Road Trip: Oklahoma → Kansas → Iowa → South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore)

[comet2]

We're planning our first big Cybertruck road trip from Oklahoma to Keystone, SD, and I'd love to hear from those of you who have already made the trek.

I'm a new Cybertruck owner, but not new to Tesla. I've owned a Model Y for a while, but this will be my first road trip where charging actually requires some planning , so I'm looking to learn from those who've done it.

I've been mapping out the Tesla Superchargers along the route, and one thing I noticed is there aren't any Superchargers in Keystone itself. It looks like Rapid City and Custer are the closest options.

For those who've stayed in Keystone:

• How did you handle charging while you were there?
• Did you just top off in Rapid City before heading to your hotel?
• Did your hotel have destination charging?
• Is Custer a better option than Rapid City?
• Any charging or route tips you'd recommend?

Also, if you've made this trip, I'd appreciate any must-see stops, scenic drives, restaurants, hidden gems, or things you'd do differently next time.

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to hearing your tips and tricks

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[MX5]

I have the same destination planned departing from Eugene, OR. Planned the entire trip with GROK from the PC then printed the itinerary. Entered parameters like to, from, starting charge, and minimum charge at destination. GROK provided all the needed charge stops on the route, including non-tesla if there wasn't one.

For the trip, I will use Grok/Trip planner at the beginning of each day to set the route based on my print out, then double check it, because Navigation is not always consistent with its results.

 

[devdrone6]

I have not taken my CT to SD - but have gone there many times. Since it is a busy travel location, your best bet is early morning or late night charging. If you find a hotel that has charging, plan for it to by slow. You will need supercharging for sure.

 

[comet2]

I have not taken my CT to SD - but have gone there many times. Since it is a busy travel location, your best bet is early morning or late night charging. If you find a hotel that has charging, plan for it to by slow. You will need supercharging for sure.

Thank you. Booked a hotel in Custer with EV Charging. Finding a charger that's available at night might be another problem.

 

[devdrone6]

Thank you. Booked a hotel in Custer with EV Charging. Finding a charger that's available at night might be another problem.

Make sure to take an adapter

And let us know how your trip goes as I would like to go there with my CT at some point too.

 

[comet2]

Make sure to take an adapter

And let us know how your trip goes as I would like to go there with my CT at some point too.

I'll have an update the second week of August after my trip. I know it'll be busy with Sturgis, but July didn't work for us, and I wanted to make the trip before my daughter goes back to school.

 

[Edphonse]

I just did a 4 day weekend in rapid city last month. I stayed at the elevation Inn, though across the street was a holiday Inn that had like 6 or 8 l2 tesla chargers (they are expensive BTW, i think it was $0.48/kwh) but the mall was only a mile away with a 4x150 kw tesla charger. Be aware those chargers are bugged. Every time i pulled up it said only 2 were available even though 3 or 4 were available which caused it to think it was congested when it wasn't and I got my "grace" congestion charge from it -.-. But i digress, I would get up every morning and charge for about 45 min to get to 90+% and that would last me the whole day except for the badlands. We left rapid city and went to wall drugs and plugged in there while my family shopped and got lunch, we left wall at 99% snd spent the whole day in bad lands driving around. We got back to the hotel with like 40% left. We did mount rushmore followed by needles hwy and custer lodge for lunch. Got back that night having used about 50% of the battery. Also went to deadwood via the 90 and came back via the backwoods and used like 45% of the battery. I never felt range anxiety but I also had a 9500 watt genny in the bed that I could charge off of if I need to. I did get 3 middle fingers while I was there which is more than I have gotten the rest of this year combined.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Edphonse]

One other thing, I posted this in response to getting the new hankook tires in my truck but one thing I found that wasn't discussed anywhere was, once you get into the badlands from wall on the paved road, turn off fsd, cancel any destination, then turn fsd back on in sloth mode. It will keep throwing "driving with no destination" on the screen but my wife and I found that in sloth mode and no destination, every time you get to a scenic area (whether formally established or not) the truck will slow WAY down to allow you to look at the scenery.

Edit: spelling

 

[comet2]

I just did a 4 day weekend in rapid city last month. I stayed at the elevation Inn, though across the street was a holiday Inn that had like 6 or 8 l2 tesla chargers (they are expensive BTW, i think it was $0.48/kwh) but the mall was only a mile away with a 4x150 kw tesla charger. Be aware those chargers are bugged. Every time i pulled up it said only 2 were available even though 3 or 4 were available which caused it to think it was congested when it wasn't and I got my "grace" congestion charge from it -.-. But i digress, I would get up every morning and charge for about 45 min to get to 90+% and that would last me the whole day except for the badlands. We left rapid city and went to wall drugs and plugged in there while my family shopped and got lunch, we left wall at 99% snd spent the whole day in bad lands driving around. We got back to the hotel with like 40% left. We did mount rushmore followed by needles hwy and custer lodge for lunch. Got back that night having used about 50% of the battery. Also went to deadwood via the 90 and came back via the backwoods and used like 45% of the battery. I never felt range anxiety but I also had a 9500 watt genny in the bed that I could charge off of if I need to. I did get 3 middle fingers while I was there which is more than I have gotten the rest of this year combined.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

This is awesome. All great info. I just copied this and sent it over to my wife. She doesn't understand how helpful this forum is.
This is our tentative plan. We always make plans but never follow it. Lets see. Haha...
Day 1 - Badlands & Wall Drug
Day 2 - Mt. Rushmore + 1880 Train
Day 3 - Deadwood + optional Spearfish Canyon
Day 4 - Custer State Park Wildlife loop/ Crazy Horse/ Iron Mountain Road.

