We really have a soft spot for the American Southwest, and over the 2016 Christmas break, we visited four of Utah's five national parks, two state parks, and Monument Valley. Even so, we are only the tip of the iceberg of this magical land of the southwestern United States.
During the 2017 Christmas break, we had two more people in our travel companions, that is, my parents~ When we started making plans, we thought about letting them see the world-class landscape. In the end, we set our sights on the southwest of the United States, a familiar and unfamiliar place that is so charming in winter. So I tried to draw the signature of Wave Valley on the Internet, but I didn't expect to win! (We'll talk more about this story in the next article, the devil knows how low the probability of this draw is!) Providence is so~Meixi, here we are again~
However, parents are parents after all, and their physical condition should be taken into account when making an itinerary. It's okay to walk a little more, but don't go somewhere too dangerous. Therefore, it took a lot of time for us to develop this itinerary, and of course we gained a lot of experience. Here, we specially write an article to share the experience of making this itinerary, hoping to have certain reference value for everyone to make a similar itinerary.
If you'd like to read about our 2016 Winter Trip to Utah, please go here:
Utah Winter Snow Trek (1): Salt Lake City and Dome Reef National Park
Utah Winter Snow Trekking Tour (II): Arches and Canyonlands National Park
Utah Winter Snow Trekking Tour (III): Monument Valley and Bryce Canyon National Park
The old rule, let's talk about our specific itinerary this time:
Day 1 (12.20): Arrive in Las Vegas in the morning and visit the Valley of Fire State Park and stay in Kanab in the evening
Day 2 (12.21): Visit Coyote Buttes North, also known as Wave Valley
Day 3 (12.22): Visit Zion National Park
Day 4 (12.23): Visit Coyote Buttes South
Day 5 (12.24): Tour of Wahweap Hoodoos (White Mushrooms), followed by Alstrom Point (unfinished), and evening stay in Page Town
Day 6 (12.25): Visit Horseshoe Bend and then head to Monument Valley with a guide to guide us on the tour. Stay in Monument Valley for the night
Day 7 (12.26): Watch the sunrise over Monument Valley before heading to Grand Canyon National Park for an evening stay in Tusayan Township
Day 8 (12.27): Watch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon before returning to Las Vegas for a good meal and O Show
Day 9 (12.28): Sleep in, eat and drink at the hotel, and fly home in the afternoon to end the tour
Lessons learned
Based on our experiences in the winter of 2016 and 2017, we have summarized the following lessons. I hope these can help you plan your trip to the southwest.
Be sure to rent a 4WD
In 2016, we rented the cheapest car and didn't have snow chains installed, and we ended up with heavy snow on the road. In addition, many attractions in the southwest of the United States are too poor road conditions, which cannot be reached by ordinary models, and four-wheel drive vehicles are standard. In order to leave no regrets, but also for safety, this time we gritted our teeth and had to rent a 4WD!
It turns out that our decision was completely correct. We were able to visit North Wolf Hill, South Wolf Hill, White Mushroom and other attractions smoothly precisely because we rented a 4WD. In fact, renting a four-wheel drive car is not so expensive, and among the mainstream car rental companies, only Hertz clearly marks the four-wheel drive model. Like the National home, although it is possible to book the Compact (the cheapest model) first, and then go to Aisle on the spot to choose a car, there is a certain risk. It would be bad if all 4WDs were booked that day, especially during peak periods such as the Christmas holidays. Therefore, we rented a car in Hertz this time.
Heretz car rental has a money-saving trick by signing up for a USAA account and renting a car with their discount code. We hit almost a five-fold discount this time.
The overall planning of the itinerary should be difficult first, then easy
In the past, I designed the itinerary to put the best part in the middle and back a few days, in order to prevent aesthetic fatigue. However, the attractions in the southwest of the United States tend to be more essential and require more physical strength, resulting in a bit of physical exhaustion when visiting the essence later. So this time we learned our lesson and put the best parts in the first few days. This turned out to be quite sensible. In the first few days, everyone has more physical strength and excitement, and they can complete difficult projects. In the next few days, the physical strength decreased, and the difficulty was also reduced, which played a role in combining work and rest.
Through these two trips to the southwest of the United States, we found that the landforms here are very rich, and it can be said that step by step, basically there is no phenomenon of aesthetic fatigue.
Try to get up early and make quick decisions
In the southwest of the United States in winter, the days are very short. Basically, sunrise occurs around 8 a.m. and sunset at 5 p.m. Many times, the driving route to the destination is difficult, even dirt roads, and hiking routes tend to be long. Therefore, we recommend waking up as early as possible and preparing plenty of time on the road so as not to be in a hurry. It is highly recommended to be able to get back in the car before sunset otherwise it is easy to get lost and very dangerous.
