Winter in the desert is a peculiar thing. Absent is the overwhelming force that sculpted everything you see: Bleached signs, cracked paneling, squat buildings that seem beaten down by a scorching violence that, on a February day of 65 degrees and gentle breezes, seems impossible to imagine. The sun is friendly now, but it already left its mark and will again. The town of Joshua Tree sits on the southwestern corner of the Mojave Desert, famous as the home of one of the hottest places on Earth, Death Valley, just a few hours north. Closer is a different National Park, one that shares its name with the town and is filled with its namesake plant.
Within Joshua Tree itself, a town of just a few thousand people, is the reason for my visit. Here sits one of two Rivian Charging Outposts in California, special facilities that are one part charging station, one part lounge, with a sprinkling of car dealership for flavoring. It’s a different way to handle a problem all electric vehicles have: Even fast charging takes more time than filling up a gas tank. So why not offer somewhere to chill while you charge up? Why not do so in a starkly beautiful place like the desert, adjacent to a gorgeous National Park?
I’m not an electric car guy. If anything, I have the kind of adventures that preclude an electric vehicle. In covering the Dolby system at an event at Rivian in Santa Monica, I planned the initial stages of this mini adventure. Rivian would loan me an R1S for a few days, partially to check out the truck, ostensibly to check out the Outpost, and for me, mostly, to check out what it was like to spend time in a vehicle that weighed more than both of my cars combined, with nearly three times their combined horsepower.
Megavolts, megamiles
Check out that cool electro-chromatic glass roof.
I don’t like big vehicles. I drive a Miata. Even my camper is built out of a minivan. I’d sat in the R1S before, but seeing it parked next to my cars put its size into perspective. In the driver’s seat, with the truck’s adjustable suspension set to high, I could look down onto the roof of my van. The Rivian is, admittedly, a lovely place to sit. Wide swaths of wood, subtle and adjustable LED lighting, plus some lovely plaid carpeting all make it feel like a cozy mobile pub. Seating seven, plus a trunk, means it’s about the size of one too.
Impressively, Rivian has used technology so that driving this nearly 17-foot-long, 7.5-foot-wide machine doesn’t feel cumbersome. Its 11 cameras, easily accessible with a tap of the touchscreen, give you a top-down 360-degree view of your surroundings, allowing you to navigate tight spaces with surprising confidence. I’ve been in a few other cars with this feature and, honestly, it should be required of all vehicles. When you activate a turn signal a video appears on the screen in front of you that shows what’s in your blind spot. I wish the SUV that side-swiped me in my Miata had this technology. Or maybe it did, and they didn’t bother looking at it or their mirrors.
What’s most impressive about the R1S, or at least the Tri-Motor version I drove, is the face-flattening 1,103 pound-foot of torque and 850 horsepower. It’s the kind of power that, even in a vehicle this chonky, that results in instant and reality-blurring acceleration. Need to get up to speed to merge onto the highway? Just kidding, you’re already faster than the traffic. Want to accelerate so fast you scare your passengers? Partial throttle, if that. At one point my foot slipped and I accidentally arrived before I left. I have no Earthly idea why any vehicle, let alone one that has enough seats for a large rock band or a small ska band, needs 850hp. But it sure is fun.
The land of Gram Parsons, Grievous Angels, and Joshua trees
The Rivian Charging Outpost is on State Route 62, near the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. It’s not flashy, with a low wood building and weathered-metal Rivian sign. The row of chargers is a giveaway for what it is, of course. In total, it looks simultaneously like a futuristic gas station and a desert-themed coffee shop. Cacti sit in planters on the shaded front porch. Inside there’s local merch and snacks, free coffee, and a couch and chairs. Art by local artists adorns the walls. Continue through the space before reaching a patio and cactus garden. It’s nicely chill, far quieter than any gas station I’ve ever visited.
Adjacent to the main building is another smaller building and an R1T under its own roof. This is as close to “car dealership” as it gets at the Outpost. I assumed this smaller building would have a few desks, maybe with some posters of options lists and prices, but it’s not. It’s a TV lounge, complete with a sofa and chairs. Apparently the staff can use this space to talk to potential customers, but its main purpose is a place for people, especially families, to relax while their vehicles charge. There’s even a play area out back, though I’d be shocked if this saw much use once the sun starts exerting its relentless pressure. Temperatures here typically start creeping into the 90s in April, often sooner.
Green lights on the front and rear of the Rivian show that it’s charging and how much it has, each block representing 10% total charge. It’s such a neat idea.
Like most EVs, my loaner Rivian’s charge goes from 20% to 80% rapidly, the remaining 20% taking roughly the same amount of time as the previous 60%. They estimate that on a fast charger it takes 30 to 40 minutes to go from 10% to 80%. The total cost for the charge was around $75. To be clear, this wasn’t just the trip to Joshua Tree, but also driving it around LA for several days with minimal charging at home.
Even so, this was my first time charging an EV, and I was initially surprised at the cost. However, I’m used to filling vehicles with 10-gallon tanks that get 30 miles per gallon or better. A better comparison would be something like the Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, a three-row SUV with monstrous power that costs about the same as the Rivian. Its remarkable 3.5-second 0-60 time is over half a second slower than the R1S. The supercharged 6.2L V8 with a paltry 710 hp gets 17 mpg — if you’re lucky. Filling up its 24.6-gallon tank with the required premium fuel at California’s current average price would be $123. Or filling up at around 80% of total “fuel” capacity, it would have cost $98.40 to the Rivian’s $75.
