Utah / Arizona holiday help? page

[mikeyt]

we're hoping to fly across to Utah and Nevada next month for a 3 week holiday and arent sure how best to do it! we want to be hiking, biking and horseriding in a completely new environment to us (from the wet and green UK)

our ideas so far:
1. rent an RV in Vegas, take 3 weeks to drive across to Denver, fly out. We love the idea but arent sure if having an RV will be a pain, having to pack up every morning and fight for a huge parking place in the nice bits of the park.

2. take an SUV instead and stay in motels & hotels, perhaps with a small tent so we can stay in campgrounds if there isnt a hotel free. Not quite what we'd dreamed of but might let us get more places than in an RV, and we can use a hotel for a base for a week and explore..

we're quite 'outdoors' people, love the idea of being in an RV for 3 weeks where we can eat our own 'weird' food , but dont want to get blocked from the best places because we're driving a 30 foot behemoth (and have probably left it too late to book the best RV camping places)...

any thoughts, folks?

[AmyMac703]

I used to live in western Colorado and spent quite a bit of time adventuring around the Four Corners area. I would honestly recommend you NOT rent an RV unless you're already extensively experienced in driving one, because some of the most scenic and beautiful drives (even on paved roads) will take you up windy, narrow, drop-off-y mountain roads that will likely be very intimidating for someone driving an RV for the first time.
There's plenty of hotels/motels/bed and breakfasts in Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico (haven't been to AZ much but I would assume it's pretty similar), so you should be able to find something. Trust me, as someone who's done quite a bit of exploring around the Southwest, you'll be glad to have the SUV, even if you don't go on extreme 4wd roads.
Also, it's pretty easy to cook and eat paleo while camping, especially car camping. And it's fun! FWIW, I'm pretty sure Grok cooked his food over a fire, not on a mini-stove inside a heated/air conditioned RV. Get a cooler with some ice and restock it with meat and veggies along the way.
Also, if campfire cooking isn't totally your thing, you can pick up a small car camping stove fairly inexpensively to cook as well.

Hope this helps ... if you want some primal/paleo campfire food recipes or any advice on the best places to hit up, let me know, I'd be glad to share!

[canio6]

^ AmyMac is right on. We did some exploring of national parks in the N. Az/S. Utah area back in May and, while there were RVs at many of them, there were plenty of places I would not have wanted to drive an RV. Driving through the beautiful red rocked areas up in Flagstaff/Sedona, I'd much rather look at the scenery than worry if my huge RV is going to sideswipe something. That said, if you have your heart set on an RV, then more power to you. As I said, there were many places with RVs in abundance. You could always try looking for hotels with kitchenettes if you wanted to cook your own food.