On our first day of visiting Wave Valley, we came across a negative tutorial. Not long after we started hiking, we saw an old beautiful couple walking out in embarrassment, and the girl still had scars on her body. After questioning, they were lost in the Wave Valley scenic area the night before, and as a result, they couldn't find a way out when it was dark, so they could only spend the night inside, and the girl also fell down. The maximum temperature in Wave Valley in winter was below freezing, and they wore only one single coat, and you can imagine how painful the night was for both of them. When they saw us, they were so frozen that they could hardly speak. Fortunately, Lao Mei's physique is relatively good, and she can still hold out until the morning... And theoretically, they are already breaking the law, because overnight stays are not allowed in the Wave Valley scenic area.
Each of us should take a warning, the earlier we wake up, the more beautiful we can see. Don't risk yourself when you really don't have time, safety always comes first!
After introducing the itinerary and small experience, next, we will introduce the two "sharp swords" for formulating the southwest of the United States: a set of red treasure books, and a tool. It is because of them that our trip has been so smooth.
The "Red Book" of the Southwest Trip
Next we give you an Amway book, a set of books to be exact. The series, called Photographing the Southwest, is divided into three volumes and is published by a publishing house called PhotoTripUSA. This series of books introduces large and small photographic spots in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas on the Great Loop of the Southwest United States, and it can be seen that the author is very familiar with the southwest.
When it comes to travel guide books, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the Lonely Planet series. I've also looked through several books in the Lonely Planet series in bookstores and can't say they're bad, just that they might not be a good fit for people like us who use "travel photography" for the purpose. However, there are not many travel photography books on the market, and even fewer good books. Thankfully, I finally found this book, Photographing the Southwest. If you're planning one or even more in-depth tours of the southwest and want to see those lesser-known beauties, it is highly recommended that you buy one.
Photographing the Southwest consists of three books, the first of which is about southern Utah, which includes Utah's five national parks:
The second book introduces Arizona, which includes famous attractions such as North Wolf Hill (Wave Valley), South Wolf Hill, Monument Valley, and Grand Canyon National Park on our trip. Finally, a little mention of Nevada's attractions, including the Valley of Fire State Park we went to this time:
The third book is about Colorado and New Mexico. Famous attractions include Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, White Sands State Park, and more. These two states are also important parts of the Great Loop of the Southwest and have plenty to visit. We will definitely go when we have the chance. In addition, the book also mentions some of the attractions in Texas slightly:
These three books can be called the "red book" of travel in the southwest of the United States, so what are they good about?
First of all, there are many niche spots here. If you've ever traveled, you'll know that the more niche the attraction, the more worth visiting sometimes. The less-to-do attractions have less traffic and the original style is better preserved. What's more, each attraction comes with photos from a professional photographer, making it easy to pick and choose which spots you want to visit.
Secondly, the introduction of each attraction details how to get there, including driving routes and hiking routes. Some of the more difficult places to reach will be specific to which way to go, which landmark to turn, and road conditions. In addition, each attraction will introduce the best time for photography and the approximate time required to visit. This information is very useful.
Finally, there is the summary table in the appendix. Personally, I think this is one of the most commendable parts of the book, and this table rates each attraction in the book in terms of landscape, photography, driving difficulty, and hiking difficulty, with a maximum of five stars, as shown in the following image:
The higher the score for the first two items, the more worth visiting the attraction. If the first two are five stars, this attraction is world-class! The higher the driving difficulty, the more need for four-wheel drive vehicles and better off-road driving ability; The higher the difficulty of hiking, the stronger the direction recognition and physical strength in the wild. This summary table is really a great tool for planning your trip.
I don't need to say more about the benefits of this set of books, who reads who knows. I've gone to bookstores and looked through other travel guide series and haven't found any of them that is of better quality than this one. Unfortunately, the coverage of their books is too small, so far only three books from the southwest of the United States have just been introduced, as well as two in California (Southern California, Northern California), Oregon, and Washington. Of course, there is also a copy of Photographing the World, but it is not recommended to buy it.
Outdoor handheld GPS
There are many mysterious attractions in the southwest of the United States, and reaching these off-the-beaten-path places requires a strong ability to identify directions in the wild. However, not everyone has such abilities. Fortunately, we have the tool, which is the outdoor handheld GPS that I will introduce next.
Outdoor handheld GPS is not a new technology, especially in this era of smart phones, there will definitely be people scoffing at this, thinking that a mobile phone navigation is enough, why buy such a dirty, walkie-talkie-like GPS?
I said, don't underestimate this humble device, it can come in handy at critical moments. Mobile phone navigation is almost useless in the wild. Why do you say that?
