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National Park Service Unveils New Summer Adventure Website

Last year, 285 million people visited a National Park in America. So there’s a very good chance you’ll be headed to one in 2010. Before you go, check out the new website the National Park Service just created to help visitors plan their trip. There are easy links to park highlights, lodging, ranger-led outdoor activities, and events scheduled during the dates you’ll be there. That way, you chart your course before you arrive and won’t be overwhelmed by the crowds and information. 

 

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Put Yonder on Your Smart Phone

Employed as a travel and outdoors writer these past 23 years, my main goal has always been to direct people to locales that have inspired me. That’s why I love the new technology, because it makes it even easier to find gems in the rough. Take the app, Yonder, designed by a Vermont-based company, Green Mountain Digital, which just received a fresh influx of cash from Monster Worldwide. The photo/video sharing app helps you to locate nearby natural wonders. So if I’m hanging out in Burlington for the day and want to work off that growler of Switchback Ale, I can find a nearby hike to a waterfall or sea kayak to a lonely Lake Champlain isle, all recommended by locals who know the region well. What Yelp did for food, Yonder will do for nature. 

 
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My 5 Favorite Fall Adventures in North America, Canoeing the Boundary Waters, Ely, Minnesota

My preferred place to be in September is inside a canoe, paddling the tranquil rivers and lakes of the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, Wabakimi Wilderness in western Ontario, the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and the Maine woods. Those nasty mosquitoes and black flies are gone, foliage color is already starting to appear, and moose are lining the shores in heat, more talkative than Bullwinkle. So grab a paddle and find your own placid retreat. It’s no surprise that paddlers get all dreamy-eyed over Minnesota’s northern frontier, the Boundary Waters, home to a whopping 1200 miles of canoeable waters through countless lakes, rivers, and ponds. You can go days without seeing another person, replaced instead by moose, whitetail deer, black bears, beavers, otters, and those laughing loons. Wilderness Outfitters has been taking people away from civilization since 1912, offering canoe rentals and maps for self-guided trips and leading organized trips.  

 
I’ll be in Iceland next week for the annual Society of American Travel Writers convention. I’m proud to be on the board of the SATW Foundation’s Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. In the past 30 years, the SATW Foundation has handed out more than 2,100 awards and over $420,000 in recognition of outstanding travel journalism. If interested in submitting stories, books, or blogs for the 2015 competition, please contact me. 
 
I’ll be back on September 22nd with updates from Iceland. In the meantime, enjoy the glorious September weather and keep active. 
 
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Connecticut in Autumn, The Mark Twain House in Hartford

Twain, aka Samuel Clemens would publish his greatest works, including The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while living in a three-story red-brick home in Hartford from 1874 to 1891. Many scholars believe, however, that the bulk of his writing was done in a small cottage in Elmira, New York, since his wife, Livy, hated the smell of his cigars in the house. That didn’t stop Twain from having fun in his Hartford abode. If you watch the Ken Burns documentary on Twain before touring his home, you’ll learn that he would use the same props on the mantelpiece to tell a different story to his three young daughters every evening. Enter the house with a guide and you’ll see his billiard room on the third floor, where he would entertain guests long after his usual four-course dinner was finished. The interior was designed by none other than Louis Comfort Tiffany and many objects like Twain’s bedpost from Venice, where carved angels sit atop the headboard, are the writer’s original purchases.
 
Even if I was zipping through Hartford on my way to New York with no intention whatsoever of stopping at Twain’s House, three blocks away, I would get off I-84 at Exit 46 and make a beeline to Mo’s Midtown (25 Whitney Street, 860-236-7741). The Polish owners are known for their large, fluffy potato latkes and crispy hash browns, but I’ll order their buttermilk pancakes every time. Take a seat at the counter or one of the booths and dive into a short stack of blueberry pancakes. One bite of this heavenly creation, chockful of wild blueberries, and you’ll be stopping in Hartford far more often than you think.
 
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Plaza Athenee Turns 100

Sleep deprived after our overseas flight into Paris, my family stepped under the signature red awning into the lobby of the Plaza Athenee and exhaustion was immediately replaced with a deep sense of comfort and relaxation. It wasn’t only the doorman who carried in your luggage.  No, it was the man behind the reception desk stating that our room was already available at this early hour, and the nearby concierge, standing at a desk twice as large as the reception area, already helping us with dinner reservations and museum passes. Then a woman escorted us upstairs to our room, a stately suite, where the antique rugs and furniture blended with the latest technology like flatscreen televisions. We opened up the French country windows to see a garden box planted with flowers. To our right was the Eiffel Tower standing in all its glory. Everything was bliss.

 
When the Plaza Athenee opened its doors on April 20, 1913, it quickly became the place to be for the Parisian personalities of the day. Maurice Chevalier, Josephine Baker and Rudolph Valentino made the crimson-trimmed palace their Parisian hot spot of choice. So did the fashion icon Christian Dior, who became so infatuated with the hotel, he opened his new boutique on the same street. Luminaries kept coming: Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper, Jackie Kennedy, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, and more. As it celebrates its 100th birthday, the hotel just gets better with age. You can read my full review of the property at FamilyVactionCritic. 
 
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Driving Iceland’s Golden Circle? Be Sure to Stop at Friðheimar

When told that we would be making one last stop on our Golden Circle route, at a greenhouse, most of the people on our tour scoffed at the idea, simply wanting to get back to our hotel in Reykjavik. It sounded like some hokey add-on, like visiting a gift shop owned by the bus driver’s brother. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Friðheimar is no ordinary greenhouse, but a massive year-round tomato and cucumber growing operation that yields close to a ton a day of crop thanks to the geothermal energy. I met the owner, Knútur Rafn Ármann, popped a tomato in my mouth (delicious), and then was treated to a sublime cup of tomato soup garnished with cucumber salsa and paired with fresh baked bread. It was probably the best dish I had in the country. Afterwards, we watched Knútur’s son and daughter (he has five children) ride the Icelandic horses he breeds. Friðheimar is open to the public for greenhouse tours, meals, and, in the summer, a 15-minute horse show. It’s the ideal way to end your trip on the Golden Circle. 

 
Thank you, Iceland! I’m off to the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland where I’ll be reporting live from Lausanne, Montreux, and Vevey. Please stay tuned next week! Thanks, as always, for checking in to ActiveTravels! 
 
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Raft the Dead River in Maine

It’s a long drive on logging roads to reach the Spencer Rips put-in on the Dead River, but once there, be prepared for a glorious run on the longest stretch of continuous whitewater in New England. The river churns along 16 miles of almost nonstop Class III and IV rapids, enhanced by 8 dam releases from May through October. There are no bridges, roads, or other signs of civilization until the end—just a rip-roaring ride through big water on rapids with names like Minefield, Humpty Dumpty, and Big Poplar Falls. Sign up for one of the 8 thrilling days of rafting with reputable Maine outfitter, Northern Outdoors. 
 

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