I've sometimes needed to drive out of the park to Packwood to fuel up, because the park is so spread out. BTW, when I was looking in A Better Route Planner, it recommended driving up to the supercharger in Centralia, or even driving all the way up around to Enumclaw (IIRC), which is way out of the way.

The ideal (for me anyway) would really be to have a supercharger (or other fast charging) at Sunrise, and ideally one in Packwood as well. Or forgot the whole enterprise altogether and put in a bus service like Zion has.

Of course, Rainier is only one example. Once you get into Eastern Oregon, the charging situation is even worse.

I would hope that if we get a more forward-thinking government in the next few years that we start thinking about this kind of stuff, because thinking about the carbon impact of "enjoying nature" is pretty bleak stuff. I'm actually interested in this problem enough that I've started to look at the economics of building charging stations (demand charges!)

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