It’s pretty simple to get off the beaten path in this video about Biscayne National Park because there is no path. Biscayne’s park features are 95% underwater and Adventurer Clint Pollock and Park Ranger Rebecca Haynes take you through the highlights of a day at the park.

Unique to this national park is how to get around. Forget the four-wheel drives or even hiking. You’ll be riding in a boat one way or another. Whether a rental from the local concessionaire, your own boat, a tour with Gary Matthews of Biscayne Concessions, or one of the many park provided tours, this is one of the easiest parks to experience because the transportation is generally done sitting down.

Here’s an insider tip that will completely make your Biscayne vacation: book a tour with Biscayne Concessions!

You’ll learn the following in this short video:
- Private boating essential navigating tips that will keep you safe and free from bottoming out
- Why mangroves are so important to these islands and shorelines
- When the best time is to view the underwater coral in clear water
- Some intriguing history of the park, islands and lighthouse
- The best high vantage point for a 360 degree view of the park
- Where in the world is Boca Chita Key

So, put on your life vest, grab your sun hat and water bottle, and experience one of the most unique aquatic parks on this side of the planet.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Photo by Stu Marks

The Buffalo News Life

By Nick Mattera

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

CANTON, Ohio—Tourists may flock to Canton, Ohio, to see the impressive collections in football’s Hall of Fame, but the Midwestern hospitality they find there will leave them wanting more.

Great food, natural beauty and impressive historical sights make the small city of Canton a vacation gem for the whole family.

A perfect getaway to the greater Canton region includes three stops:

First, the breathtaking beauty of Cuyahoga Valley National Park makes you feel far from civilization.

Second, visit the Mecca of football fans, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where new additions have made it relevant for fans of all ages.

The third stop is a place where visitors can find out more about the lives of our nation’s first ladies, at the First Ladies National Historic Site.

Cuyahoga Valley Park

Unexpected is the only word to define Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Its pure, untouched beauty seems out of place just several miles outside of Cleveland’s city limits and 30 minutes from Canton. With 33,000 acres of parkland and pristine wilderness, it is one of the country’s newest national parks, established in 2000. There are year-round attractions—golf courses and ski slopes, concerts and hiking trails—making it a wonder waiting to be explored.

The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail spans 20 miles of marshes and wetlands winding their way along the Ohio Canal. Beavers and white-tailed deer might make appearances throughout a hike along the waterway, but before starting out, visit the Canal Visitor Center to get a list of recommended hikes and to check out the historical videos and exhibits.

If hiking isn’t your interest, hop on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, where you can sit back and relax as the park’s beauty passes by you. The train makes seven stops within the park and runs year-round.

The 1 1/2-mile Brandywine Gorge trail is the park’s most visited attraction, culminating at the breathtaking Brandywine Falls, which plummets 60 feet into the gorge. It is best viewed from above, but a wooden path also winds into the gorge.

After visiting the falls, drive to the Ledges Overlook. This is a perfect spot at dusk, as the sun slips behind tall oaks and sandstone cliffs rise from Brandywine Creek below.

The football hall

The NFL’s Pro Football Hall of Fame has put together a collection of football memorabilia that will stir up memories in fans of all ages and give them goosebumps in the process.

Enter the main lobby and take a trip back in time to the early days of professional football, when helmets were made of leather and the players were out there only for the love of the game. The American Professional Football Association was founded in Canton, and the brief but successful history of the team that played there is encased in the lobby. A life-size bronze statue of Jim Thorpe, one of the best players of his era, dominates the main walkway.

Visitors then follow a chronological journey through football’s greatest moments and best players. The days of the American Football League and National Football League, between 1960 and 1969, are recalled along with legendary players such as Joe Namath, Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas with memorabilia from the players and teams.

A tunnel connects the original building to a more recent addition, containing the Hall of Busts—bronzes of the players who have been inducted and enshrined in their sport’s Hall of Fame. (Seven players, coaches or contributors are added each year during a ceremony in early August.) An interactive feature lets fans search the Hall of Famers, learn about their careers, view stats and watch video highlights.

