Archive for the 'Eco-Travel' Category
Central Valley and S.F. Bay area: Wild-salmon-viewing made easy, with new Bay Institute map
November 9, 2009 5:00pm
For a unique wildlife-watching experience, travel up to some of our state’s streams. In certain areas of the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay region in the next few months, you may get the chance to watch wild salmon and/or steelhead spawn (deposit their eggs) — a valuable opportunity, especially given the depletion of the species’ population in the West.
A new interactive map and calendar, released by the Bay Institute, a nonprofit conservation organization, gives the scoop on best viewing spots, along with best months for fish-spotting at each location. On the pdf map, you can click on your desired location to see a Google map pop up. The maps and other information on the spawning fish are also found in print brochures newly available at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco.
“Salmon spawning is the salmon’s grand-finale act of swimming upstream, most of the time to the exact stream where they were born, to lay their eggs,” said Kati Schmidt, public relations manager for Aquarium of the Bay.
Lucky visitors might also see male salmon battling one another “for the opportunity to fertilize the eggs,” said Schmidt, or female salmon creating gravel nests, called redds, where they deposit their eggs. Read the rest of this entry »
San Francisco: Savings for the unfussy with Inn at the Opera’s ‘Think Green’ deal
October 30, 2009 5:54am
The Inn at the Opera doesn’t sit on the most glamorous strip of San Francisco, but when I stayed here last year, I appreciated its proximity to Hayes Valley restaurants and its central location amid a mecca of transportation options. It’s a stone’s throw from the Civic Center and a few short blocks to Market Street, one of city’s main arteries.
The hotel usually has reasonable rates, and now, aided by a truly unusual promotion, you can save even more on a stay.
Deal: If you don’t need a spic-and-span room and don’t mind picking up after yourself, the “Think Green” promotion, valid for stays of two or more nights, may work for you. With this offer, during your stay, your room will get “limited housekeeping,” which includes only trash removal and an optional towel service. In exchange, you get $20 off per night.
So you’ll save a little cash, but what’s the eco-incentive alluded to in the promo’s title? Read the rest of this entry »
Travel to Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras: a twist on your average hotel deal
October 28, 2009 5:52am
With all the travel deals around these days, a traveler can be picky. If you’re like me, it’s easy to pass on deal after deal with the thinking that there’s got to be something better down the line. Now, better might mean more luxurious for the price of $100, or it might mean a more exotic destination like Honduras. That’s why when I found that hotels in Copán Ruinas were discounting room rates up to 50% during their high season this winter, I got excited at the idea of a holiday in western Honduras in a village known for its tranquility and rich Mayan history.
Deals: There really are accommodations to fit any budget. Backpackers looking for hostels and guesthouse properties can find rooms ranging from $5 per night (En La Manzana Verde) and $16 per night, double or triple occupancy (La Posada de Belssy). If you are prepared to spend more, try a bed and breakfast inn with a view of the Copan River Valley for $50 per night, double occupancy (La Casa de Cafe), or a boutique hotel with Wi-Fi and fresh local coffee for $65 per night, double occupancy (Yat B’alam Boutique Hotel). I also liked the looks of the Spanish colonial-style inn La Casa Rosada ($87 per night, double occupancy) and the well-regarded Hacienda San Lucas, starting at $125 per night.
At Yellowstone, wolves and winter deals
October 24, 2009 9:00am
While it can’t compete with the 25-cent hotel rooms recently offered in the U.S. Virgin Islands, or $20 rooms at Hooters Casino in Las Vegas, Yellowstone National Park is offering up some interesting snow packages that include wildlife tours, snowmobiling and ice skating.
The “Winter Getaway” packages are available just after the holidays, Jan. 3 to March 6, a period often ripe with snow-play specials.
Particularly appealing: “Trail of the Wolf,” a guided snowmobile trip to the interior of the park, which is known for its wolves, and wildlife watching by special van in the park’s northern range. The package includes three nights of lodging at Old Faithful Snow Lodge or Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, two breakfasts per person, a one-hour hot tub rental, unlimited skating and skates. Prices begin at $411 per person pretax, double occupancy, for two nights at Mammoth Hot Springs and one night at Old Faithful. Two nights at Old Faithful and one night at Mammoth Hot Springs runs $546 per person.
‘Leave No Trace’ video now online, inspires minimizing our impact on the back country
October 19, 2009 3:40pm
Recently available to view online for the first time is the National Park Service’s “Leave No Trace” video. At just 9-1/2 minutes, it’s a short and scenic entreaty to park visitors to exercise care and conscientiousness in the back country.
Seasoned campers have no doubt heard park rangers utter the saying, “Take only pictures and leave only footprints.” But there’s more to it.
To make our outdoor ventures as low-impact as possible, we all know that we should take out what we bring in. But maybe next time we can think about bringing out even more than what we brought in (i.e., trash left by other people). And an evening campfire is a given for many campers, but it’s worth considering, for the good of the environment, not starting one up at all next time, if we don’t need it.
These are just a couple of the themes brushed upon in the video, which briefly describes the following seven widely known leave-no-trace principles for outdoor enthusiasts to follow: Read the rest of this entry »
Yosemite bears’ car of choice: the minivan
October 14, 2009 8:51am
The jury is still out on whether gentlemen prefer blonds. But in the unguarded campgrounds and parking lots of Yosemite National Park, black bears prefer minivans.
That’s the conclusion of a new study in the Journal of Mammalogy, drawn from seven years of park data on bear-related break-ins.
