We like the boonies and often seek out remote getaways. On this trip we headed to a favorite spot in the Trinity Alps. We wondered what it would be like and how would charging work? We checked out one of our favorite off-the-beaten-path routes and found that it was outside our 175-mile safe range (nearly 200 miles and mostly pine trees). We decided that would give us the range willies for sure!

So, we charted out a safer route along I-80 and I-5, which have ample Electrify Americas. Along the way we stopped at Auburn Toyota and checked out a BZ4X for Scott (see this post: https://rhondaashurst.com/2023/05/09/the-search-for-our-next-ev/). We traveled 378 miles to Trinity and stopped at Auburn and Anderson to charge. With the test drive, which took at least 30 minutes and two charging stops of 30 minutes each, the trip took just over 8 hours. The nice thing about all those stops is we felt better physically when we arrived, and we also missed the afternoon rainstorm! We did stretch our range limit a bit between Auburn and Anderson (181 vs 175 miles), plus we stopped at a 95% charge at Auburn (it takes forever to get that last 5%). By the time we got to Anderson, we had only 11% left in the battery. We decided we’d charge at Dunnigan if we take this route in the future!

We had permission to charge the car at our cabin, so when we arrived, we pulled out the 110-volt charger and plugged her in. It said it would take 53 hours to go from 28%-100%! Luckily, we had the time as we were staying several days.

While we were there, we took a trip up the pass on a steep and curvy road to snowshoe on the Pacific Crest Trail. What a thrill to drive up a road like that in the Ioniq! It was the first time I’d driven her up and down one of California’s crazy switchback passes and it was a scream! Smooth and effortless sailing all the way up and then coming down, I used Level 3 e-braking. I only had to brake on hairpin turns, which was amazing! The other cool thing is it took 12% of the battery to get up there and we gained 1% coming back!

Here’s a couple of photos of the road and the beautiful waterfall we stopped at:

On the way home we took a different route through Chico. Wow, was that pretty! We took I-5 to highway 99, stopping for lunch at a pretty rest stop south of Redding. We drove through farmland and orchards and arrived in Chico with 51% left in the battery. We charged for 30 minutes and strolled the nearby Chico campus—charming! We left with 97% and headed towards the foothill towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. The drive from there through the Sierra’s is lovely. We arrived in Reno with 21% left. This will definitely be our preferred route up to Trinity in the future. It took us 7 hours with two 30 minute stops for lunch and charging. We traveled a total of 311 miles on the way home.

Here’s the road trip log:

We noticed we used more energy going up to Trinity than coming back, since there was more uphill and 67 more miles. In the future, we will stop in Chico on the way up and back to charge. If we had driven the Hyundai Tucson (gas comparison car), it would have cost us $100 in gas. Because our charging on Electrify America is free, we saved $100 taking the Ioniq! If we had to pay for our charging, it would have cost $59, so a 40% savings over the Tucson. At 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon for 23 gallons of gas, we saved 460 pounds of CO2 from entering our atmosphere by driving the EV.

We were relieved to see that you can take the Ioniq into the boonies and do just fine with finding charging, as long as you plan out your route ahead of time. We look forward to our next trip to Trinity!