The Hall of Fame doesn’t want to be a musty museum, and its newest exhibits will appeal to fans of all ages. The Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery contains interactive video booths to view highlights and memorable plays from every Super Bowl ever played.

The Moments, Memories and Mementos gallery features the museum’s most valuable collection of game memorabilia. The most captivating plays from the previous season can be viewed in surround sound and high definition in the NFL Films gallery. Many of the greatest moments and record breaking players are featured in this section: Steve Christie’s shoe that kicked the Buffalo Bills’ game-winning field goal from the “greatest comeback in NFL history,” the jersey New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady wore when he set the NFL single-season touchdown record, and many others.

And there is space for fans to get some hands-on experience. You can try to throw footballs through a set of targets, challenge other visitors to a test of NFL trivia, even play EA Sports Madden Football against fans from all over the country.

For the ladies

The First Ladies Historic Site encompasses two buildings in downtown Canton and, in a unique way, sheds light on the accomplishments and lives of the first ladies of the United States.

The First Ladies Library was established as an archive to present the contributions our first ladies have made, from Martha Washington to Laura Bush. Exhibits change with new acquisitions.

Exhibits currently being featured at the museum include: The Artistry of America’s First Ladies, with poetry written by Jacqueline Kennedy, the dancing career of Betty Ford and Ellen Wilson’s oil paintings; and Caring Hearts: Health of a Nation, featuring red dresses worn by seven first ladies, including Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush. This moving exhibit has been featured at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Ronald Reagan Library.

If you go:

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 15610 Vaughn Road, Brecksville, is open every day, although some areas close at dusk. Admission is free.

Boston Store Visitor Center, 1548 Boston Mills Road, east of Riverview Road, Peninsula, has displays of canal-boat building in the valley, open 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. daily in the summer; limited hours the rest of the year.

Canal Visitor Center, 7104 Canal Road, intersection of Canal and Hillside Roads, Valley View, has exhibits on life along the canal and human history in the valley; open daily year-round, 10 a. m. to 4 p. m.; closed Jan. 1, Thanksgiving Day and Dec. 25.

For more information: On the Web, www.nps.gov/CUVA, or call (216) 524 1497.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame, 2121 George Halas Drive, Canton, is open daily from 9 a. m. to 8 p. m. Admission is $18 for adults, $15 for seniors, $12 for children 6 and older.

The 2009 Pro Football Enshrinement Ceremony is Saturday and will include Buffalo Bills’ great Bruce Smith and team owner Ralph Wilson.

The Timken Grand Parade is at 8 a. m.; Enshrinement Celebration Fan Party, 3 p. m.; Class of 2009 Enshrinement, 7 p. m.; and the Hall of Fame Game between the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans is at 8 p. m.

For more information: Call (330) 452-0243, or on the Web, www.profootballhof.com.

The National First Ladies Historic Site, 205 Market Ave. South, Canton, is open Tuesdays through Sundays through Aug. 31; Tuesdays through Saturdays the rest of the year. Admission is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors; $5 for children under 18.

For more information: Call (330) 452-0876; on the Web, www.nps.gov/fila.

Directions: From Buffalo, take Interstate 90 West to Interstate 77 South; use Exit 107A for the Hall of Fame.

More information: Canton Tourism www.cantontourism.com; Ohio Tourism, ohio.gov/tourism.

The children’s parents were not injured, and their 6-year-old sister suffered minor scrapes.

Officials still don’t know what caused the slide on the 2.5-mile Lassen Peak trail. They say the trail isn’t normally susceptible to rock slides.

The trail, which draws as many as 30,000 hikers each year, has been closed while officials investigate the incident.

