Last weekend my wife and I drove the HCHII on an extended one-day road trip through the high country. We stoped by several $1M+ houses at the Grand County parade of homes and then drove to Sol Vista for free (!?) lift-serviced biking! The trails up there had some crazy jumps on them. Here's my friend Josh on one of the jumps.



After 4 runs at Sol Vista, we drove up Hwy 36 through Rocky Mountain National Park. This was the first time I've used the bike rack on the HCH, and I was very curious about how well it would do in terms of fuel economy with a bike above.

The Rocky Moutain High(brid) view.



Overall for for the 396 miles, I averaged 52.4mpg despite driving over Berthoud Pass and Trail Ridge Road (12,180 feet). I am extremely happy with those results! I drove 60mph (or a little less) on the freeways and probably about 30mph on the passes. On the first bit of I-70 up to Genesee, the SoC went down to 2 bars really quickly, but as the drive went on, the car seemed to rely on the ICE more and the Soc stayed around 4 bars.

On the way down, I glided as much as possible, but I also used "S" and "L" more than usual. In the past, I've complained that the car likes to speed up significantly when the batteries are full, but I was happy to note that "L" worked at any speed (under the 45mph I was driving at least) and did a decent job of maintaining speed without brake reliance.

With a full battery and more downhill to go, I tried to use EV-Assist as much as possible to increase speed on straight downhills. Burning some juice allowed more control of speed with regen braking.

On the way up, we saw the first moose I've ever seen in the Colorado wild.



And the ubiquitous RMNP elk.



A glacier at 12k feet above sea level.



More view.

 

not only awesome pics, but that's some awesome driving, too, great results on the 52.4. i have been through rocky mountain park and up berthoud pass (the first time on a bus!!) and that's no picnic. i am glad to hear the car did so well.

 

Great pics.

 

Those are some nice looking pics. My wife and I used to do lots of hiking in RMNP and your pics make me want to head up there this weekend. Then again, I really need to install the engine block heater in my HiHy.

 

I did just that last sunday. Hiked up to and around Beirstadt lake, then over to Bear lake.

Got 27mpg going up from Boulder and 47 coming back. Actually better, darn scangauge doesn't recognize fuel-cutoff.

 

Thanks for all the complements on the pictures! We got really lucky seeing the moose up close like that. How do you find wildlife in a National Park? Brake lights!