We toured some of southwest USA by RV for 3 months in the fall of 2013. Our journey started and finished in Las Vegas and we hiked in all the national and state parks that we visited. Highlights of the trip were backpacking in Yosemite, hiking rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon and hiking the west rim trail in Zion. We visited, hiked in and simply enjoyed many beautiful places. Our plans were disrupted to some extent by the government shutdown and the over-zealous way in which the shutdown was enforced by the NPS and the BLM. There was simply no need to make us leave a campground where the only facility provided was a long drop toilet. And closing turn-outs and view points was beyond the pale. We just moved the barriers and went in.