First, mobile navigation relies on the mobile phone operator's data service, and even if the map is downloaded in advance, it is not guaranteed that the data is not used at all. And the more remote the area, the worse the mobile phone signal. In our experience, in scenic spots like Wave Valley, Verizon and T-Mobile are completely unsignaled.
Second, mobile phone navigation is mainly driving navigation, not suitable for wild hiking navigation, and there is no detailed hiking route on the map. Even if they do, they won't be very reliable, such as the Wave Valley and the longer hikes of the Double O Arch Trail that was taken in Arches National Park last year. If there is no navigation, you can basically rely on a sense of direction. Once the direction is wrong, the attractions are still second, and it is dangerous if you get lost.
Third, mobile phone navigation consumes power quickly, especially at low temperatures. Could it be that in addition to bringing a mobile phone, you also have to bring a data cable and a power bank? In contrast, handheld GPS doesn't have this problem, my own GPS, which navigates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., the battery is still full. Just in case, it would be nice to bring a few more spare batteries, which is convenient.
Fourth, the map pre-installed with GPS is not a common flat map, but a Topo map, that is, a contour map. When hiking outdoors, contour maps are very useful for judging the travel route, and you can find the right direction as quickly as possible according to the surrounding terrain and map comparison. The geography knowledge learned in middle school has finally come in handy~
So, how to buy outdoor handheld GPS? My personal advice is that the simpler and lighter the features, the better. Outdoor handheld GPS does not need cool functions, such as touch screen, photography, intercom, etc., these are useless, but also expensive. Outdoor handheld GPS as long as it can meet the most basic function of "navigation" is enough, and the most needed function is "all-weather", which can still work under extreme weather conditions such as high temperature, low temperature, rain and snow, simply put, it is not easy to break. And electronic devices tend to be simpler and less likely to break. Therefore, I personally think that it is enough to buy only the most basic model.
I ended up buying the Garmin GPSMAP 64st. This is the most basic outdoor handheld GPS in the Garmin brand. I chose Garmin completely because my car GPS is also Garmin's, and Garmin's own software is used for route planning (mentioned later), and the two GPS are from the same manufacturer to save learning costs, that's all. It looks like this:
It's easy to get started, and you don't even need a manual, and you will basically use it after ten minutes of exploration. You can choose a trail near your home to navigate and try it out.
Maps and route planning
In the last part, I will give you a brief introduction to where to find the map of the hiking route in the southwest of the United States, and how to import the map to GPS.
map
The more famous hiking routes near the southwest of the United States, as well as the driving routes required to reach the trail head, all the gods have prepared for us, we only need to be a stretching party:
Open the above page, in the map in the menu bar, there are all the best points of the southwest, each attraction has a detailed introduction, plus a super detailed map. Tap the upper-right corner of each map to make it full screen. This map is based on Google Map. Let's take The Wave's map as an example and see how to use it:
Click on the top right corner of the left rail and select "Copy Map" to save it to your Google Drive. This map contains a lot of information and has a variety of routes. Some routes are by car, some on foot. Due to the large number of attractions in Wave Valley, different people choose different routes, which will be shown in this map.
Import the route into GPS
The next thing to do is to import the route you chose into GPS. In this way, when using GPS, you can follow the route you set to navigate. Here we take Garmin GPS as an example to illustrate, other brands of GPS should have similar functions.
After copying the map to your Google Drive, click on the top right corner of the left column and select "Export to KML/KMZ" to save the map as a KML file.
Next we're going to use one of Garmin's own software, called Garmin Basecamp. This software can be downloaded from the official website. After downloading and installing, open the software, connect your GPS to your computer, and the software should automatically detect your GPS device. Next, import the KML file you just downloaded into Garmin Basecamp, and all the information on the map should appear.
To clarify two concepts in Garmin Basecamp: Route and Track, the two concepts are easily confused. Route refers to the route you want to take, while Track refers to the path you take. Garmin's GPS can record the path you take as you navigate, and that's Track. This feature is useful and allows you to walk back down the path you've walked before. In addition, the routes imported from KML files are also Track by default. To put all these routes in GPS, you need to convert them to Routes in Basecamp first.
After converting to Route, import the Route into GPS, the driving route will be imported into the vehicle GPS, and the hiking route will be imported into the handheld GPS. After importing, you can see that this route has been displayed when you turn it on. While driving or hiking, you can navigate along the previously scheduled route! With GPS, it is equivalent to taking a reassuring pill, no longer afraid of getting lost, and no longer worrying about finding a way and delaying time.
Well, seeing here, it is estimated that everyone is already drowsy. We don't have much to talk about either. , we will introduce you to the North Wolf Hill (Wave Valley) and the South Wolf Hill, and see what kind of strange scenery these two mysterious places are only allowed to 20 people every day. We will also analyze the lottery process in detail, so stay tuned~