 

[comet2]

One other thing, I posted this in response to getting the new hankook tires in my truck but one thing I found that wasn't discussed anywhere was, once you get into the badlands from wall on the paved road, turn off fsd, cancel any destination, then turn fsd back on in sloth mode. It will keep throwing "driving with no destination" on the screen but my wife and I found that in sloth mode and no destination, every time you get to a scenic area (whether formally established or not) yhr truck will slow WAY down to allow you to look at the scenery.

Great info. Thank you.
I started a google doc with all the recommendations. Maybe after the trip I could post a summary for anyone else making the trip.

 

[Sunny]

I just finished a trip in this part of the country. Here are my tips.

Use the Plug Share app. There are lots of free or really cheap level 2 places to charge. Take advantage.

You might want to consider the CCS adapter as there are predominantly 150kw stalls in these areas. But you will pay more.

Custer South Dakota has free charging just bring your mobile connector and 14-50 outlet.

Hope you have a blast!

 

[comet2]

I just finished a trip in this part of the country. Here are my tips.

Use the Plug Share app. There are lots of free or really cheap level 2 places to charge. Take advantage.

You might want to consider the CCS adapter as there are predominantly 150kw stalls in these areas. But you will pay more.

Custer South Dakota has free charging just bring your mobile connector and 14-50 outlet.

Hope you have a blast!

Thank you, appreciate you taking the time to respond. I have had the CCS adapter for over 4 years now but never had the need to use it Lol. Guess I will finally get to use it.

 

[KF3K]

I've been mapping out the Tesla Superchargers along the route, and one thing I noticed is there aren't any Superchargers in Keystone itself. It looks like Rapid City and Custer are the closest options.

I live in Rapid City. Around here, your supercharging options are Custer, Rapid City, and Spearfish.

Driving-wise, Custer and Rapid City are probably about the same from Keystone: figure ~30-40 min or so. The Rapid City Supercharger is on the North side of town, off of I-90 at the Rushmore Crossing mall. There's a decent diner right inside the mall if you go around brunch time.

If you do a Deadwood trip, the drive through Spearfish Canyon is pretty and will take you up towards the charger there. Depending on how long you want to spend in the car, this can be combined with the wildlife loop/Needles Highway.

Day 1 - Badlands & Wall Drug
Day 2 - Mt. Rushmore + 1880 Train
Day 3 - Deadwood + optional Spearfish Canyon
Day 4 - Custer State Park Wildlife loop/ Crazy Horse/ Iron Mountain Road.

The Badlands are cool, but depending on what part of the country you're from, you might want to temper your expectations. My wife and I met in Las Vegas and found the park similar to—but less spectacular than—much of the scenery in the Southwest. Wall Drug is fine as a lunch stop on a drive, but I wouldn't go out of the way just for it.

Mt. Rushmore is great; be sure to get some ice cream! It's good, and supposedly based on Thomas Jefferson's recipe. Keystone and Hill City have fun downtown areas. I recommend the Alpine Inn and the Chute Rooster in Hill City to eat (although service at the latter can be very slow).

Deadwood is good for at least a full day. There's usually stuff going on almost every weekend in the summer: bands, car shows, etc.

Crazy Horse is a tourist trap; you can see it from the road. The original guy that started carving it died years ago, and his family pretends to work on it for a couple of weeks a year so that they can keep asking for donations to someday "finish" it. That said, the collection at the museum there got high marks from a friend of mine with a PhD in anthropology, so YMMV.

Downtown Rapid City has a lot more bars and restaurants than one would think for a city its size, thanks to nearby tourism. During the summer, there's a street festival every Thursday night next to the library with live music and food trucks.

You might also consider: Reptile Gardens, the Air & Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force base, the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, or some of the hikes in the Black Hills National Forest.

I'd be more than happy to answer any specific questions!

 

[comet2]

I live in Rapid City. Around here, your supercharging options are Custer, Rapid City, and Spearfish.

Driving-wise, Custer and Rapid City are probably about the same from Keystone: figure ~30-40 min or so. The Rapid City Supercharger is on the North side of town, off of I-90 at the Rushmore Crossing mall. There's a decent diner right inside the mall if you go around brunch time.

If you do a Deadwood trip, the drive through Spearfish Canyon is pretty and will take you up towards the charger there. Depending on how long you want to spend in the car, this can be combined with the wildlife loop/Needles Highway.



The Badlands are cool, but depending on what part of the country you're from, you might want to temper your expectations. My wife and I met in Las Vegas and found the park similar to—but less spectacular than—much of the scenery in the Southwest. Wall Drug is fine as a lunch stop on a drive, but I wouldn't go out of the way just for it.

Mt. Rushmore is great; be sure to get some ice cream! It's good, and supposedly based on Thomas Jefferson's recipe. Keystone and Hill City have fun downtown areas. I recommend the Alpine Inn and the Chute Rooster in Hill City to eat (although service at the latter can be very slow).

Deadwood is good for at least a full day. There's usually stuff going on almost every weekend in the summer: bands, car shows, etc.

Crazy Horse is a tourist trap; you can see it from the road. The original guy that started carving it died years ago, and his family pretends to work on it for a couple of weeks a year so that they can keep asking for donations to someday "finish" it. That said, the collection at the museum there got high marks from a friend of mine with a PhD in anthropology, so YMMV.

Downtown Rapid City has a lot more bars and restaurants than one would think for a city its size, thanks to nearby tourism. During the summer, there's a street festival every Thursday night next to the library with live music and food trucks.

You might also consider: Reptile Gardens, the Air & Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force base, the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, or some of the hikes in the Black Hills National Forest.

I'd be more than happy to answer any specific questions!

That is super cool. Maybe we will run into each other. Lol
If we do, beer/ lunch/ dinner is on me. I will DM you while we are there.

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