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Mt. Rainier area charging

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I am going to My. Rainier soon and the charging situation does still seem dodgy. There's a plugshare listing for a charge point station in Longmire that in an employee only area in the NP but is said to be for public use., although there are repoerts they were disallowed use sometimes. Charge point has a station listed 4 miles west of Ashford in the wrong direction that I suspect is the wrongly located Longmire one. The Copper Creek Inn has nema 14-50 but its full up at this time.

I am coming from Seattle staying overnight around Ashford and wish there was a clearer higher power charging there.
 
I've never tried charging in the Mt Rainier area but I have made the trip up there multiple times (Paradise) to and from my home in North Bend, WA without charging. When I first went up there I went via Longmire and not Steven's Canyon Road because the Canyon road was still closed due to a rock slide. I'm assuming you're doing the same since if you're staying in Ashford you're near the entry towards Longmire.

My plan was to charge on the way back if I needed a charge. There are a number of locations around Puyallup that work for this. But I'd decided that the Mukleshoot Casino was the best option. The Walgreens near there is another option and has CHAdeMO (if you have the adapter which I don't). I chose this area even though it's a little further than some of the chargers because it looked like it had enough stuff to keep us busy for a few hours while we got some more charge. But these might be a little off your route going back to Seattle and so you may want to look at the chargers like those at the Puyallup Fair Grounds (Blue Lot, Gold Lot, Red Lot).

I'm not sure what your plan is but based on my experience it's very likely you will not need charging at all. From a full charge getting up to Paradise usually takes me down to 42-45%. But coming down I usually regen up to around 46-48% and then don't actually really start expending energy until around the turn onto SR-161. I then get home with anywhere from 11% to 19% charge left. So if all you're planning to do is to go up to the mountain, spend some time and then on the way back spend the night and then drive home. You may be just fine.

But there's a lot of information missing here (your signature doesn't say which battery you have 60, 70 or 85) and you're not really clear on your plans. So it's hard to really say for sure. However, I'd be really surprised if you couldn't make it back to Puyallup. Seattle to Paradise Inn to Puyallup is 142 rated miles which puts it well within the range of all of the cars (according to evtripplanner). Seattle to Paradise Inn to Seattle is 177 rated miles again, probably just within the range of all of the cars. In comparison the North Bend to Paradise Inn to North Bend route is 187 rated miles, so I've got a little further to go (primarily going up and over Tiger Mountain on SR-18).

One very important thing that I should point out. GO SLOW! I do the speed limit to do this route. There is absolutely no point in going fast just so you can spend time sitting on a charger that's probably going to give you back less than 30 miles or range per hour (and paying for it to boot).
 
If you decide to stop to charge around Puyallup, there are free chargers located near the Group Health that is a little bit south of the Fair Grounds (you will apparently need a ChargePoint card to unlock them). The chargers near the Fair Grounds can sometimes be difficult to reach if there's an event going on when you pass through.
 
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I did the drive from Seattle last year. The CHAdeMO adapter would be very helpful. There was basically no charging at Paradise Inn. I asked them to install something so do the same if you go there. They have chocolate covered bacon for brunch on Sundays.
 
I made it through just fine on the whole loop without charging. The trip was Seattle east side to Ashford, then Paradise, back through Ohonapecosh, Enumclaw, back to the east side. I started just shy of a full charge, ran on range mode, used the AC a little bit but drove reasonably. I had 50 miles range left when I got back in my driveway. Parked overnight on the way in cold weather. We should work to get a sun country charger at Paradise (difficult because its in a national park) or if that doesn't work then at the very least Ashford. I'm ready to kick in on that :).

I used about 215 miles of range, evtripplanner.com estimated 190 miles of range would be used (did you make your donation to that site yet?). It's the second recent trip where I felt a tiny bit of stress as my estimated range went down quickly on the way up a steep mountain! It's amazing how much range you get back, or how far you can drive without using any when going down a mountain pass - still it's a stressful feeling.

My one moment of worry was when I was driving up Cayuse Pass where 123 runs into 410 and Tesla started to warm me I was about to leave the ability to reach any known chargers. It would not route me to Seattle. People are elsewhere pointing out the limitations of the Tesla navigation. Here the problem was that it was not accounting for, or not reasonable accounting for, how much range I'd gain on the way down the mountains down to Enumclaw. Evtripplanner did a much better job. Tesla should buy that site. It wanted me to drive very slowly to Ellensburg to charge, then go to Seattle. I knew even if terrible weather showed up I'd still be able to make it to Enumclaw. Geeze.

If anyone cares, my specific route was Bellevue to Ashford (405 to 167 to 161), then on to Paradise, through to Ohonapecosh Visitor Center, back on WA 123 to WA 410 to Enumclaw and then WA 169 back north.

-Nick