National Parks, Part II

An up-to-the-minute website and a great guidebook series spotlight our parks

Yesterday, I wrote a potpourri post that started with a description and photos from a just completed hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and ended with a plea to participate in National Public Lands Day coming up this Saturday. Here are two invaluable national parks information resources:

National Parks Traveler Website

National Parks Traveler does an excellent job of balancing breaking news, advocacy and visitor information to the country's 391 National Park Service-administered sites. The two most recent posts, as I write this, involved Teddy Roosevelt, one a report about a kerfuffle raised about the proposed addition of 12,000 acres of ranchland in and near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota to the National Register of Historic Places and the other visitor information to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a hidden gem in Washington, D.C. I have this site on my blogroll so that I check it often.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks

There are all sorts of guidebook series out there. Many of them are very good, but my favorites are Lonely Planet's, which relaunched earlier this year with four North American gems: Yosemite, Sequoia & King’s Canyon National Parks, California; Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Wyoming; Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and Banff, Jasper and Glacier National Parks in Canada. I wonder whether they are planning Rocky Mountain too.

Features of the Lonely Planet parks guides include:

•New full-color highlights section shows the best of the parks at a glance, with stunning photographs, author tips and a clear map.
•Detailed itineraries help visitors plan their time, whether they’re exploring well-loved sights, traversing back-country terrain or driving around the region.
•More than 40 hikes in every book, which is scratching the surface of what these parks have to offer but is more than most visitors will do in a week. Follow in the footsteps of LP authors on easy hikes, day hikes and backcountry hikes. Topographical hiking maps accompany the tricky routes, and reformatted hiking charts make it easy to compare hikes and select your favorite.
•New chapters. "Kids & Pets" with information for families, such as the best hikes for the little ones, and advice for pet-owners -- key since travelers won't go anywhere without their pooches but except for service dogs, canines are generally prohibited anywhere but parking lots and perhaps campgrounds . "Clothing & Equipment" with essential information for hikers and campers. "History and Environment" give visitors vital background information on the parks’ past and present.
•Opinionated descriptions of campgrounds large and small, modern and primitive--and an easy-to-reference camping chart to compare features and facilities of each. Plus the trustworthy reviews of other accommodations, restaurants and sights in or near the parks that you come to expect of a Lonely Planet guide.
•A range of other activities including cycling trails, driving routes, climbing, swimming, rafting, skiing, hang-gliding and more.
•Sustainable options and green travel ideas throughout. A “Support Your National Park” feature gives information on how to give back to the parks and promotes sustainability and volunteering.

Help Wanted in National Parks & Other Public Lands

Celebrate National Public Lands Day by visiting a park -- or lending a hand

Our Neighborhood National Park at the Change of Seasons

We are very lucky to have Rocky Mountain National Park a little more than an hour from our door -- and we never take it for granted. Today, my husband, a friend and I hiked to one of our favorite destinations, Cub Lake, walking first in sunshine, then through a stiff breeze that brought clouds in from the west, through some rain and finally in sunshine again.

This woolly worm crossed our trail. According to legend, the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the woolly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild. However, the legend doesn't indicated what a yellow band in the middle foretells.

The wind drove Cub Lake's lily pads toward one end. It drove me back down the trail quickly. After a quick look at a familiar lake and the sight of clouds moving in, I had no inclination to linger.

Near the trailhead, the elk emerged from the trees in Hollowell Park. It's truly fall when these magnificent animals appear.

What We All Can Do to Help....

In addition to visiting our national parks and periodically reminding our representatives in Congress how important the parks are, we can volunteer to help them. National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 26, is a two-pronged day of celebration of and service to the country’s vast and glorious public lands. The National Park Service is waiving admission charges at all 391 national parks, national monuments and historic sites and properties that it manages.

In addition to National Parks, Americans and visitors to our country also enjoy lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management lands, state and local park departments and recreational corridors under various jurisdictions. In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted more than 1.6 million trees. Click here to find one of the thousands of sites around the country that needs your help next Saturday. Expect to get a free lunch, gratitude and a whole lot of satisfaction.

...And What We Can All Watch on Television

And then, between Sunday, September 27 and Friday, October 2, tune in to your local public broadcasting station to see "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-episode Ken Burns documentary that will remind us all what the crown jewels of our public lands offer to us.

Of the 319 units within the national park system, 58 are full-fledged national parks, and some of us are fortunate to live within easy-access distance of at least one of them. Film maker Ken Burns selected 10 don't-miss parks, which he wrote about in today's USA Weekend. In "10 National Parks You Don't Want to Miss," he wrote his reasons for selecting Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Denali, Glacier, Great Smokey Mountains, Acadia, Everglades, Zion and Shenandoah.

