Sand to Snow

Family memories, powered by Rivian

By Rivian

May 4^th, 2023

Story by Kyson Dana

This winter will go down as one of the snowiest on record in many parts of the United States, including the Sierra Nevada mountains.

I love snow. My wife, Sara, and I grew up in the same small town in Idaho and, as teenagers, even worked at the same ski resort. Skiing and snowboarding have always been a really big part of our lives, but we don't like the winter enough to live in winter. Now that we live in Santa Cruz, California, taking trips to spend time in the snow is really fun for us.

This winter Rivian added two new DC fast-charging sites to the Rivian Adventure Network along our planned route — one in Sacramento and another in the mountain town of Truckee — both to help power all manner of electric adventures in the Greater Lake Tahoe Region. Both sites are located just off I-80, and like all Rivian Adventure Network sites, both can provide up to 140 miles of range to your R1 in 20 minutes. It was so great to be able to just plug in and charging starts. Rivian designs, engineers and builds chargers in Normal, Illinois, to make sure they are easy to use, and also to make sure people have a consistent charging experience with optimized charging speeds.

See a map of Rivian Chargers

We decided to take our kids Theo, 8, and Julian, 2, on a road trip to Lake Tahoe for a weekend of skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snow forts and hot tubbing. So we piled into our R1T with snacks and movies and bags full of winter gear and set off on the 4.5-hour drive.

Space is always a premium on road trips, and before the R1T we were used to being packed in with tablets on the ceiling. So, to go from that to having the front trunk, the space under the rear seats, the truck bed, the gear tunnel — everything has its place and it’s just us in the cabin — it’s like, “Oh, here’s your snacks, here’s your tablet, we’re ready to go.” Everybody has space and it just makes the trip so much easier and less chaotic.

I've worked as a designer at Rivian for more than three years. My projects include everything from the website to photography to charging experiences to the mobile app, and lately, I’ve been working on our trip planning experience. One bonus of our family trip to Lake Tahoe is that I got to test a new trip planner we’re developing for our customers. I think this is going to be a great mobile trip planner — our customers are looking to explore, to find different places to travel, and they need to feel confident in planning their EV expeditions.

Charging Stop 1: Sacramento

The distance from our home in Santa Cruz to Lake Tahoe is about 270 miles. We have a Rivian Wall Charger, and we left with a full charge and 295 miles of range, but we decided to top off at the Rivian DC fast chargers in Sacramento, conveniently located at the REI. After plugging in, we had a tailgate lunch with some cold pizza we’d brought, then went inside to do a little shopping.

We picked out two recycled plastic sleds for our trip, and my older son decided he also needed a new winter beanie at all costs (despite us already having about six in our bags), so he walked out with that, too. We only needed to charge for 20 minutes but by the time we unbuckled and fed the kids and had fun roaming the aisles of REI, we ended up being there a bit longer, gaining 155 miles. Sometimes it’s not your range, but your kids and letting them work their energy out that tells you how long you need to charge when you stop.

Even with the 7,000-foot climb up Donner Pass on I-80, we didn’t need to stop again, so from the Sacramento charger, we headed straight for our little cabin in the woods above Lake Tahoe. It gets me every time how the vehicle seems to float uphill — it’s so effortless, the way the energy is released.

You officially enter the Tahoe National Forest just east of the gold rush town of Auburn. Shortly after that, I-80 shrinks down to two lanes, and you begin to pass campgrounds, hiking trails and plenty of scenic pull-offs.

It's become a little bit of a tradition, every time we pass back and forth from the more lush lower elevations in California to the cold and the trees of the mountains, to roll down the window and take a few deep breaths and feel the transition — it’s a really distinct smell.

When we arrived at our rental cabin, we made dinner and hung out together, including spending time in the hot tub and looking at the stars — it was a perfect, clear night. The next morning we woke up and went back outside to do some sledding and build some snow caves. The kids had a blast — they must have eaten a gallon of snow each because they’re beach babies and were so unused to seeing it.

The next day we went to the ski resort. Sara snowboarded, and Theo and I were on skis. The little one, Julian, wasn’t skiing or snowboarding, but he loved taking little rides down the bunny hill on the front of my skis. He was in this big, puffy snowsuit and I ended up just grabbing the back of it and carrying him up the hill like a suitcase, then skiing slowly down together over and over again — he loved it.

Charging Stop 2: Truckee

The next morning we packed up to head home, excited to stop and check out the Rivian chargers in Truckee on the way. Right off I-80, the new Truckee site also has six Rivian DC fast chargers and a pull-through trailer spot. In Truckee, you’ll find Coffeebar, a local cafe and bakery with some seriously good coffee and pastries across the parking lot.

We got lattes and got the boys hot chocolates, which we later regretted because they were amped well into the evening. One of the things I love most about Rivian chargers is the way they act as essentially a meet-and-greet. I love chatting with other owners; everybody is always really open and we have had great conversations. It feels like there’s this shared foundation of values of sustainability and adventure, even though we’re all very different. After picking up 113 miles of range, we were on our way home.

Home Stretch

As we drove, the boys watched movies and Sara and I started talking a lot about how our kids will grow up never having driven a gas-powered vehicle. By the time they’re adults, we will have shifted to electric transportation, something more sustainable for our planet.

We were joking about being 80 years old at a Sunday dinner and telling our kids and grandkids, “Hey, remember when we took that family trip to Tahoe after Rivian first installed chargers that made the whole area more accessible for EVs?”

It feels pretty special to be right at the center of this huge transition and to be able to experience and even participate in the shift as we reconfigure how we move through the world as humans while finding ways to do it without damaging the planet as much as we have in the past.