Austin to Boulder, CO?

[skipwith]

Has anyone made the trip from Austin to Boulder? The Rivian app wants me to go through Kansas. Before the latest software update, the app directed me to go through Abilene, north Texas and into NM and up IH 25 to Boulder

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[Denver_Paulie]

I have done Denver to Houston numerous times in an EV. The easiest way with the best charging options is to take I-35 north through north Texas, Oklahoma, and then head west once you hit I-70 in central Kansas. Then you take I-70 all the way to Denver. There are Electrify America chargers every 130 to 140 miles along this route.

If you want to take a little bit of a short cut, and add charging risk/excitement, then you could take the Amarillo to Raton Pass route via the highway 87 cut off through northeastern New Mexico. Be warned that there is a 230 mile gap between two locations, with significant elevation gain. If you face a serious headwind you likely will not make it since there are no fast chargers on that route, and only a handful of slow chargers. You would most probably have to do this portion of the drive at 40mph to 50mph after charging to 100% in Amarillo.

Not sure your level EV experience, but in my opinion it is safer to take the long way via Kansas and eliminate the risk of running out of charge along highway 87 in the middle of no where New Mexico.

Just my two cents.

 

[Greengiant]

I'm headed that way shortly, but while towing. Was planning on heading north on I-35 to I-70. My biggest challenge right now is that the EA I-70 Diner station is down for renovations. There are other alternatives near there, but not quite as good.

 

[Jason]

We did it in a Tesla and it was easy but I am not yet confident enough in the ccs network to take the R1T. Ill be watching this thread to see how it went but I reckon it will be a year or two before there are enough stations to make that trip comfortably.

 

[Kacey3]

We did a road trip from Denton to Colorado Springs, so not the same trip, but not all that different either. We used ABRP for all of our navigation rather than the built-in navigation because we wanted more options on where to stop.

We headed north into Oklahoma at first but then cut west out to Amarillo and ultimately all the way out to Tucumcari, NM. From there we headed due north through Trinidad to Colorado Springs. Compared to Google's directions, it added about 3 hours of drive time (13 hours vs 10 hours), and then we added another 2 hours or so for charging, for a total of 15 hours start to finish (we did spend the night near Amarillo on the way out, but drove straight through on the way back).

 

[dduffey]

We wanted to do Austin -> Santa Fe, NM but after spending hours on ABRP, reading reviews, and realizing there were several single-points-of-failure adding hours or a night/day to the trip we ended up taking the Model Y that had a more direct route, with no single points of failure that was faster. We've had poor experiences (still do-able, but just not as convenient and required proactive planning) just between Austin and Houston/Dallas.

 

[TxBeachRivian]

We did a road trip from Denton to Colorado Springs, so not the same trip, but not all that different either. We used ABRP for all of our navigation rather than the built-in navigation because we wanted more options on where to stop.

We headed north into Oklahoma at first but then cut west out to Amarillo and ultimately all the way out to Tucumcari, NM. From there we headed due north through Trinidad to Colorado Springs. Compared to Google's directions, it added about 3 hours of drive time (13 hours vs 10 hours), and then we added another 2 hours or so for charging, for a total of 15 hours start to finish (we did spend the night near Amarillo on the way out, but drove straight through on the way back).

We were considering a trip to Denver from Houston and I was looking at this route.

 

[Kacey3]

We were considering a trip to Denver from Houston and I was looking at this route.

Just be wary of Francis Energy in Oklahoma. We had very mixed experiences with Francis Energy (mostly bad experiences). We had no issues with Electrify America along the way.

 

[TxBeachRivian]

Just be wary of Francis Energy in Oklahoma. We had very mixed experiences with Francis Energy (mostly bad experiences). We had no issues with Electrify America along the way.

Thanks. I have family in Lubbock so I think we will go through there and charge overnight, so will bypass Oklahoma on the way up at least.

Really wish Lubbock had a fast charger that was non-Tesla

 

[cbrcanuck]

Has anyone made the trip from Austin to Boulder? The Rivian app wants me to go through Kansas. Before the latest software update, the app directed me to go through Abilene, north Texas and into NM and up IH 25 to Boulder

Oh man! Those are my two favourite cities in the US! What a great set of bookends for a road trip.

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