A570IS question

hi....new to forum and for the most part, new to canon cameras. i recently purchased a canon A570IS....and although i am pleased with it, there are a bunch of stuff i just can't figure out. the two manuals that come with it, i feel, are very confusing.
here is my question.....i am getting ready to take a trip where i want to take a lot of photos of mountains, streams, etc.......(the great outdoors)...this is pretty much a once in a lifetime thing for me, so i don't want to blow it and come home with crummy pictures.
up to now, i use "auto" for just about everything on the camera as any time i try anything else, it doesn't come out too good.
for mountains, and landscape type photos with this camera, is there one setting any better than the other for a "don't screw this up, bill" result??
or should i just stick with "auto" for everything to be safe?
the various "P", "Tv", "Av", and "M" settings totally baffle me, but i hate the idea that i am missing out on something great by not using these.
as a total novice, can anyone give me some helpful hints?
thank you in advance.
bill
new orleans

I have the same camera, and have found it serviceable. I stuck with auto for the first bit, then took the manual and read one function at a time. eg "m" Take plenty of pics in each function, load them on the computer and play with the software a bit to see how the pic comes out, go back and read that part of the manual again, take some more pics, and you should see kind of a flow to how the camera records images in different settings. I might suggest, if you run into problems , perhaps just use auto or landscape for the mountain shots.

Probably best to stick with auto.