MercuryNews.com

It may be a few months before snowdrifts settle in at Yellowstone National Park, but flurries of litigation over its winter-use policy are in the current forecast.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced plans to reduce the number of snowmobiles allowed in the park to 318 per day — less than half of the previous daily limit of 720. The announcement was followed on Friday by Gov. Dave Freudenthal and other state officials seeking to keep the cap at 720. The state’s congressional delegation also voiced its opposition to this latest development in a decade-long saga.

The number of snowmobiles has been under scrutiny and debate since the Clinton administration set to ban the machines altogether in 2000.

Since then, the figures 318, 540, 720 and zero all have been tossed around in a tug-of-war to determine exactly how many snowmobiles can enter the park’s gates on any given winter day.

Those who live in the Yellowstone area are justifiably annoyed that people thousands of miles away have a sway in the park’s governance. Yet, since it is a national park, it is up to Americans — whether in Wyoming or Washington — to decide.

With the 318-per-day proposal last week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar also announced a 45-day public comment period, which ends Sept. 8.

This is an opportunity for those living at Yellowstone’s threshold to denounce or praise the newest snowmobile cap.

As Freudenthal said in an Associated Press article: “It would be nice if they sat down and said, ‘What really works for the folks who are wanting to visit, and the folks who are making a living up in Yellowstone?’”

Eventually, a permanent limit will be reached. Until then, speak up.

Sunset over the far eastern edge of Isle Royale.

Story and Photos by ELLEN CREAGER • FREE PRESS TRAVEL WRITER • July 26, 2009
Freep.com

ISLE ROYALE — A short hike, they called it. Just 4.2 miles to Scoville Point and back to the lodge.

Now it’s three hours later, and I’m still hiking. The way is strewn with rocks and boulders, giant roots and planks across the boggy spots. The trail hugs ancient lava ridges that drop off to icy blue water. I’ve seen two loons. Stopped dozens of times to look at wildflowers. Seen only two other hikers. Am I going the right way? Who knows? I spot moose droppings on the path. Listen hard. Hear nothing except the whisper of a breeze through the greenery.

Earlier today, the captain of the Queen IV ferry boat, Don Kilpela, told me he encountered a moose and her calf right on this path. He didn’t move. She didn’t move. Then he sang four songs to her, including “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

“She stood there listening to me for 10 minutes,” he said, eyes twinkling. “I wasn’t afraid.”

Now, as I brush through the narrow path headed back to what I hope is civilization, such as it is, I find myself thinking, can you really sing to a moose? If you saw a moose, what should you sing? Does a moose prefer pop or rock? Or just Judy Garland?

It takes a boat ride
If you’ve ever thought of coming to Isle Royale, you may be picturing backpacks, hiking boots and prowling wolves — and automatically counted yourself out.

You’re not alone. Just 14,038 people last year visited Isle Royale, Michigan’s only national park. More than 80% of nights on the island are spent on backcountry camping. The rest are spent at the island’s only lodge. Almost no one comes just for the day.

Why? Logistics. You can’t drive to Isle Royale because it’s 56 miles north of Copper Harbor in the middle of Lake Superior. The choppy ferry ride takes 3 1/2 to 6 hours, depending on whether you leave from Copper Harbor or Houghton.

And when you arrive, it’s 210 square miles of wild.

Yes, there are rustic campsites. One lodge. A few docks. A lighthouse. A handful of summer homes remaining from before the island became a national park in 1940. Some trails. But that’s about it. Isle Royale has no roads.

Famed for its classic, ongoing predator-prey study that has tracked moose and wolf populations for 51 years, Isle Royale is arguably the sexiest science project ever.

But if and when you do finally get here, you realize two things.

One, you don’t have to be a hard-core backpacker to enjoy Isle Royale.

Two, Isle Royale couldn’t care less whether you come.

It’s not here to impress you. You are here to impress it.

‘Nice and wild’
There are many myths about Isle Royale (see sidebar). But myth is part of its mystique. Is it actually in Canada? Is it really the least-visited national park? Will you be eaten by wolves? Is the only hotel on the island closing?