If that purple prickly pear cactus grows at the same rate as the one in my yard, it will be twice that size in roughly 10 years.
Consider that’s the best case for the Durango and the worst case for the Rivian. (EVs are more efficient for city driving than highway driving.) Around town the Durango gets 12 mpg, and that’s if you don’t floor it all the time, which, let’s be honest, you will. So it’s fairly easy to see, if a big truck like this is your thing, how much money you’d save driving an EV. That’s not even counting charging at home, which would typically be cheaper.
Charged up and into the wild
I spent 2 hours at the Outpost, taking photos, having lunch and waiting for my R1S to get to 100%. Not knowing the accuracy of the range estimate of this or any EV, I hoped to avoid another charge stop on the way home. I planned to spend the rest of the day at the park, staying until after dark to hopefully get some photos of the planetary parade.
The west entrance is only a few minutes from the Outpost, and surprisingly, there was a line to enter. I guess a few people had the same plan I did or were starting a weekend at the park. Fortunately, a ranger was making their way down the line of cars. I showed him my well-used American the Beautiful pass, worth every cent of its $80 annual cost, and he let me skip the rest of the line.
Did I drive all the way to the North Entrance to get a photo because the I couldn’t get a decent one at the West Entrance? Yes.
Like nearly all National Parks, Joshua Tree is a space of remarkable natural beauty. The eponymous trees dot a landscape that’s interesting in its own right. Rounded, beige boulders look otherworldly. Once you’re in the park, there are basically no visible buildings or other signs of civilization. It’s delightful.
Not far from the entrance, the Rivian’s navigation pings a spot: a memorial for Gram Parsons. Parsons basically invented “country rock,” leaving an indelible legacy on bands like the Byrds, the Rolling Stones and, for better or worse, the Eagles. More notably, he helped bring Emmylou Harris to the ears of millions. Parsons loved Joshua Tree and died here, at the Joshua Tree Inn, less than a block from the Outpost. He wanted to be buried here. He wasn’t, but the story of how his body ended up here anyway was so wild they made a movie about it.
Despite what the GPS says, there’s no actual marker in JTNP, but the parking lot where the pyre burned is still there and is the start of some easy trails.
Just up the road from Parson’s beloved Cap Rock.
Sunsets and falling stars
The setting sun casts the park into infinite pastel shades. My hopes for a clear night and many hours of astrophotography were dashed by a thin haze. Oh well. I got a few shots I liked, then started home far earlier than expected. It had been a long day, and I made the quiet ride far less so with the nearly 1,000-watt Dolby Atmos system.
Not wanting to strand the lovely folks picking up the R1S on Monday, I set out on Sunday in search of a charger. I could plug in at home, but without a dedicated charger, it was barely a slow trickle: less than 1% per hour. According to the Rivian’s GPS, my local mall had several fast chargers. On arrival, I found that they’d moved them to the top of a parking lot behind a locked barrier. Another part of the parking lot had a single slow charger, still probably faster than home, or at least it might have been had it worked.
Venus and some incoming park traffic.
Other chargers in the vicinity were suffering from the popularity of EVs in the Los Angeles area: All were full. I eventually found a Flo charger across from a small park in a residential neighborhood. I downloaded the app, signed up, and after grumpily giving them a $10 minimum credit, I was able to start charging. After a little over an hour, I’d spent $2.66 of my credit and gotten 9kWh, or about 6.5% of the Rivian’s total charge. These are big batteries.
The R1S is a remarkable machine. It’s not for me. Cars I like could fit in the trunk of this behemoth. As big as it is, however, it surprisingly doesn’t feel that big. I once had a loan of an Aston Martin DB9 and I barely drove it. I hated it. Sitting in it, you couldn’t see anything. It was like being in a pillbox, looking out through loopholes, impossible to see any corner of the car or anything else. Despite being slightly smaller than the R1S, it felt far larger. With its myriad cameras, expansive windows and lovely boxy shape, the Rivian might not have ever felt nimble, but it never felt unwieldy. That’s quite a feat.
Spaces like the Charging Outposts need to be more common and not just from Rivian. For the foreseeable future, EV charging will take longer than fueling an ICE vehicle. Having a place to spend that time that’s not a dirty, often smelly, gas station is vital. Not having to rely on slow, random chargers would be great as well.
Assuming EVs are only going to get more popular, we also need a lot more chargers in general. This isn’t solely on Rivian’s shoulders. Tesla has done this with some of its Supercharger stations. Any company that sells EVs needs to build some non-proprietary charging stations, ideally some that are interesting in some way. What would a Ford “Charging Outpost” look like? Porsche?
Just because we’ve long done things one way doesn’t mean they always have to be done that way. A place to charge doesn’t just have to be a row of chargers in a parking lot.
To be fair, we’ve had a century to build up a network for gas-powered vehicles, while we’ve only been doing that for electrics for less than 20.
I don’t have space in my life — or driveway for that matter — for an R1S, but a week with it has convinced this lover of combustion that electric really is the way to go. Instant torque, cheaper costs per mile, quiet interiors, and so many more reasons. And if I miss the raucous roar of an engine and the smell of poorly burned hydrocarbons, well, there’s a century’s worth of used vehicles out there to enjoy when the urge hits. With any luck, by the time I’m ready for another around-the-country road trip, EV ranges will be up, charging times down, and all I’ll need to consider is the adventure and what unique charging station to enjoy. We’re almost there already.
In addition to covering audio and display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips and more.
Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book, and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.
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