In March of 2024, Jennifer traded in her all-electric 2022 Kia Niro for a slightly-used plug-in hybrid 2023 Kia Niro. She liked driving the 2022 Niro, and liked not using gasoline to drive around town, but decided she wanted a car that was easier to deal with when leaving town. The new Niro still has a plug, and can drive on electricity for the first 35 miles or so, but then it switches over to an efficient gas-hybrid engine. A black one was available nearby, so she bought it… but black not being her first choice of color, she decorated it with (she thinks) very nice white vinyl stickers from Slaced (slaced is “decals” spelled backwards).
In April of 2024, we went on a road trip in Jennifer’s new car. Some friends of ours had rented a house in Bluff, Utah for a week, so we spent two days driving down there. We stopped to see the partial solar eclipse on the first day, and slept in the car at a rest area (the same setup we had in the 2022 Niro) near Spanish Fork, Utah (south of Salt Lake City). The second day, we did the first hike of the trip at Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah.
In Bluff, we stayed at the historic Adams house with two other couples, Gwen & John and Scott & Diane; there was also a visit from a family Scott & Diane knew who were on their way home from a Southwest road trip, and Scott’s cousin Curtis, who used to live in the area, spent a few days with us as well. We spent a week or so hiking, sightseeing, and watching birds and lizards in the Bears Ears National Monument, Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, and Monument Valley Navaho National Park.
After our stay in Bluff, we took three days to drive back home. The first day, we stopped at the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park, and then drove north through Utah and Colorado, spending the night in Dinosaur, Colorado.
The second day, we toured Dinosaur National Monument, and then drove north through Jackson, Wyoming, skirted around Yellowstone National Park, and spent the night in Butte, Montana. We saw maybe 1000 elk in one huge herd (and several other smaller herds), some pronghorns, and some deer in the Yellowstone area.
The third day we looked around the historic district of Butte for a while in the morning, and then drove back home. Trip statistics:
- 2715 miles driven
- 53 gallons of gas used at a cost of $197 (7 cents per mile of the trip)
- About 66 kWh of electricity used
- About 47 mpg while using gas