This is part two of a five part series which describes an epic road trip to Alaska that was made from North Carolina in the Rivian R1S. Please be sure to read part one of the story before continuing with this post.
The Long Road to Alaska…
As mentioned in part one of this story, the journey to Alaska started on July 16th. It was a Tuesday and like most long road trips, I didn’t get out as early as I wanted to. There was so much to do to get my personal and professional life ready to leave for an extended road trip. Eventually the time came and the trip was officially underway. I have to admit that there was a little part of me wondering, “What the heck am I getting myself into?” I had obsessively planned every detail that was needed to successfully complete the trip, but having done this trip a few times before, I knew that there would be some very remote areas that I would be in and help wouldn’t be close. This actually created a little bit of excitement for me and I eagerly looked forward to the road ahead.
My plan was to get as far as I could in the first 2-3 days as the scenery and locations that I wanted to experience were not going to start until I made it to South Dakota. Prior to that was either endless cornfields (which are kind of beautiful in their own way) or places close to North Carolina that I visit often. I also wanted this to be an adventure and not just “a drive”. I had my planned route but there were so many things to see and visit along the route. The plan wasn’t set in stone and I knew there were going to be decisions that would test both the range of the Rivian and its ability to navigate the charging network via its onboard computer (a nice feature of most electric vehicles is that they are aware of both their range and what charging stations are around you).
Day One…
My hope was to make it to St. Louis on the first day but that didn’t happen due to the later than anticipated departure. I did, however, make good progress and came up just a little short of my self-imposed schedule to hopefully reach St. Louis. The drive was pleasant and fast chargers were plentiful along the route. Every “charge stop” that was planned was met with a functional charger with no wait times.
I tried to make the charge stops coincide with meals or “bio breaks” so that the time to stop for the charge wasn’t that noticeable. One of the more memorable stops was the Mercedes-Benz fast chargers at the Buc-ee’s in Crossville, Tennessee. The Rivian was sucking in electricity at 500+mph and their brisket sandwiches were pretty darn good!
All-in-all, things went pretty well on day one of the trip and I was off to a successful start!
Onward!
An early start on day two gave me a good opportunity to put some miles behind me and make a lot of progress driving through the heartland of America. It was a very uneventful and pleasant drive which, by the third day, had me entering South Dakota. This is where things were going to get interesting as there were so many intriguing stops and detours that I wanted to check-out. If I visited some of these places, how would this affect my range? It was nowhere near as rural as things were going to get once I entered Canada but the number of charging stations and the distance between them was already noticeably different. There just weren’t that many charging options and there was a long distances between them. You also have to remember, from part one, that I didn’t have access to most of the Tesla Superchargers as I was unable to acquire the adapter before I left. Fortunately, I didn’t run into any issues but I did make my first decision to deviate from the plan while traversing through South Dakota.
Having done this trip a few times, along with a few trips to Yellowstone, I always wanted to stop and visit Badlands National Park. You drive right by it while Interstate 90 takes you across South Dakota and into Wyoming. I was determined to visit it this time and noticed that the road through the park conveniently paralleled the Interstate (in a roundabout kind of way). I could get off the freeway, drive through the Badlands, check out a few spots, and then resume the trip on the other side. I thought I had plenty of range to make it through but not knowing the terrain inside the park, I figured I would stop at one of the “interim” locations I had identified on my route. There was a fast charger that was just off the Interstate in Murdo, SD so I figured that 10 minutes at this spot would give me the peace of mind I needed to get through the park with no issues. That specific charger, however, was out of service and there were no other chargers in the area. This was the first charger I encountered on the trip that was not working. While this stop was more for convenience and peace of mind for me, that wasn’t the case for the guy in the Ford F-150 Lightning that was there with only 28 miles of range left. Unfortunately for him the closest charger was 38 miles away and it wasn’t in the direction he was heading. I talked with him for a bit and offered to help however I could but he lived in the area and wasn’t too worried about it. So I took off and even without the additional charge, went into the Badlands. Let’s just hope that the name Badlands wasn’t an omen of things to come…
The Badlands Were Not So Bad…
What a gorgeous place to visit! I was super happy that I made the decision to take this detour. The landscape was amazing and there was so much to do inside the park. There were numerous scenic overlooks and so many hiking trails that needed to be explored. So much to do but so little time! I thoroughly enjoyed the limited time I spent at the Badlands National Park and will definitely be returning sometime in the future to explore this place a little deeper.
I successfully made it through the park with plenty of battery to spare as I pulled into a fast charger in Wall, SD (is 10% plenty?). It was at this time I noticed a growing deposit of bugs collecting on the front of the vehicle:
I was only about 1/3 of the way to Alaska and the bug accumulation was already major. The bugs get so much worse too as you travel North. This was going to be interesting to watch over the coarse of the trip.
