To Yosemite and Back in Chevy’s Bolt EV

Yosemite is a gem of a national park, that gets tons of visitors.  How ever it’s remote destination and sparse charging infrastructure in and around the park make it a little challenging (not impossible) to plan a trip with EV.

This wonderful blog post by Martin Nicolaus (@manicolaus)describes in great detail about their trip to Yosemite.

Rather than taking the direct route (over hwy 120), they took a little longer route to charge along the way.

Martin says:

When the road climbed, the charge level dropped at one point to 174 miles. When we went downhill, the battery filled up again.  Yosemite Valley lies at 4,000 feet, a net drop of about a thousand feet from the Lodge.  When we arrived on the valley floor near the Merced River, the meter showed 205 miles in the “tank” – more than we started with.  Try that in a gas engine car!

It felt good to cruise the valley in an all-electric vehicle. No tailpipe emissions.  Absolutely silent except for tire noise.  It would be a blessing for this much-abused valley if more visitors could move electrically

Chargers used

• SaveMart at Madera (EVGO,  L3 fast charger) (plugshare link,  google map)
• Tenaya Lodge, Fishcamp  (L2 charger and Tesla supercharger)

Hotels with EV Chargers

• Tenaya Lodge, Fishcamp  (L2 charger and Tesla supercharger)  (google map)