I add my own possible myth to the list — this dubious idea of singing to a moose. One authority on this subject, I imagine, would be Rolf Peterson, the Michigan Tech research professor specializing in the wolf-moose study. He lives on Isle Royale in the summer and a few weeks in the winter, but, who am I kidding? He’s not exactly hanging around waiting for tourists’ dumb questions.

I have better luck talking to backpackers. I meet a friend, John Bassier, a biology teacher at Ferndale High School, who has brought more than 300 students here in his 40 years as a teacher. Backcountry camping on Isle Royale, Bassier says, teaches self-reliance, tolerance for discomfort and cooperation. I meet up with him as he finishes a 6-day hike on the Minong Trail with two Ferndale police officer friends. They’re weary, glad to shed their 35-40 pound packs and feeling great.

“It was nice and wild,” says Detective Bill Wilson.

“A couple nights we could see a gazillion stars,” says Bassier.

“At night we heard wolves calling,” says Capt. Tim Collins.

They also encountered a moose and her calf, foxes, eagles, ospreys and snakes. And very few people.

Not a camper? Try the lodge
If you aren’t into camping, you can stay, as I did, at the Rock Harbor Lodge. Don’t think hotel. Think dorm. The 60-room facility has no phones, cell phone service, Internet, TV or radio. Every room looks directly onto Lake Superior. Think of it as a retreat, a cloister without the prayers.

So far this year, lodge business is down, continuing a depressing trend from last year, says Kim Alexander, the lodge’s general manager.

“It’s not a shock we’re not setting any records,” he says. He admits lodge prices — which run $250 a night — are out of reach of some visitors in this economy.

“People say for $250 a night they could stay at the Ritz-Carlton,” he says. “But the Ritz-Carlton is not being charged 18 cents a gallon for water. We also pay the National Parks Service $250,000 a season for electricity. It’s a concern.”

To cut costs for customers, the lodge dropped its lodging-meal plans this spring and now books rooms on their own, letting people eat a la carte at the restaurant or grill.

Another advantage of staying at the lodge is the M.V. Sandy tour boat, which can take visitors places they can’t hike or don’t have time to hike. I take an evening cruise that goes clear around to the north side of Isle Royale to watch the sunset. The next day, I cruise to Edisen Fishery and the 1844-era Isle Royale lighthouse.

Lighthouse Isle Royale

That’s when luck steps in. It happens that the Edisen Fishery is next door to the wolf study headquarters. And it happens that the Petersons are home.

Moose masters
A narrow path leads to a small cottage with red shutters in the woods. Out steps Candy Peterson. Then her husband, Rolf. They spend six months a year here, from spring to fall. They even raised their children here.

Surrounding the small cottage, officially called Bangsund Cabin, are tables full of moose remains. Moose bones. Moose antlers. Moose skulls. Moose parts, all tagged, labeled as to where found, when the animal died and under what circumstances (rutting, arthritis, other moose mishaps).

Rolf Peterson is wearing a blue cable knit sweater with a tiny hole in one elbow. He and Candy are grandparents, but they look very young. Isle Royale may be the fountain of youth.

To the surprise of the seven boat tourists, the Petersons stop to chat. They invite us into the cabin. They patiently answer the most basic and naive questions about moose and wolves and their own unconventional lives here. Moose swam or crossed on ice to Isle Royale in the early 1900s, followed by wolves in 1948-49. For the last 50 years, scientists have tracked the balance of wolf and moose populations, which have fluctuated depending on weather, the health of the animals and the success of their habitat.

Finally, I work up the nerve to ask my question.

“The captain of the Queen told me he sang to a moose,” I say. “Is that a good idea?”

“Oh, Don,” Peterson says. He must have heard this story before, probably a million times. But he plays along. Because moose have poor eyesight but good hearing and can be unpredictable, talking to a moose if you unexpectedly encounter one tells the moose you are not a predator.

