DAY 2b - By the skin of our Beartooth

The plan was simple... top off at the Billings, MT Supercharger, skirt through the Beartooth Pass, enter Yellowstone National Park through its Northeast entrance and cruise through Lamar Valley at dusk for some great wildlife viewing! Well, we got the topping off in Billings part right, the rest was a nailbiter.

Our Tesla family will appreciate the statistics of this attempt. 209 miles to our destination, 250 range (rated miles, RM). Starting elevation of 3,123 feet, peak elevation of 10,947 feet, and destination elevation of 6,667 feet.

The Beartooth Highway is gnarly, taking nearly three hours to travel 68 miles! 90 miles into our journey at our peak elevation (above the snow!) we found ourselves with only 68 miles range left to travel the last 119 miles.

As an experienced electric car driver I know I have two things to my advantage, (1) significant elevation decreases for regenerative breaking and (2) nighttime park speed limits of 25-35 mph. This is one of the few times in four years of driving electric that I've questioned my sanity.

The drive up the mountain was intimidating but the drive down was a blast. I feathered my accelerator to maximize regenerative (motor) braking and didn't have to use my brake pedal a single time. By the time I had cruised down the mountain, through the gates of Yellowstone National Park, and into Lamar Valley I had recaptured enough energy to boost my range to 80 miles with only 72 to go.

Lamar Valley really ratcheted up the adrenaline! We quickly found ourselves headlights-to-face with multiple herds of bison as they traveled across the valley... and across the road! We thought we were going to be crushed like a tin can when this beast cornered us on the roadway. He stared us down from about 100 yards away before strolling directly towards us in our own lane. As he approached the car curiously he slowed and moved over to the opposite traffic lane and passed within feet of my driver's door. Had my window been open I could have reached out and touched him!

Naturally we discovered we had another mountain in our path with barely enough range and too far to travel. We inched our way up the mountain and down the backside, rolling into Canyon Village in Yellowstone with 42 miles to travel and only 36 miles of range to our Hotel in West Yellowstone, MT. A quick online elevation check told me we would see a 1300 foot net decline into West Yellowstone for the last 42 miles so we decided to roll the dice and happily coasted into our hotel with 16 miles of range to spare!! We're staying at the Gray Wolf Inn & Suites for two nights so I will review our stay at the end of Day 3!

Hope you enjoyed our little adventure today! I highly recommend any Tesla owner with an 85kwh or 90 kwh battery to make this trek from Billings through the Beartooth Pass and to West Yellowstone. It can be done by never exceeding the speed limit and by maximizing all of your regenerative opportunities!