After visiting Yomesite national park last year, we were so impressed with the beauty of the national park and decided to visit more national parks as our annual vacation plan this year. Because the number of the national parks we wanted to see, we decided to rent a RV motorhome and camp out at each park. We had no RV experiences before this trip and there are pros and cons by using the RV (I will explain in more details in the post later).
又到了一年一次的度假的时期，从去年去了优胜美国家公园之后就对它恋恋不忘。所以在阿拉斯加和国家公园的选择中，最后还是选了后者。因为这次要看的国家公园比较多，烦得找住的地方所以决定租辆RV，边开边玩，旅行的弹性度比较大。 在这之前没有 RV的经验，所以准备的不是很充足，我在后面会详细解释一下。
Our initial plan was to travel to three states (Utah, Arizona, Colorado) approximately 1800 miles.
原制定的路线是从罗城飞到拉斯维加斯，然后开到以下九个景点 （共1800英里），最后到达丹佛，然后从丹佛飞回罗城。预计每个景点待3-4天。
1.Fly from Rochester NY to Las Vegas and pick up the RV at Las Vegas Camping World;
2.Visit Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Upper and Lower Antelope in Page, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonland National Park, Black Canyon National Park, and Rocky Mountain National Park;
3. Return the RV at Denver Camping World location.
About half way in our trip, the Federal government's shutdown forced us to alter our initial travel plans due to the closings of all the national parks and our final travel destinations were:
Zion National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Upper and Lower Antelope in Page, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, (federal government shutdown started) Arches and Bridge in Moab, Dead Horse Point State Park, Glenwood Springs in Colorado, Vail Ski Resort,Breckenridge Ski Resort and the City of Denver. The flexibilities of RV was very helpful for us to adjust our travel plans.
我们的行程走了一半的时候，正好敢上美国联邦政府的shutdown,所有国家公园都关闭。不得不修改行程，在原景点附近找些替代的景点玩，这时候RV灵活性就体现出来了。具体行程如下：
1. Pick up RV at Las Vegas Camping World
This is the RV motor home we rented. It has one queen bed, a siting area(which can be turned into one single person bed), a kitchen (including a microwave, a stove and a sink), a decent size of refrigerator, a bathroom (with toilet and shower). Also, the roof space of the RV can be turned into a bed for a kid as well.
这是我们租的RV, 它有一张双人床，一个圆桌（可以变成一张单人床），小厨房（含冰箱) 和洗手间（可以沐浴）。
Let me explain the differences between a full- hooked up private RV site and a partial- hooked up RV site.
When you rent a RV, it comes with a full tank of fresh water and liquid propane. When you use the water from the sink, the waste water goes to the gray waste tank. When you flush the toilet, the water goes to the black waste tank. You will have to dump the gray and black waste tanks when they are full in a designated dumping station. The refrigerator, heat, stove, hot water use liquid propane. The air conditioner, TV, microwave, outlet use electricity. The liquid propane can be refilled when you run out of it. The generator can be used when you need electricity (usually extra cost are associated with it when you use the generator).
When you are in a full- hooked up RV site, you can connect the RV to its water, electricity and sewer which mean that you don't need to consume any of water or electricity from the RV.
National Parks also have RV parking sites but those sites are usually partial hooked up or dry camp. Partially hooked up means that they only provide electricity, no water or sewer but they usually have a dumping station. Dry camp means that they don't have any water, electricity or sewer. In this case, you will need to use liquid propane for cooking, generator for electricity and all the wastes will go to black or gray waste containers in your RV.
RV parking sites inside of National Parks cost $10-$15 per night and the private full hooked up RV site costs $35 - $50 per night. The best option is to stay at private RV site for one night and stay the other two nights at the national park RV sites.
After we picked up RV, Zion national park was our first stop. It was about 170 miles from Las Vegas (2.5 hours drive). The first RV site we stayed at was Zion Canyon RV park which is a full hooked up private RV park.
2. Zion National Park 美国宰恩国家公园:
This is a well organized national park and it offers free shuttle bus services from the village to the park and inside the park.
The first hiking we did was to the "The Narrows" - it started with a riverside walk by the Virgin River and the water can be as deep as to your shoulder.
这是行程里的第一个公园，我们行程以爬山拍照为主。第一站是公园中著名的 "The Narrows". 刚开始水不深，越走水越深，据说有些水会过肩。水很凉又急，我们走到一半就往回走了。
Another classic hiking trail at Zion National Park is the "Angel's Landing Trail". It says that the cliff was so steep that only an angel can land it on the top of the mountain. I would say that this is one of our top three hikes of the trip. It took us almost five hours to finish it.
公园里令一个著名的景点是天使的落地，据说这个山很陡，只有天上的天使才能在上面停留。
很陡的坡。。。。。
Angel's Landing: "Since 2004, six people have died falling from the cliffs on this strenuous climb on a narrow ridge over 1400 feet above the canyon floor.“ 山上的风景
3. Page Lake Powell area, Arizona -100 miles from Zion 行程的第二站。This is our second stop, Page Lake Powell. We visited Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend, Uppper and Lower Antelope.Lake Powell - 鲍威尔湖,佩吉市 美国
Horseshoe Bend - 马蹄湾
Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon - 羚羊峡谷,佩吉市 美国
4. Bryce Canyon - 布赖斯峡谷国家公园.
很多人都对这个公园赞不决口，我也觉得不错就是风大冷，海拔8000英尺。
Peek-a-boo loop hiking trial is another our favor trial. You can see 90% of the hoodoos during this hike.
5. Capitol Reef - 圆顶礁国家公园 美国
This is my favor park during this trip (这次行程中我最喜欢的公园).
Perified wood state park (a little detour) prior to the Capitol Reef
Capitol Reef
RV site in the park
6. Goblins Valley State Park
RV sites in the park
7. Dead horse point State Park - 死马点州立公园,莫阿布 美国
had a snow shower （登山中下了场小雪）
8.Corona Arch and Morning Glory Bridge - 莫阿布 美国
9. Glenwood Springs, Colorado Hanging lake - a lake up at 1000 feet cliff Glenwood Springs has the world famous hot springs and it has existed since 1886. We went there twice and it felt wonerful to relax in the hot mineral springs after hiking. 10.Vail and Breckenridge Ski Resorts - 滑雪胜地 11. 最后一站 Denver - 丹佛the city with 300 days sunshine in a year - 一年有300 天天晴的城市 The first snow - 第一场雪
