Mothers Day’trip
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LaVerkin Overlook
in my Nissan Leaf

May 12, 2013

Mark D Larsen



Earlier in the week, while playing around with my Leaf’s GPS, I saw that the list of “Rest Stops” in the system included one labeled “LaVerkin Overlook.” This piqued my curiosity, since I had driven through LaVerkin a couple of times on my way to Zion National Park, but never noticed that overlook before. Mothers Day this year dawned sunny and warm in our corner of the Southwest, so we decided to enjoy the holiday by taking another leisurely day trip to visit that viewpoint. Below on the left is a map of the route from our home to the lookout, and on the right is a closer birdseye view of the destination on that map.


The long and winding road
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Getting up and dirty
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This journey is very different than the one to Pine Valley. The increase in elevation from our home to the overlook is only about 525 feet, but the roadways traverse several inclines up and down before reaching the highest climb to the outlook. Consequently, the uphill portions do not drain the battery as dramatically, but neither do the downhill stretches regenerate as many electrons to fill it back up.

One might ask: how did LaVerkin get such an odd name? Nobody knows for sure, but I suppose that the most logical explanation is that the word is a poorly pronounced derivation in English of the original Spanish name for the Río de la Virgen (River of the Virgin):

Original Spanish:
lah BEER-hen

——>
Mispronounced as:
lah VEHR-ken

Indeed, the Virgin River runs through this area, as it meanders from Zion National Park to the Colorado River and Lake Mead. Moreover, it is known that the early Mormon colonizers had a penchant for retaining the definite article with “exotic” words from romance languages, as still exemplified in actual names among their members like LeGrand, LaMar, LeBaron, LaVon and LaVerne, so the mispronunciation would certainly fit right into their lexicon.

Like with the recent trip to Pine Valley, I will spare readers a lengthy narrative and instead post several photos of the outing:


Passing by St. George en route
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Rocks mark the spot
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Top of the heap
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Desert Blooms for Mothers Day!
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LaVerkin below to the west
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Virgin River Canyon backdrop
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Hurricane township to the south
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Toquerville township to the north
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Virgin township and Zion National Park to the east
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The Usual Dynamic Duo
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As fully expected, the Leaf handled the drive with aplomb. This time we had the climate control on the entire trip because of the mid-90°F temperatures, which obviously reduced our range by a few miles. A portion of the route also had a higher speed limit of 55 mph, which likewise gobbled up more electrons than on the previous day trip. Below on the left is the dashboard readout when we arrived at the overlook. We had used 5 of the 12 charge bars to get there, with an average of 4.8 miles-per-kWh, and the battery’s temperature registered 6 bars, despite the heat:


Destination display
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Round-trip result
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The photo above on the right shows the end result after pulling back into the garage. We had lost another 5 charge bars, the same number used to reach the viewpoint, and thus had only 2 red bars left. Our average miles-per-kWh had risen to 5.3, just a fraction below my Leaf’s average last year. The temperature bars still hadn't budged. The day trip had put 68.6 miles on the odometer, and the GOM estimated 20 miles remaining. That gives a theoretical full range of 88.6 miles from the 100% charge, despite the stretch at higher mph and using the air conditioning the entire time. With results like those, I can’t help but do a bit of... LaSmirkin’!