Here’s one thing I learned on my first-ever camping trip last week: There’s something kind of sexy about sleeping with your husband under a star-filled night sky, watching him wrestle a big rig across the vast prairie, recalling cowboy movies set beside soaring red cliffs.
But I digress. Let’s start at the beginning.
Our amazing adventure in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon started with an email from Benoit Lafond, CEO and co-founder of Noovo, a Vegas-based company that builds carefully crafted high-end camper vans. (His mission, he says, is to build “homes on wheels that incorporate the luxury of European hotels and the design of tiny Parisian apartments.”)
Lafond was wondering if I’d be interested in test-driving his newest model camper van, the Noovo Plus, for a long weekend somewhere around Vegas, where he is based.
In the more than 70 years I’ve been living on this beautiful planet, I’ve always lived in big East Coast cities. I’ve never been camping. And I’ve never been to Utah. So of course I said yes.
Still, as our departure date drew near, I started to wonder if I had gone too far this time. I worried about the 100-degree heat in Utah in July. I wondered whether we would be able to hook up the van at the campgrounds. (Wait, campgrounds? Are we actually sleeping in the van?) I wished for a restaurant somewhere in Utah (Utah?) with something decent to eat for dinner.
Like many times in many places, though, I just trusted the serendipity of travel. And it took us to an amazing destination we never would have explored, in a unique way we never would have tried.
If the definition of a vacation—and the key to staying young—is trying something new and different and fun, then sleeping in a Noovo Plus van in a national park is a perfect weekend. Well-appointed and beautifully designed for “full-time life on the road,” the seven-foot van has a really comfortable queen bed that folds up into the roof at the touch of a button. There’s a U-shaped sofa big enough to stretch out on and a TV, a fridge and a freezer, a microwave and a cooktop, a toilet and a shower, air conditioning and heat, and Starlink wifi.
So my husband and I flew to Vegas, picked up the van at Noovo headquarters, and drove about two hours to Zion River Resort RV Park & Campground. There we plugged in the extension cord for the power and pushed the button to lower the bed. And in five minutes, we were “camping.”
Early Saturday morning, while it was still relatively cool, we headed down the road to Zion National Park and took the free shuttle to the top (no cars are allowed in the park). Then we spent the day working our way down stop by stop, from one amazingly magnificent vista to the next. On Sunday we took the van on a two-and-a-half hour drive to Bryce Canyon, a spot even more beautiful than Zion, home to towering red cliffs and jaw-dropping natural rock amphitheaters so beautiful and symmetrical you would swear the Noovo team had carved them by hand. There is a shuttle bus at Bryce Canyon, too, but it only goes to four of the most unforgettable spots in the park. Instead, we drove our van on the half-hour scenic ride to Rainbow Point—a trip definitely worth making for the 9,100-foot-high views of the entire park.
As we were only in Utah for a weekend, we didn’t have much time to follow the hiking trails or explore the intricacies of the two parks. At mealtime, we did pass on cooking in the van and instead headed for local fare. It’s a far cry from the Old West in Zion these days; in this high-end resort area, every meal was memorable, from the strawberry pancake breakfast at Deedee’s Farmhouse to the souvlaki at Chicago Greek in Mesquite to the ribs at Oscar’s in Springdale.
Every stop in each park was memorable in its own way. But if I have to choose one “do not miss,” it’s Sunset Point. Hikers can descend as far as they like down what sounds like a simple trail, just 1.3 miles, but there’s an 8,000-foot drop, at an incline of between 14% and 30%.
My husband and I came away from this trip marveling, as we often do, at the beauty and diversity of our own United States. We in the travel industry—and indeed, our clients as well—are blessed to have the opportunity to visit many countries. But surrounded by tourists from around the world, we were grateful we took the opportunity to see a little more of our own. We’re especially thankful to the National Park Service, which does an amazing job protecting our open spaces and providing cold water, clean restrooms, food, and shuttle buses to ensure their thousands of visitors always have a pleasant and safe experience.
So in short, our first-ever camping weekend bordered more on luxury than roughing it. We toted our own drinks and ice and watermelon and cookies as we drove our air-conditioned van through the most beautiful mountains on God’s earth. As evening fell, we drove to a nice restaurant for dinner and a glass of wine, then parked the van, hooked up the power, chatted with our campground neighbors in the fading light, watched a little Netflix on TV, lowered the bed and fell asleep to dreams of cowboys and Indians.
Hi-Yo Silver indeed.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.
