Casteyanqui.com | Electric Vehicles | Camping in Pine Valley Again

Camping in
Pine Valley Again
in our Model 3

Mark D Larsen
August 14-16, 2023

The Nurturing Nature of Nature
(Click to enlarge)

I decided to take Moxie camping with me for a couple of nights in Pine Valley, and reserved a camping spot through recreation.gov. It was a relatively short road trip, and fairly close to home, but it was wonderful to get out of the blistering heat in our desert community and enjoy the cooler temperatures in the mountains for a few days.

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

I charged the battery to 100%, reset the roadtrip odometer, and set the navigation to take us to the Pine Valley Recreation Area. This is what the energy efficiency graph predicted for the journey.

With the car loaded with our camping gear, and the trailer hooked up, we were ready to hit the road.

As usual, I recorded a (long-winded) introductory video about where we were going.

As I pointed out in the above video, I noticed that Tesla has disabled my radar and proximity sensors, so now the side cameras show the trailer behind us as a "phantom car" that would switch between the left blind spot…

…and right blind spot. Go figure! I will reiterate that I think it was a lousy decision for the CEO to insist on using "Tesla Vision" for EAP and FSD.

Here is another video after we turned onto the road to Pine Valley, and then later approached the entrance to the campground.

This is what the energy efficiency screen displayed as we arrived at the entrance to the campground. You can see that we'd driven 38 miles, yet used 65 miles worth of the battery's charge, with a rather poor efficiency rating of 2.65 miles-per-kWh.

I pulled into our camp spot and started to set up the camp trailer. I was amused to look in the car and see that Moxie had decided to snuggle up under the towel in her doggy seat while I worked.

Here is the trailer all set up. This wasn't a very good camp spot, since it was simply a turnout by the side of the road. I won't be reserving it in the future.

Here you can see a better view of the camper's screen room from the back.

Moxie and I then decided to take a hike on the trail that led to the fishing lake next to the campground.

Here is a view of the lake from the dam we were crossing in the previus photo.

Moxie was having a wonderful time smelling all the scents in the pine forest while overlooking the lake and campground.

Cell reception was practically non-existent in the campground, so we decided to drive back down to Pine Valley to check for any phone messages and get some ice cream. When we arrived back at our camp spot, I parked in back of the trailer this time.

Moxie enjoyed relaxing in her camp chair, where she could keep a watchful eye on any chipmunks and squirrels that were curious about our camp set up.

Indeed, she spotted plenty of them. This brave varmint later even got into the screen room by crawling under the gap of the trailer's lid, and Moxie furiously chased it back out.

On the second afternoon we were hit with a sudden cloudburst that completely soaked the screen room.

We then went inside the camper to wait out the storm.

After the rain stopped, we took another walk around the campground, just as the sun was setting through the rainclouds as also shown in the photo at the top of the page.

The next morning dawned with mist from the rain rising above the lake.

I packed up the trailer and set the navigation to take us home. This is what the energy efficiency screen predicted.

And here is the result of the prediction. As you can see, we'd driven 40 miles to get home, yet only used 12.4 miles of the battery's charge, with an efficiency rating of 13.33 miles-per-kWh. It amazes me to see what a difference regenerative braking makes with a trailer helping to push the car down the canyon.

You can also see in the last photo above that, since we’d last charged before leaving home, we’d driven 82 miles, with an average efficiency rating round trip of 4.41 miles-per-kWh, and still had 199 miles of range left in the battery. Not bad at all! It was a fun trip, a cool, relaxing reprieve for a few days, despite the rain on the second day. I think Moxie enjoyed it as much as I did. We’ll have to do it again soon!

I charged the battery to 100%, reset the roadtrip odometer, and set the navigation to take us to the Pine Valley Recreation Area. This is what the energy efficiency graph predicted for the journey.	With the car loaded with our camping gear, and the trailer hooked up, we were ready to hit the road.
As usual, I recorded a (long-winded) introductory video about where we were going.
As I pointed out in the above video, I noticed that Tesla has disabled my radar and proximity sensors, so now the side cameras show the trailer behind us as a "phantom car" that would switch between the left blind spot…	…and right blind spot. Go figure! I will reiterate that I think it was a lousy decision for the CEO to insist on using "Tesla Vision" for EAP and FSD.
Here is another video after we turned onto the road to Pine Valley, and then later approached the entrance to the campground.
This is what the energy efficiency screen displayed as we arrived at the entrance to the campground. You can see that we'd driven 38 miles, yet used 65 miles worth of the battery's charge, with a rather poor efficiency rating of 2.65 miles-per-kWh.	I pulled into our camp spot and started to set up the camp trailer. I was amused to look in the car and see that Moxie had decided to snuggle up under the towel in her doggy seat while I worked.
Here is the trailer all set up. This wasn't a very good camp spot, since it was simply a turnout by the side of the road. I won't be reserving it in the future.	Here you can see a better view of the camper's screen room from the back.
Moxie and I then decided to take a hike on the trail that led to the fishing lake next to the campground.	Here is a view of the lake from the dam we were crossing in the previus photo.
Moxie was having a wonderful time smelling all the scents in the pine forest while overlooking the lake and campground.	Cell reception was practically non-existent in the campground, so we decided to drive back down to Pine Valley to check for any phone messages and get some ice cream. When we arrived back at our camp spot, I parked in back of the trailer this time.
Moxie enjoyed relaxing in her camp chair, where she could keep a watchful eye on any chipmunks and squirrels that were curious about our camp set up.	Indeed, she spotted plenty of them. This brave varmint later even got into the screen room by crawling under the gap of the trailer's lid, and Moxie furiously chased it back out.
On the second afternoon we were hit with a sudden cloudburst that completely soaked the screen room.	We then went inside the camper to wait out the storm.
After the rain stopped, we took another walk around the campground, just as the sun was setting through the rainclouds as also shown in the photo at the top of the page.	The next morning dawned with mist from the rain rising above the lake.
I packed up the trailer and set the navigation to take us home. This is what the energy efficiency screen predicted.	And here is the result of the prediction. As you can see, we'd driven 40 miles to get home, yet only used 12.4 miles of the battery's charge, with an efficiency rating of 13.33 miles-per-kWh. It amazes me to see what a difference regenerative braking makes with a trailer helping to push the car down the canyon.