Have EV (Electric Vehicle) Will Travel

There is no shortage of electric vehicle charging stations in Yellowstone!

Visiting Yellowstone, which is about equal in size to Connecticut, in an electric vehicle (EV) might seem daunting. After all, the first national park in the world is famous for its remote landscapes and 400 miles of paved roads to travel.  That said, twenty-seven national parks have a total of 100 electric vehicle charging stations. Nine of these 100 charging stations are in Yellowstone. (Yellowstone has almost as many charging stations as gas stations, of which there are seven.) The charging stations are all free, level two, and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

EV charging station at the Haynes Administration Building in Mammoth Hot Springs

“If you map and plan out your route in advance and are prepared, a road trip around Yellowstone in an EV is very doable,” says Alicia Cox, executive director of the Jackson, Wyo.-based Yellowstone-Teton Clean Cities Coalition (YTCC), a nonprofit affiliated with the Department of Energy that is dedicated to advancing the use of alternative fuels. Dylan Hoffman, director of sustainability for Yellowstone National Park Lodges, agrees. “Generally speaking, you’ll have a positive experience if you plan and have some flexibility.”

EV visitors to Yellowstone say the planning and being flexible are worth it. “There is something magical about cruising around Yellowstone in a vehicle that makes no sound and makes no tailpipe emissions,” says Clint Goudie-Nice, who has done an annual EV road trip to and around Yellowstone with his family for about a decade. The low noise level of an EV not only feels good for its human occupants but also can benefit the park’s wildlife. Research shows that noisy environments can stress out wild animals, even causing them to change their mating and sleeping habits.

Ready to experience Yellowstone in an EV? The nine charging stations in the park are at popular lodging areas. “We look at them as a guest amenity,” Hoffman says. All charging stations are free, available to the general public, and first-come/first-served.

“I recommend that people know before they get to Yellowstone where the charging stations are—some are in little-accessed areas,” says Goudie-Nice, who usually spends between four and 12 days in the park on his family road trips. Some, like the one at Lake, are in employee areas, and you might be directed there by an employee and get a shuttle ride to the hotel if needed.

If you don’t know in advance where they are, there’s little Internet service in the park, and you can’t look it up.  If doing an activity during the day near one of the charging stations, Goudie-Nice will plug in, but he says he doesn’t have to. “If we leave Lake in the morning with a full charge and drive the Grand Loop  (142 miles), which isn’t always available, we still get back to Lake without charging along the way.”

WHERE TO FIND CHARGING STATIONS IN THE PARK

All stations are J-1772 Level 2 and provide 208/240-volt electric service.

Chargers are listed starting from Old Faithful in the park’s southwest and then going counter-clockwise to Mammoth Hot Springs in the park’s north. The front desk or concierge staff will happily assist with directions to the more elusive charging stations.

Old Faithful Village

Old Faithful’s chargers are outside of Showerhouse 1 at Old Faithful Lodge Cabins (Lower Loop). While you’re waiting, wander the boardwalks around the Upper Geyser Basin, home to the two-thirds of the world’s active geysers, including the famous Old Faithful geyser.

EV charger at Old Faithful Lodge

Lake Village

Lake Village, about 38 miles from Old Faithful, the charging station is in front of Teal employee dorm. While you’re waiting, check out the oldest lodging in the park, Lake Yellowstone Hotel. This hotel on the shore of Yellowstone Lake first welcomed visitors in 1891. Explore the hotel on your own, or catch one of the free daily tours.

Canyon Village

There are three stations at Canyon Village, about 18 miles south of Lake Village; the chargers are in front of both the Rhyolite and Washburn Lodges. While you’re waiting, check out the Canyon Visitor Education Center, which has a 9,000-pound, rotating globe that shows volcanic hotspots around the world and is also home to a room-size relief model of the park that illuminates and narrates its volcanic eruptions, lava flows, glaciers, and earthquake faults.

EV charging station at Washburn Lodge

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs, about 30 miles from Canyon Village, has three stations; one charging station is in front of the Haynes Administration building, and the second is behind the northwest corner of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. While you’re waiting, relax into a wingback leather armchair in the Mammoth Hotel Map Room Bar or check out the Albright Visitor Center, which was built by the United States Army in 1909 as bachelor officers’ quarters for the troops who protected the park before the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.

EV charging station behind Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel

WHERE TO FIND CHARGING STATIONS OUTSIDE THE PARK

Tesla Superchargers outside the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT

There are also charging stations in the gateway communities of West Yellowstone and Gardiner, Montana, and Jackson and Cody, Wyoming. Grand Teton National Park, between the town of Jackson and Yellowstone’s southern entrance, also has a charging station.

• South: About 60 miles from Yellowstone’s southern entrance, Jackson has 49 public charging station ports, including Tesla Superchargers.
• West: As its name implies, West Yellowstone, Mont., is at the west entrance to Yellowstone. It has 16 public charging station ports, including Tesla Superchargers. Find chargers at Holiday Inn West Yellowstone, Gray Wolf Inn and Suites, and the West Yellowstone KOA.
• North: Gardiner, at the park’s north entrance, has 5 public charging station ports. There is a level 2 charger (two ports) at the nonprofit partner of Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Forever, and a level 3 charger at Gardiner Sinclair.
• East: About 40 miles from the park’s east entrance, Cody has 6 public charging station ports. The level 3 charging station is at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which is a great place to explore while you wait for your car to charge.
• Grand Teton National Park between Jackson and Yellowstone’s southern entrance, find a level 2 charging station at Signal Mountain Lodge.

See YTCC’s map of EV charging stations in and around Yellowstone here. Yellowstone National Park has a similar map here.

“People come to this area of the country to experience our incredible intact ecosystem,” Cox says. “Being able to travel here in a way that leaves as little a footprint as possible makes sense — you’re coming here to enjoy nature so it feels right to be mindful of how you and your travel interacts with it. By choosing to visit in an EV, you can minimize what you’re leaving behind.”

Written by: Dina Mishev
Dina Mishev is the editor-in-chief of Jackson Hole magazine.

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