Casteyanqui.com | Electric Vehicles | 5th Day Trip to Cedar Breaks

5th Day Trip
to Cedar Breaks
in our Ioniq 5

Mark D Larsen

August 29, 2024

Life on the Edge
(Click to enlarge)

Tired of the blistering heat that we have been experiencing in our desert suburb this summer due to the escalating climate crisis, this afternoon we decided to drive up to the cooler temperatures among the pines in Cedar Breaks National Park. We had also heard that they finally finished construction of the park’s new Visitor Center, so we wanted to see it and again lookout over its viewpoint that was closed during the project. Unless I’m counting wrong, I believe that this was the 5th time we have visited there. Its red rock scenery along the canyon cliffs never gets old!

NOTE: You can click on the following photos to enlarge them, and the movies to play them.

Knowing that we would be departing in very hot weather, I decided to charge Rocinante to 100% to compensate for the increase in air conditioning as well as the steep ascent to reach the National Park. You can see that the guess-o-meter claimed the full charge would give us a range of 401 miles —obviously a total exaggeration, based on our city driving for the last several weeks. We left the house at 12:00 noon.

After climbing up the I-15 freeway to Cedar City, we stopped to pick up some sandwiches for lunch, and then starting climbing even more upon entering Cedar Canyon

As we wound our way up the canyon, I had Tamara record this usual introductory video.

In this video we are approaching the back side of Cedar Breaks, and then kept climbing up to the summit of this highway, where we could see Zion National Park in the distance down below on the right.

Here we arrived at the new Visitor Center, seen in the background.

As you can see in the display, we had driven for nearly two hours, chalking up 82.1 miles on the odometer at an efficiency rate of only 2.4 miles-per-kWh. Sure enough, the freeway speeds on I-15, the climate control, and the ascent to more than 10,000 feet in elevation had taken their toll.

We walked out to the most picturesque overlook, Point Supreme, just behind the Visitor Center.

Here Tamara took a photo of me and Moxie on the trail to the overlook.

As you likely noticed in her photo, at the same time I was taking this short video of her and Moxie. Tit for tat?

I then took these panorama videos of the impressive cliffs and pinnacles in the national park. Like I said, these vistas never get old!

Time for more photos: me and Moxie.

And Tamara and Moxie, with a higher angle to show the cliffs in the background.

Here is another photo that Tamara took with the town of Parowan in the far distance at the bottom of the canyon.

She took this one of the most extensive part of the canyon, highlighted by the blue skies and shadows of the clouds.

We went into a small museum of Native American history in the area, and I took this photo of Moxie sitting in front of the window looking out on the cliffs.

There was a cool display at the Visitor Center that touts the fact that Cedar Breaks is a designated an International Dark Sky Park. One of these days, I'd really like to attend one of the nightime lectures given by the park rangers at the Point Supreme Overlook.

In the Visitor Center gift shop I bought a Cedar Breaks hat to match the Dark Sky t-shirt that I had purchased on our previous trip there.

We then drove a bit farther into the park to its picnic area to enjoy our sandwich lunch among the cool pines.

We then got back in the car and drove to the Sunset View Overlook that you can see in the photo at the top of the page. After that, we decided to head home.

We arrived back home a little after 4:00, having driven a total of 167.1 miles at 3.8 miles-per-kWh for the entire round trip.

This was a very pleasant, relaxing, restful, refreshing day trip! I was pleased to see that we arrived with a 42% charge left in the battery. Obviously regen braking had really helped boost Rocinante’s efficiency on the way back down. If I add the 167.1 miles driven to the 142 guess-o-meter miles displayed, the theoretical full range would be 309.1 miles —a significant drop from the 401 miles guessed when we left. Nonetheless, that calculation is much higher that the EPA rating of 260 miles for an Ioniq 5 Limited AWD. Sounds great to me!

Knowing that we would be departing in very hot weather, I decided to charge Rocinante to 100% to compensate for the increase in air conditioning as well as the steep ascent to reach the National Park. You can see that the guess-o-meter claimed the full charge would give us a range of 401 miles —obviously a total exaggeration, based on our city driving for the last several weeks. We left the house at 12:00 noon.	After climbing up the I-15 freeway to Cedar City, we stopped to pick up some sandwiches for lunch, and then starting climbing even more upon entering Cedar Canyon
As we wound our way up the canyon, I had Tamara record this usual introductory video.
In this video we are approaching the back side of Cedar Breaks, and then kept climbing up to the summit of this highway, where we could see Zion National Park in the distance down below on the right.
Here we arrived at the new Visitor Center, seen in the background.	As you can see in the display, we had driven for nearly two hours, chalking up 82.1 miles on the odometer at an efficiency rate of only 2.4 miles-per-kWh. Sure enough, the freeway speeds on I-15, the climate control, and the ascent to more than 10,000 feet in elevation had taken their toll.
We walked out to the most picturesque overlook, Point Supreme, just behind the Visitor Center.	Here Tamara took a photo of me and Moxie on the trail to the overlook.
As you likely noticed in her photo, at the same time I was taking this short video of her and Moxie. Tit for tat?
I then took these panorama videos of the impressive cliffs and pinnacles in the national park. Like I said, these vistas never get old!
Time for more photos: me and Moxie.	And Tamara and Moxie, with a higher angle to show the cliffs in the background.
Here is another photo that Tamara took with the town of Parowan in the far distance at the bottom of the canyon.	She took this one of the most extensive part of the canyon, highlighted by the blue skies and shadows of the clouds.
We went into a small museum of Native American history in the area, and I took this photo of Moxie sitting in front of the window looking out on the cliffs.	There was a cool display at the Visitor Center that touts the fact that Cedar Breaks is a designated an International Dark Sky Park. One of these days, I'd really like to attend one of the nightime lectures given by the park rangers at the Point Supreme Overlook.
In the Visitor Center gift shop I bought a Cedar Breaks hat to match the Dark Sky t-shirt that I had purchased on our previous trip there.	We then drove a bit farther into the park to its picnic area to enjoy our sandwich lunch among the cool pines.
We then got back in the car and drove to the Sunset View Overlook that you can see in the photo at the top of the page. After that, we decided to head home.	We arrived back home a little after 4:00, having driven a total of 167.1 miles at 3.8 miles-per-kWh for the entire round trip.