Ski Train to Return for 2009-10

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad steps in to operate Denver-Winter Park train

Shock and not a few tears greeted the abrupt announcement at the end of this past ski season that gajillionaire Philip Anschutz would no longer operate the 69-year-old Ski Train between Denver's Union Station and the base of the Winter Park ski area on weekends. His company sold the vintage railroad cars, and he washed his hands of this enduringly populat Colorado tradition.

Now comes the joyful news that the Ski Train will operate for a 70th year after all. Iowa Pacific Holdings, which is based in Chicago but operates the seasonal Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, an excursion train in southern Colorado's San Luis Valley, as well as short-line freight lines here and and elsewhere, said it wanted to operate the Denver-Winter Park service using rolling stock that would otherwise remain idle in winter. Amtrak asked the Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks, for permission to operate a revived Ski Train on Iowa Pacific's behalf. Permission granted.

The old Ski Train website is still up with the announcement that the train ceased operations. The new broke so recently that there is not yet a new website, and of course, a timetable and fares have yet to be announced. The initial news indicated only that the revived train will run between December 16 and March 28.

"I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane"

RIP: Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary

"All my bags are packed,
I'm ready to go.
I'm standing here outside your door.
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.

"But dawn is breakin',
It's early morn'.
The taxi's waitin',
He's blowin' his horn. . .

"I'm leavin' on a jet plane.
Don't know when I'll be back again.
Oh Babe, I hate to go."

Mary Travers has gone on her final journey. We know that she won't be back again, but her music is her legacy. We'll miss her broad smile, her creative talent, her stage presence, her straight blond hair, her distinctive voice that harmonized so well with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stuckey, her idealism. The whole package. Click here to listen to Peter, Paul & Mary's rendition of what I think of as the most poignant travel song.

Cheap China Tour Package in Winter

Off-season package with air included makes China affordable

The first of my three visits to China was on a tour package for a rockbottom price including air fare from the US, good hotels in Beijing, Xi'an, Giulin and Hong Kong, and an upstream cruise on the Yangtze before the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. There were English-speaking city guides in each city (three of whom took the English name, Richard) and an English-speaking crew on the Yangtze riverboat.

The city guides met us at each airport and escorted us back to the airport again, but there was no full-time tour guide with us from beginning to end. Also not included were dinners (except on the ship), which meant we were free to try out local restaurants or just wander over to the nearest night market and graze the street-food stalls. I've returned to China twice since then, but that first visit in some ways remains the most memorable -- and the fact that we didn't break the bank stays with us as a big bonus.

Now comes word of a really inexpensive package from Friendly Planet Travel, whose Taste of China package has a similar low-frills format and also an astonishingly low price. There is no Yangztze cruise on this package, but the beguiling cities of Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, which I visited on both of my subsequent trips, are on the itinerary. If booked before September 23, Friendly Planet's package starts at $999 per person, double occupancy, including airfare from Los Angeles, fuel surcharges, hotels, transfers, many meals and most of the tours. Happily for travelers who want the comfort and convenience of a package but don't care to be babysat all the time, it has built-in free time as well.

The lowest prices are for remaining dates in December and January. I've been to China in winter, both to cold gray Beijing and to colder, grayer Harbin, which is so far north that is north of North Korea. No touristic hordes and a more refined sense of being in China and not Chinaland. Of course, you'll need warm clothes (wool, fleece, hat gloves), but you'd need them if you were visiting (or living in) New York, Washington, Boston or Chicago too. Winter days in Shanghai, Guagzhou (formerly Canton, which I have also visited) and Giulin are positively balmy.

I have never dealt with Friendly Planet Travel, but the price is right and the itinerary covers most of the main touristic highlights. 800-555-5765.

Zurich Profiled in New York Times

Just yesterday, a CNN Snapshot collection inspired a post that was, in effect, an ode to Switzerland. This week's New York Times travel section's popular getaway feature is "36 Hours in Zurich," spotlighting Zurich, not Switzerland's capital (that would be Bern) but its largest city.

Swiss Snapshots Online

CNN Travel posted 25 great photos of Switzerland on its Snapshot series. I'm guessing the editors had a hard time narrowing the submissions down, because it's difficult not to take a great picture in Switzerland. Many of the historic main cities -- Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne and Lucerne -- are set on lovely lakes. The mountains are jaw-droppingly beauitful year-round, when flowers fill the meadows and when snow covers them under a deep blanket of white. Picturesque towns and villages tucked into mountain valleys pose alluringly for photographs too, and when the Swiss put on traditional clothes, which can vary from valley to valley, and perhaps pull out their haunting Alphorns (like the Swiss Tourism image above, with the Matterhorn in the background) , the memory remains magical. I love visiting Switzerland, and I photos of this enchanting Alpine land always bring up powerful memories and a wish to return. I hope you enjoy the CNN Snapshot gallery as much as I did.