Analyzing reports on 908 Yosemite Valley vehicle break-ins, authors Stewart W. Breck, Nathan Lance and Victoria Seher classified automobiles in nine categories. They found that 26% of the victimized vehicles were minivans, 22.5% were sport-utility vehicles, 17.1% were small cars, 13.7% were sedans, 11.9% were trucks, and the remaining targets were split among other types.
Comparing those numbers with figures on the types of vehicles that visited the park in 2004-05, the authors found that only minivans were targeted at disproportionately high rates. (Most of the vehicles broken into, minivans and otherwise, contained evidence of available food.)
The authors offer four possible reasons, beginning with one that won’t surprise many parents of small children. Perhaps, the authors say, the black bears like minivans because “minivans are more likely to emit food odors, based on the fact that minivans are designed for families with children, who are more likely to spill food and drink in a vehicle.”
Other hypotheses: Maybe minivan passengers are more prone to leave large amounts of food in a vehicle parked overnight. Perhaps minivans are structurally easier to break into than other types of vehicles. (”Bears mostly often gained access to minivans by popping open a rear side window.”) Or maybe a handful of bears is responsible for all of the break-ins, and they have somehow learned to favor minivans.
Those findings sound sensible to Scott Gediman, spokesman for the park.
“Especially at this time of year, bears are hoping to get about 20,000 calories a day, and bears are opportunistic eaters,” Gediman said Tuesday. “It’s very easy for a bear to break into a vehicle — little effort for a possibly big reward.”
2010 Watch List of ‘at-risk’ sites announced by World Monuments Fund
October 7, 2009 2:32pm
Sharing a commonality as of late: Traditional houses called machiya in Kyoto, Antoni Gaudi’s Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, the Suq al-Qaysariya in Bahrain, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Wisconsin, and the bridges of Merritt Parkway in Connecticut.
These and 87 other treasures, from the ancient to the modern, are included on the 2010 Watch List issued by World Monuments Fund. The nonprofit organization, working on cultural preservation issues, puts out the list to draw awareness to the dangers that threaten certain cultural heritage sites — “irreplaceable monuments to human culture” — around the world, according to the organization.
A Watch List is published every two years, with some sites, such as Machu Picchu in Peru, making repeat appearances. That world-famous archaeological site has survived time, warfare and natural disasters, but “steady and significant increases in visitation at the site have prompted development and urbanization in nearby areas to meet the growing tourism needs,” according to a WMF press release. Read the rest of this entry »
Winter deal: Lodge rooms at Grand Canyon National Park for $82
October 5, 2009 5:59am
If you think winter is a weird time to visit the Grand Canyon, think again. The snow-dusted scenery is stunning, the crowds thinner, the hiking can be great (absent a snowstorm) and some lodge prices are lower.
I know because I’ve been there in November. My hike down the Bright Angel Trail a few years back started out icy but soon turned comfortable. No scorching heat at the bottom, like in summer — or so they say. (OK, so I didn’t make it all the way down. But I had fun and bagged the perfect souvenir: a snowy snapshot for my holiday cards.)
This year, Xanterra South Rim, the concessionaire for Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park, is discounting rooms at Maswik Lodge up to 38% for most of the winter. These rooms, starting at $82 per night plus tax, won’t put you right at the canyon rim, but they’re only about a quarter-mile away — a short walk.
Yellowstone fire abates under rain, snow; road may be reopened
September 30, 2009 3:35pm
A hoped-for cold front blew through Yellowstone National Park today, Sept. 30, bringing rain, snow and a welcome break for firefighters, who have been battling a lightning-sparked blaze for more than two weeks. After scorching more than 9,000 acres, the so-called Arnica fire appeared to be retreating, allowing abatement efforts that have involved more than 200 firefighters to be scaled down, officials said.
In the meantime, the National Park Service today was working to clear fire-damaged trees so that it can reopen about two miles of a roadway between the junctions at Lake Village and West Thumb. Regardless, drivers can expect delays in the park because another key route, between Norris and Madison, is scheduled to be closed until Nov. 2 as part of ongoing road construction.
Most of Yellowstone, including the iconic Old Faithful geyser area (pictured above), has been unaffected by the blaze, which is in the Lake Village region on the west side of Yellowstone Lake. The park is huge, with more than 2 million acres, and spreads across three states: Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
For updates, check the Yellowstone website or call its fire-information line, (307) 344-2580 or its road-information line, (307) 344-2117.
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Photo: Old Faithful’s spray hits cold air above the snow-dusted grounds in this shot taken from the park’s webcam about 1:40 p.m. PDT Sept. 30. Credit: National Park Service
Wet and cold may douse Yellowstone fire, officials hope
September 29, 2009 5:11pm
Mother Nature may be coming to the rescue at Yellowstone National Park, where a lightning-sparked wildfire has burned more than 9,000 acres since Sept. 13. Firefighters just have to hang tough through high winds today and tonight before hoped-for cold and snow arrive Wednesday, said Tom Kempton, a National Park Service spokesman on the scene.
“The winds are what we’re watching very carefully now,” Kempton said.
Most of the giant park, which sprawls over more than 2 million acres in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, has been unaffected by the so-called Arnica fire, which is in the Lake Village region (pictured above) on the west side of Yellowstone Lake. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lake Lodge Cabins in Lake Village were undamaged, Kempton said. The area of the Old Faithful geyser, he added, was unaffected and was showing partly cloudy skies on the park webcams this afternoon.
But the blaze was spreading smoke in other areas and, along with ongoing road construction, was blocking some key in-park routes.