“Moose don’t like surprises. For some reason, when you talk to them, it works,” he says. “High pitches are more comforting than low pitches.”

Ah. Not a myth. Sing to the moose.

No moose, no wolves, no Tigers
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to hike Isle Royale to learn it well. I day-hike down to Suzy’s Cave and Three Mile (a 6-mile loop). I attend park ranger talks about the geology of the island and spend a morning with an artist in residence trying to draw wildflowers. I meet a man hiking back from two weeks on the trails. His first question — how are the Tigers doing?

I don’t know, I say. Nobody does.

No, I don’t see a moose. Or a wolf. But as I walk, I hum. You know, just in case anyone — or anything — is listening.

Rock Harbor Isle Royale

By MATTHEW BROWN (AP) – 1 day ago

BILLINGS, Mont. — The state of Wyoming on Friday asked a federal judge to force Yellowstone National Park to allow up to 740 snowmobiles daily during winter — more than twice what the Obama administration wants.

The administration said Thursday it wants to cut the number of the machines to 318 daily and require all riders to take guided tours.

That would last for two years while a permanent rule is crafted on how many are allowed.

Also Friday, six members of Congress — from Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado and Utah — asked Interior Sec. Ken Salazar to reconsider the administration’s proposal.

Since an outright ban on snowmobiles was proposed by President Bill Clinton in 2000, the number allowed has gone up and down according to competing court orders and power shifts in Washington.

Yellowstone includes portions of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The Obama proposal also reduces the number of snowmobiles in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park and the adjacent John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, a park spokeswoman said Friday.

Under the prior plan, those parks allowed a combined 140 snowmobiles per day. The new one calls for just 50 per day, said Jackie Skaggs at Grand Teton National Park.

The administration proposal is now in a 45-day public comment period.

The number of snowmobiles desired by Wyoming would be the same as what was in place for the past several years.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer in Cheyenne issued an order last November saying the old rules should be kept in place until permanent numbers for the three parks are settled on.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office on Friday filed court documents asking Brimmer to enforce that order.

“It would be nice if they sat down and said, ‘what really works for the folks who are wanting to visit, and the folks who are making a living up in Yellowstone?’” said Wyoming’s Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

“It seems to me that the environmental groups aren’t going to be satisfied with anything more than zero, so we’re going to continue to have a fight,” he added.

The prior cap of 720 machines was never reached. An average of 205 snowmobiles daily entered the park in 2008-09, when the busiest day of the season saw only 426 of the machines.

Associated Press Writer Ben Neary in Cheyenne contributed to this story.

The July 31 event will include speakers, dedication of the rehabilitated Grotto Museum building, Paiute dancers and an evening chamber music concert.

The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. Entrance into the park will be free that day.

The park was established as Mukuntuweap National Monument by President William Taft on July 31, 1909. It was rededicated as Zion National Park a decade later.

The Associated Press

Mount Rainier motor coach

By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
The Seattle Times Company

A couple of guys work hard, take small businesses and make them successful, they’ve got a right to treat themselves.

That is how on Monday afternoon, park officials here were given the keys to a deco-style, canvas-topped, nearly 30-foot-long, 18-passenger, completely redone 1937 Kenworth Touring Motor Coach that used to take tourists to Mount Rainier.

The coach was returning home, courtesy of two Gig Harbor men:

Art Redford, 69, who founded Honey Bucket, the portable-toilet business with the instantly recognizable name; and Frank Pupo, 72, who owned the Northwest chain of Sam’s Tire Service.

The coach had been a rust heap sitting under power lines in a Pierce County field just outside Tacoma, surrounded by weeds and blackberry bushes.

Sixty-thousand dollars later, the heap became a vehicle that onlookers can’t help but ooh and ahh about.

Redford couldn’t let this classic piece of machinery with its beautiful lines end up sold for scrap.

Only five or eight (the exact number is lost in history) had been built by Kenworth, the venerable Kirkland truck-building company.

