PappaBolt
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- First Name
- Don
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With a 4 day weekend and sunny skies ahead, we decided to make a trek from Seattle (BI actually) to Glacier National Park in Montana. Approximately 551 miles. Overall a great experience and I’d highly recommend.
Charging
There are a couple of stretches where it’s a charging desert through portions of Idaho and western Montana. So a little bit of planning was involved with three charging stops in the plan.
It was interesting to see Rivian navigation kept directing the route to use Tesla chargers even though I’d set the filter to avoid them (no adapter yet). I de-selected those in favor of a couple of CCS fast charging locations.
Stop 1: Ellensburg, WA Electrify America. It’s next to a Taco Bell. There are 4 stalls and it was available and working with 2 of the 4 stalls available and only 1 other Rivian there. In and out in about 20 mins with easy access from I-90.
Stop 2: Spokane, WA at the RAN station. It’s in the mall parking lot and there’s plenty to do there to occupy your time between the mall and all the surrounding stores. We were the only ones there. 40 mins and we were on our way again.
Stop 3: Smelterville, ID at Electrify America. It’s in the Walmart parking lot with 4 stalls and everything worked no problem. We were the only ones there and we needed to charge up quite a bit to make the 3+ hour trek over a couple passes and thru the Montana back country to Kalispell. Pro tip: the Jitters coffee drive thru is a good caffeination spot.
Getting To/From Glacier and Kalispell
We stayed at the Red Lion Inn, having chosen it for the on-site charger. There is a 4 hour limit and they only have 2 chargers. Both are level 2 and one of those is tesla. The first night there both chargers were occupied so I found the only fast charger in town at the Ford Dealership. It’s an EV Connect labeled as a Ford “Blue Oval” station. It’s new and works really well. The remaining 2 nights were no problem getting on the hotel charger. I did have to ask the staff to kick out a Buick that was parked in one of the spots.
Accessing the park from Kalispell to the west gate is about 45 mins, and up to Logan Pass is another hour. The drive up to the pass made the whole trip worthwhile. If you’ve never been I can’t recommend it enough. Breathtaking scenery with mountain peaks and waterfalls in all directions.
Battery consumption from Kalispell to Logan Pass went from 98% to 65%. Regen on the way back down only netted 3%. So I decided to try the only charger in the park at McDonald Lodge. There are 2 chargers, both level 2 and one is a Tesla Destination charger. There was an R1T on one of the chargers so I got to try my level 2 tesla adapter. Happy to report it worked flawlessly.
Pro Tip: The park is very crowded with limited parking that fills up quick in the summer. You also need a vehicle pass in addition to the entry pass. But if you get there before 6:00a you don’t need the vehicle pass since the entry is unmanned. You’ll also get a parking spot but you won’t be alone. Lots of others doing the same thing.
The only other Rivian I saw in all of Montana was the one at the lodge charger. I did see a Cyber Truck parading in Kalispell on main street with all the other Friday night posers. It was an entertaining night watching the various vintage and rat rod cruisers while eating dinner. Apparently a Friday night staple there. Grab some dinner and watch the show.
Return Trip
With the R1S fully encrusted in bugs, we charged to 100% and left early hoping to avoid all the holiday return traffic. We did not. We did the same charging stations in reverse but by the time we got the Ellensburg, The Gorge was letting out from their big music festival. West on I-90 from there with all the music festival folks, boaters, campers, RV’ers, motor bikers nd everyone else on vaca was just a wall of traffic and slow downs for 3 hours in the final stretch back to Seattle.
Totally worth it though. The Rivian performed flawlessly. Driver+ was great for those long stretches. We stayed in all purpose mode with the ride height set to low and suspension on soft. The 10+ hours of driving with the charging breaks went by quickly. There were lots of friendly folks along the way with only positive encounters and amazing views. Totally worth the trek.
Charging
There are a couple of stretches where it’s a charging desert through portions of Idaho and western Montana. So a little bit of planning was involved with three charging stops in the plan.
It was interesting to see Rivian navigation kept directing the route to use Tesla chargers even though I’d set the filter to avoid them (no adapter yet). I de-selected those in favor of a couple of CCS fast charging locations.
Stop 1: Ellensburg, WA Electrify America. It’s next to a Taco Bell. There are 4 stalls and it was available and working with 2 of the 4 stalls available and only 1 other Rivian there. In and out in about 20 mins with easy access from I-90.
Stop 2: Spokane, WA at the RAN station. It’s in the mall parking lot and there’s plenty to do there to occupy your time between the mall and all the surrounding stores. We were the only ones there. 40 mins and we were on our way again.
Stop 3: Smelterville, ID at Electrify America. It’s in the Walmart parking lot with 4 stalls and everything worked no problem. We were the only ones there and we needed to charge up quite a bit to make the 3+ hour trek over a couple passes and thru the Montana back country to Kalispell. Pro tip: the Jitters coffee drive thru is a good caffeination spot.
Getting To/From Glacier and Kalispell
We stayed at the Red Lion Inn, having chosen it for the on-site charger. There is a 4 hour limit and they only have 2 chargers. Both are level 2 and one of those is tesla. The first night there both chargers were occupied so I found the only fast charger in town at the Ford Dealership. It’s an EV Connect labeled as a Ford “Blue Oval” station. It’s new and works really well. The remaining 2 nights were no problem getting on the hotel charger. I did have to ask the staff to kick out a Buick that was parked in one of the spots.
Accessing the park from Kalispell to the west gate is about 45 mins, and up to Logan Pass is another hour. The drive up to the pass made the whole trip worthwhile. If you’ve never been I can’t recommend it enough. Breathtaking scenery with mountain peaks and waterfalls in all directions.
Battery consumption from Kalispell to Logan Pass went from 98% to 65%. Regen on the way back down only netted 3%. So I decided to try the only charger in the park at McDonald Lodge. There are 2 chargers, both level 2 and one is a Tesla Destination charger. There was an R1T on one of the chargers so I got to try my level 2 tesla adapter. Happy to report it worked flawlessly.
Pro Tip: The park is very crowded with limited parking that fills up quick in the summer. You also need a vehicle pass in addition to the entry pass. But if you get there before 6:00a you don’t need the vehicle pass since the entry is unmanned. You’ll also get a parking spot but you won’t be alone. Lots of others doing the same thing.
The only other Rivian I saw in all of Montana was the one at the lodge charger. I did see a Cyber Truck parading in Kalispell on main street with all the other Friday night posers. It was an entertaining night watching the various vintage and rat rod cruisers while eating dinner. Apparently a Friday night staple there. Grab some dinner and watch the show.
Return Trip
With the R1S fully encrusted in bugs, we charged to 100% and left early hoping to avoid all the holiday return traffic. We did not. We did the same charging stations in reverse but by the time we got the Ellensburg, The Gorge was letting out from their big music festival. West on I-90 from there with all the music festival folks, boaters, campers, RV’ers, motor bikers nd everyone else on vaca was just a wall of traffic and slow downs for 3 hours in the final stretch back to Seattle.
Totally worth it though. The Rivian performed flawlessly. Driver+ was great for those long stretches. We stayed in all purpose mode with the ride height set to low and suspension on soft. The 10+ hours of driving with the charging breaks went by quickly. There were lots of friendly folks along the way with only positive encounters and amazing views. Totally worth the trek.
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