King of the Road: The US South-west seen from an RV

By Heike Schmidt Jun 8, 2010, 11:33 GMT

Denver, Colorado - In the United States, the initials 'RV' stand for 'recreational vehicle' and you can usually tell the greenhorns by the fact that their RVs usually display the advertising logo of the rental firm.

But no matter. In fact, the greenhorns are given a bit of leeway - literally. At a caravan park in Steamboat Springs in Colorado, for example, they are given preference for the popular 'pull-thru-sites' - those where the driver is spared having to pull back and forth to ease his big vehicle into a spot. One needs a bit of a break from driving what amounts to a small-sized lorry.

'Just take things slowly,' advises Kevin Broom, spokesman of the RV manufacturers' association RVIA. 'Such campers are made to be driven by people like you and me, and not by truck drivers.'

But it takes some getting used to, learning how to handle a vacation apartment on wheels. One needs to remember such small but important details as how tall the vehicle is, and keeping an eye on the button to turn off the automatic stairway.

But once familiarised with the vehicle, then the road is calling and in the south-western US a popular one is the 'Grand Circle' tour. This covers a region passing through five states - Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, with their many National Parks.

Among them is Monument Valley, where the sky is huge, the earth is red and almost every canyon runs deep. Sure, there are also motels along the roadside. But in your recreational vehicle, an adventure holiday doesn't take a break, even at night. From the comfort of your RV you can listen to the coyotes howling and watch the falling stars rain down from the heavens.

The town of Moab in Utah is the gateway to a geological wonderland: Arches National Park. The 16-metre-tall 'Delicate Arch' is a motive decorating many a postage stamp and car license plate in Utah. In fact, the park is home to more than 2,000 such natural arches, rock columns, balancing boulders and cliffs. Water and wind sculpted this landscape out of the sandstone.

Canyonlands National Park is the largest one in Utah and at the same time the hardest one to reach. It is here that the powerful Colorado and Green rivers flow together - on a map they form a giant blue letter 'Y' while in reality, the two rivers slice up the Colorado high plateau into three huge pieces of cake.

Most visitors stay in the northern part of the park called 'Island in the Sky,' while drinking water and a good chance to get a camping spot are available at the 'Squaw Flat Campsite' in the 'Needles' section, a sculptural park landscape with pinnacles, monoliths and jutting ridges.

Hite Marina is located on the northern end of Lake Powell, a huge reservoir built in 1963. Page on the southern edge as well as Bullfrog Bay are heavily visited because of their houseboat harbours. But Hite Marina is a secret tip for anglers who often only start to take notice of each other in the evening when the campfires start lighting up the lake's shores. Despite the remoteness of the setting, the US National Park Service even here runs a store and a wastewater disposal station.

A more than 160-kilometre-long crooked crevice in the earth's crust reminded the first settlers in the region of a gigantic reef - and today it is the core of the Capitol Reef National Park. The formation can be viewed while driving along a rocky road - one which for RV drivers can be a tortuous bumpy experience with the interior doors opening and slamming shut, and the pots and pans clanging and turning into projectiles.

More comfortable is simply staying on the paved Highway 24 running through the park, which provides only a fleeting, but still powerful, impression of the landscape.

'Hoodoos' are the name of the needle-sharp rock columns which have been shaped by erosion and merged together into chains that mesmerize the visitor to Bryce Canyon National Park. It is especially at sunrise and sunset that people gather at the lookout points to admire them. Those who can leave their cars behind for a while can escape the crowds on the hiking trails and enjoy the magic of the 'Hoodoos' from close up.

Further south is the Grand Canyon, certainly the most famous National Park of the 'Grand Circle' tour. Those who do not want to hike down the nearly 2-kilometre-deep gorge can simply get a view, from various lookout points on the short hiking paths, of the two billion years of geological history which the Colorado River, far below, has unearthed.

And Monument Valley is a place which everybody has seen - at least in the movies or on TV. In the 1930s, director John Ford discovered it as a setting for his Western films. Wind and rain have, over the ages, carved and formed the up to 300-metre-high columns from the layers of stone.

On the slope leading to the valley there is a simple camp site - a dusty area with two chemical toilets and a few picnic tables. Tents are flapping in the wind and a few dogs are seeking shelter beneath the RV. Inside, a teapot is boiling. Maybe a peanut butter sandwich? As you sit and enjoy a snack, the windows of the RV provide a first-row view of a spectacle of nature.