In the early 1980s, Redford used to drive by the field and look at the dilapidated vehicle. It brought back memories of his Tacoma childhood.

“I grew up in Fern Hill, and in the 1940s and ’50s, I’d ride my bike to Pacific Avenue, and I’d see it go up to the mountain, loaded with people,” says Redford.

That memory never left him.

From the 1930s until 1962, the coaches were specially built for the Rainier National Park Company to take tourists from the Olympic Hotel in Seattle, and the now-closed Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma, to the mountain.

Only three of the coaches are known to have been restored — this one, one that’s now in Montana, and another in Alaska.

Redford paid $350 for the coach in February 1984.

He figured it’d take maybe $15,000 to refurbish the vehicle, and recruited Pupo to help.

They had much in common. Both had taken over their father’s small businesses and grown them into something big.

“It sounded intriguing to me,” says Pupo.

But that $15,000 estimate soon was forgotten.

“The hood was missing, the wood on the floor was rotted, the engine wouldn’t work, the headlights were gone, the running boards were rusted out, the bottoms of the doors were basically missing, the canvas roof had collapsed,” remembers Redford.

It took three years to refurbish the old coach.

Then, Redford and Pupo used it for special trips with family and friends.

The coach went to Husky and Seahawks games; Redford’s kids used it for their weddings; it was loaned out for charity events.

The coach can cruise on the freeway at 50 to 55 miles an hour. It has a 40-gallon tank, uses regular gas, and gets 5 miles per gallon.

Twenty-five years later, Redford and Pupo decided it was time to part with the coach.

So they gave it to the park, the only conditions being that it be used as a working vehicle and never be sold.

Monday, the park gladly accepted, although it’s still figuring out just how to use the coach.

For now, it’ll be displayed at the historic Longmire gas station at the park entrance.

Redford says he’s sentimental about parting with the coach, “but I’m happy.”

The coach has come home, ready to stoke a new generation’s imaginations.

Grand Canyon

Beheld from one of its rim viewpoints, the Grand Canyon is indeed stupendous, fantastic, and awe-inspiring. Even if there were enough adjectives in English to drop one for each of the 277 miles of Colorado River plunging through the canyon’s gorge, such a string of superlatives could not capture the majesty of what it’s like to gaze into the Grand Canyon for the first time. Yet, below the rim, accessible by miles of hiking trails, there’s another canyon that very few of the five million annual visitors to Grand Canyon National Park ever see. It’s a place of high-elevation Boreal forests and low-elevation desertscapes, a landscape of rushing streams and abundant wildlife. This trail guide covers an area with over 300 miles of trails.
TRAIL GUIDE

Activity Type: Hiking
Nearby City: Flagstaff, AZ
Length: 300 total miles
Trail Type: Many Options
Skill Level: Easy to Strenuous
Trailhead Elev: 1600 feet
Top Elev: 9089 feet
Local Contacts: National Park Service 
Local Maps: Grand Canyon National Park Trails Topo Map

USGS Bright Angel, Grand Canyon, Phantom Ranch, Cape Royal, Grandview Point, Bright Angel Point, Vulcans Throne, Vulcans Throne SE, Whitmore Rapids, Mount Trumbull SE 

Source; Trails.com

By Stu Marks

A wildfire burning in Zion Natural Park that forced the closure of a hiking trail has spread over 450 acres, but was reported to be 25 percent contained Wednesday.

The lightning-sparked Horse fire was discovered on July 7 and is located about 1½ miles southeast of Lava Point, in the northern part of the park.

On Wednesday, park officials said the northern part of the fire, which is most worrisome to fire officials, was slowed by a lack of fuel when it reached an area that was burned last fall.

The southern and eastern parts of the fire continued moderate growth Tuesday. The West Rim Trail from Lava Point to Potato Hollow was temporarily closed to protect visitors.

Smoke from the fire may settle into canyons at night, especially Zion Canyon, but canyon winds should blow it away by mid-morning, park fire spokesman David Eaker said in a news release.