Written by Dr. Suzanne Tang

July 21st, 2025

I have had this incessant dream to live the RV lifestyle and visit all of the US national parks ever since my kids and I took a college tour road trip up the California coast to Portland, Oregon. The road trip was so fun and such a success that my daughter fell in love with Oregon and is currently attending the University of Portland. My son, who will be a senior in high school, is planning on applying to his sister’s college and possibly following in her footsteps.

Fast forward three years, and I decide it’s now or never to live out this RV dream, especially as I turn 50 this year. As an early birthday gift, I convinced the whole family to join me on an RV trip to Utah this summer to see its beautiful national parks, also known as the “Mighty 5”. It was quite the adventure, and many “gifts” were available to be unwrapped.

The first gift was the absolute beauty of Utah’s national parks. From hiking the Narrows and biking throughout Zion to soaking in the phenomenal sunset in Arches and stargazing at the infinite number of stars and a shooting star in the night sky, and white water rafting down the refreshing Colorado River after exploring the raw ruggedness of Canyonlands, there was awe-inspiring beauty everywhere. Being outdoors in nature truly fills up my spiritual, mental, and emotional bucket, further fueling my desire to explore more national parks.

The second gift was spending quality time with my family. Our family is so busy with school and sports or work that we rarely get to spend leisurely time together. Some moments were like a salve soothing the sadness of momentary feelings of empty-nesting as I watch my kids grow up so quickly and become such incredible young adults. There were moments when we were adventuring and laughing together that filled up my heart with such deep love and gratitude. And there were definitely moments when someone was hot, tired, cranky, or hungry and, of course, hangry. These were less of a salve (loll!) and more of an opportunity to reflect on how to find our equanimity, “keep our cool,” and be together in a suboptimal 30 ft motor home in the scorching 100 degree heat of Utah. Although we enjoyed so many fun excursions exploring Utah, my all time favorite memory was working out together at the gym of the RV resort in Las Vegas. It’s the simple moments with my family that bring me joy.

The third gift was the humility, flexibility, and wisdom gained from traveling in an RV for several days with family. When we arrived to pick up the RV rental, we were told that the AC would need to be turned off and “rest” every 50 minutes, otherwise something “terrible would happen” but that this shouldn’t be an issue since the RV would stay quite cool. However, reality was that as soon as we turned off the AC, the RV heated up in no time and immediately felt like an oven, which made sleeping quite difficult, thus causing quite a bit of crankiness and fatigue for the whole family. The refrigerator also couldn’t keep cool, so it broke down multiple times, and unfortunately, much of our organic food had to be thrown out. Thank goodness Moab has the best health food store in town called Moonflower Community Co-Op. We replenished our groceries, storing them in the cooler instead of the fridge.

Although I had no expectations for the trip, I was hoping that we would all love RV travel so much that everyone would join me in living the RV lifestyle. Well, that wasn’t the case. Our final leg of the trip would be at a rustic campground in Valley of Fire in over 111 degrees of heat. I think the family feared that they would all go down with a heat stroke or hallucinations and insanity from sleep deprivation so we aborted and came home a day earlier, spending the last night in a blessedly cool hotel room with a gloriously well-functioning kitchen. No one fell in love with RV travel in this RV rental, but the verdict is still out. The RV lifestyle may still be for me with a more optimal camper van, better planning, and a whole lot of flexibility.

Luckily, no one got heat stroke, severe sunburns, or hallucinations. These tips helped us keep our cool on our summer adventure:

Hydration - We drank at least half our body weight in ounces of water and aimed to have at least 8 oz per 20 minutes of water during physical activity in the heat. We often hiked outside the peak hours of the desert heat in the mornings and evenings and amplified our hydration with coconut water and electrolytes. I highly recommend sugar-free Needed Hydration Support (available on Fullscript). We also ate lots of hydrating veggies and fruits, such as cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, grapes, and watermelon. Frozen grapes and watermelon were our healthy popsicles. We also used a water bottle spray and soaked a wet kerchief and hats with water to keep us cool on a few hikes that were in the heat. Signs of dehydration to watch for are fatigue, dizziness, headaches, confusion, dry mouth and skin, decreased urination, extreme thirst, and muscle cramps. Heat stroke, on the other hand, is a serious medical emergency and can be fatal if not treated immediately. Symptoms of heat stroke are a temperature of 104 degrees, altered mental state, seizures, slurred speech, loss of consciousness, hot and dry skin or sweaty skin, headaches, nausea, vomiting, rapid breathing, and strong pulse.
Sun protection - We wore hats and long-sleeves when possible and lathered ourselves up with plenty of zinc oxide sunscreen frequently. We happily shared our sunscreen with our raft mates in the next raft who were from the East Coast and sizzling in the fierce Utah sun. My favorite clean and non-toxic sunscreens are made by Mychelle, All Good, and ThinkSport.
Moisturize - Despite the hydration and skin protection, our skin became quite ashy and dry from the intense heat so extra external moisturizing was a must. We used a mixed of hydrating natural topicals from beef tallow, coconut oil, and aloe vera gel to soothe our skin. I also used a lavender hydrosol from California Lavender Honey Farm to quickly clear up a heat rash from biking throughout Zion. Speaking of salves, we picked up the most amazing herbal salves in Moab from The Super Salve Co. You can purchase them online.
Let it go - When traveling with your sleep-deprived family in a hot RV, you’ve got to let things go and be flexible to keep your cool. My son was too big for the sleeping bench and was very heat intolerant, so we bought him a tent, and he camped outdoors instead, when he could. We planned to see Bryce Canyon, but due to multiple fires nearby and poor air quality, we skipped this park but we will definitely will be back in the future, in the spring or fall. Our well-used RV rental that seemed to be falling apart may not have kept us cool or our food fresh, but it got us safely to all of our destinations and back. Plus, coming back a day earlier from our trip gave us plenty of time to clean up, return the RV, and have an extra day to have a much needed staycation.

All and all, we made wonderful, lasting memories on this RV trip and absolutely appreciate the luxuries we have at home that we so often take for granted. I’ll keep you posted in future blogs about whether I will be taking the leap to live out the RV lifestyle. In the meantime, I have a brand new national park annual pass and can’t wait to use it again. For more travel trips, check out our Instagram.

Whatever your summer plans are, we hope you and your family have an amazing summer, reconnect with the people and adventures that bring you joy and gratitude, and stay cool, inside and out!

Yours in Wellness,
Dr. Suzanne Tang and the Inspire Natural Wellness Team