A few other notable stops on this section of the trip were the falls at Sioux Falls and the worlds only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The falls in Sioux Falls were impressive and shocking considering how flat it is in that area of the state but the city is appropriately named after the falls as there is a big waterfall right in the middle of the city (think Greenville, SC but without the cantilevered Liberty Bridge).
Eye Candy!
Everyday from this point forward was a visual treat of amazing scenery and an unbelievable experience of natural wonder and beauty. I started the next day on the eastern side of Wyoming where I had the closest call to date with the vehicles’ range and availability of chargers. Wyoming, for some reason, doesn’t have a lot of chargers and there were VERY far distances between the charging locations. On the morning of the fourth day I pulled into a charging station with only 9 miles left in range. It was very tight and concerning but I made it and I was able to continue the trip without issue. I considered driving through Yellowstone but there weren’t a lot of fast chargers in Cody, WY plus I had been there before. I did, however, continue on to Kalispell, MT where I was able to get a nice full charge and enter Glacier National Park. I had been here before too but I didn’t want to miss another opportunity to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road:
If you have ever been on this road you know that it is a very steep and narrow climb. I was a bit concerned about the range due to the elevation gain but the Rivian handled it without issue. I also recovered a lot of energy on the downhill portions of the road once I passed over the summit at Logan Pass, which was a new elevation high for the Rivian at 6,646 feet above sea level. After the visit to Glacier National Park, I entered the Great White North…
Oh Canada!
I love visiting our northern neighbors. Their country is so beautiful and the people are super friendly. It is also a very “EV” friendly place as there are chargers everywhere in the Canadian Territories. You would think as we went further north that charging capability would be a problem but for me it wasn’t an issue (except one spot…keep reading). My first and second days in Canada took me through Banff, Lake Louise, Castle Junction, and as far as Jasper. I probably could have made it further but I decided to take a long detour in Castle Junction and checkout the Kootenay Highway creating a big loop through the mountains (via highway 95 and the Trans-Canadian Highway) back to Lake Louise. Fast chargers were everywhere so it wasn’t a problem taking a long and mountainous detour.
Keep Pushing Further North!
After Jasper I continued to drive onward through Canada. I was unable to take the Alcan Highway through Canada as there was one section in particular that was actually too thin on chargers for my comfort level. According to all of the tools I had available I would have come up short on the stretch from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake. That being the case, I took the southern route through Prince George, Meziadin Junction, Dease Lake and then onto Watson Lake. This was actually the thinnest spot (except maybe in Wyoming) where I absolutely needed everything to work. This is a very remote section of Canada! Everything was telling me I wasn’t going to make it and would come up 60 miles short on the trip to Watson Lake. I had some backup plans (RV lots!) but I spoke to some folks I had met up there on a previous trip to Alaska and they informed me that a charging station in Iskut was built and was about to go online. Two weeks before I left, the charging station was live and it solved the issue getting through this area.
Another funny sub-story is that there were two other people with EVs making the drive at the same time. One was in a Tesla Model Y and the other was in a Tesla Cybertruck. We all were acutely aware of each other as we drove through this section as there was so few chargers. It was a high likelihood that someone would have to wait at one of the chargers since we were all literally at the same point of our journey. Fortunately, this was never the case for me as I never had to wait.
I made it into Watson Lake and I knew I was golden at this point. There was an abundance of chargers through the Yukon Territory (which were all free!) and I wasn’t going to have an issues moving forward. I was so confident that I decided to take another detour and temporarily left Canada and visited a section of Alaska that you can only reach through Canada.
Skagway and Haines
Skagway and Haines were always on my bucket list of places to go in Alaska and I was finally able to check those Borough’s off my list. Due to some fortunate placement of charging stations in Canada, specifically Carcross, I was able to drive into Skagway, take the Alaska Marine Ferry to Haines, and continue back into Canada via Haines Junction. Skagway is one of the coolest little towns with a lot of gold rush history and is a popular stop for many cruise ships that are working their way up the Alaska coastline.
From Haines Alaska it was a short drive back into Canada, into Haines Junction, Beaver Creek, and then I entered Alaska again on the main road to Anchorage:
From here I was able to make it all the way into Anchorage after a charging stop in Glenallen (right next to a Subway so it was also a lunch stop). It was an absolutely epic journey that, despite a few challenges, was easily managed and really denied nothing due range or issues or not being able to find a charger. It was the perfect road tip and I did it all in an EV!
Please be sure to read part 3 of this story which will detail my experiences while I was inside Alaska. While Alaska doesn’t have the same infrastructure that Canada has, it was sufficient despite a few notable challenges.
Great epic so far!
Loving traveling vicariously through your story.❤️