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RV ADVENTURE

On this family road trip, mom's a really big wheel

Grand Circle RV parks

For more RV campground options, visit www.gocampingamerica.com, www.freecampgrounds.com or www.woodalls.com.

• Arches, Moab KOA, 3225 S. U.S. 191, 800-562-0372; http://moabkoa.com. Great pool, game room and mini-golf course, but quiet despite the large number of families. Some sites have patios ($74.60) with propane barbecue grills, table and chairs, and log swings; most sites have lots of shade. Sites are pull-through; full-hookups (with cable TV) start at $37.60. Small grocery, banana bike rentals and free Wi-Fi.

• Capitol Reef, Thousand Lakes RV Park, 1110 W. Utah 24, Torrey, 435-425-3500; thousandlakesrvpark.com. Roomy pull-through, full-hookup sites with views of the colorful Thousand Lakes and Boulder mountains. Very quiet, plenty of trees for shade and a tiny pool; laundry and grassy area for kids to play. Tent sites, too, separated by fencing. RV rates $28.50.

• Bryce, Bryce Canyon Pines Resort, Milepost 10, Utah 12, 800-892-7923; brycecanyonmotel.com/campground. Tucked behind a Chevron station, the RV park is down the road from the hotel, which allows campground guests to use the indoor pool. There's a little noise from the highway and the sites are tightly wedged in, but there are plenty of trees. Full hookups, firepits, restrooms and hot showers. RV sites $25 (two people). The website advertises ``five minutes from Bryce Canyon,'' but it will take you 15, and the Wi-Fi was iffy during our visit.

• Zion, Zion River Resort, 551 E. Utah 9, 888-822-8594; olwm.com/zionriverresort. This is as family-friendly as it gets, and so big it's like a small town. With a regular roster of family activities, playgrounds, a good-sized pool and game room, the place is inviting for kids, and the roads running through it invite bicycle riding and evening strolling. Most sites are pull-through, but the back-ins have the Virgin River running behind them and everywhere you look are views of the Zion red rock. Rates start at $50 (four people) for full-hookup pull-throughs. Laundry, free Wi-Fi.

• Grand Canyon, Kaibab Camper Village, one mile southwest of Arizona 89A and U.S. 67 on Forest Road 461, 928-643-7804; kaibabcampervillage.com. Very tight spaces, down a gravel road 45 miles from the Grand Canyon at Jacob Lake. They promised a pull-through when I called, but they gave me a back-in and said they had to give those to the bigger rigs, even though they ask your size when you call and pay a deposit. Laundry and coin-operated showers. Rates: $34 for full hookups.

• Mesa Verde, Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park, 888-896-3831; visitmesaverde.com. Well-spaced sites with full hookups, picnic tables on concrete at each site, shade, gorgeous views, hot showers, a laundry and a pay phone. Deer wander among the sites at dawn and dusk. Rates start at $21 a night (per campsite); $31 with hookups.

Family-friendly national parks

Advantages of visiting national parks:

• They're reasonably priced: Getting into the parks is based on vehicle, not per person, so a family can spend seven days for one low price, usually less than it would cost for the same number of people to go to a movie. You can camp in the national parks for a small fee, as well, and most of the cabins and lodges are cheaper than fancy hotels. Also, much of the entertainment is free, including hiking, bicycling (primarily on roads) and scenic drives. Some activities require modest fees, such as a fishing license or a small tour fee.

• There's a national park near you: No matter where you live, with 58 national parks and another 89 monuments and historical sites in the country, there's a federally run property worth visiting within easy driving distance. Visit www.nps.gov for details and interactive maps.

• Activities for a variety of skill levels and interests: Most of the national parks have at least one trail short and easy enough for little kids. The Junior Ranger program -- which requires attendance at one or more ranger programs -- is for kids, ages 6-14, but is most popular with those about 10 and under. Despite massive budget and staffing cuts, the parks still manage to put on an impressive variety of ranger programs, including campfire programs, nature walks, twilight chats and interpretive discussions on the flora and fauna found at each park.

• Each park is unique: Several of the families we talked with said they visit a different one annually, which means you could go 58 years before repeating one. And if you visit several on one trip, the differences are truly striking.

-- KYLE WAGNER

BY KYLE WAGNER

The Denver Post

Sit on a Big Wheel with half of your belongings tied to the back of it, your bed sitting on your head and your kids standing on the sides clutching you around the neck.

Then have somebody push you down the side of a mountain. For extra kicks, have them periodically fling a frying pan or cutting board at you and make noises that sound like gunfire.

Now you know what it feels like to drive an RV for the first time.

The good news is, at some point in a 1,803-mile trip, it does get better -- and actually fun.

I came up with the notion of renting a motorhome to tour the classic Grand Circle in the Southwestern United States soon after hearing about Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea six-part documentary, which begins airing on PBS Sept. 27.

Driving an RV to seven of those parks may not have been my best idea, but the rationale was that it would be a reasonably priced one, and easier than pitching a tent every day or two. And considering that we did this during one of the worst monsoon seasons in recent history, it would turn out to be drier, as well.

``So why not a RV?'' I thought. I'd never driven one, but -- and isn't this a question that should always set off mental alarms? -- how hard could it be?

The answer: harder than it looks when you're flying by one that's chugging along at 10 mph uphill.

We picked up our 31-foot Four Winds Chateau from Camping World outside Denver just as a light rain began. In my part of Denver, people regularly leave syringes on the sidewalk, so I was reluctant to have the neighbors see that I was headed out for a very long trip -- not to mention that the thought of driving down narrow downtown streets gave me stomach cramps -- so I unloaded our stuff from a friend's truck in the parking lot.

HELPFUL HINTS

Camping World personnel did a great job of running through all of the crucial information about this cozy home on wheels, things such as ``close the propane valve and turn off the refrigerator when you gas up'' (or you could be blown to kingdom come) and ``here's the switch to flip when you blow a fuse'' (or your children will wish evil visited upon you because the TV won't work).

But when you're standing in a vehicle approaching the size of a Taco Bell and you are 5-foot-2, it all starts to sound like the teacher in the ``Peanuts'' cartoon: ``Wah-wah-woh-wah-wah?'' It's hard to know which of these bits of wisdom will be needed later, but rest assured -- it will be the thing you cannot remember, and someone will be bleeding.

We don't recall if they discussed that not all of the cupboards inside the RV are created equal, but soon after we pulled out in what was now approaching a severe thunderstorm, we found this to be true. I ran over the curb, which released a bunch of pots and pans down onto my daughters, which made us all scream. I was so rattled I then mistakenly thought I'd driven onto the offramp to Interstate 70, which made me scream again, and then just as I realized we were OK, I nearly got us sideswiped by a semi-trailer barreling down the highway.

Then the hail started.

I would have pulled over, but I didn't know where to go after that -- I was on a stretch of highway where there really was no better choice than to just drive very, very slowly. So I did. People running to get out of the rain passed us.

That night we survived the hail, sleet, my panic attack inside the Eisenhower Tunnel when a convoy of tractor-trailers almost pushed us against the wall, my attempt to burn the brakes out on my first 8 percent grade (``Mommy, what's that smell?'' Lower gear! Lower gear!), a palm hematoma from smacking (and breaking) the side mirror in the hail, and a kamikaze raccoon seemingly sent to test my stated goal of never, ever swerving (he survived, and I did not swerve).

The Miami Herald

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