Apparently, Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a better tourist attraction than the tallest brick lighthouse in the US. North Carolina's Outer Banks is home to both, but the area earned the nickname "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" thanks to all the ships that have been lost off the shore.
Visitors are free to bring their vehicles onto the sand and shore to find the perfect spot for a summer afternoon. As of this May, though, drivers can only practice sand time trials between the hours of 6 am and 10 pm. The new rules are in effect in order to protect the nesting areas of the sea turtle and shore bird populations in this area.
Further south, Ocracoke Island is the most remote island of the Outer Banks and can only be reached by free ferry from Hatteras Island. Not to be outdone by its sibling to the north, Ocracoke has its own snazzy lighthouse as well as an excellent beach.
If you grow tired of all the swimming, driving, and lighthouse looking, snag a spot on the beach and set up camp. Fees start at $20 a night this summer; be sure to get there early.
By now your pockets are overflowing with seashells, after all, yesterday was spent combing the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva, by far two of the best islands in the country to spot a rare find. Looking for a break from the sand?
Head to JN "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge--with over 6,400 acres of mangrove forest and submerged seagrass beds, plus more than 220 species of migratory birds, the refuge is perhaps one of Florida's finest sites to view nature in the raw.
Officials hope the six lakes of Band-e-Amir, in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, will soon be the centerpiece of the country's first national park. The Wildlife Conservation Society and USAID have promised money and assistance for the project, including a paved road to the area that will make it much easier to reach.
But when you're a small-time farmer or shepherd trying to scrape by in a war-torn country, putting natural resources off-limits doesn't sound like the best idea. One local wonders how he'll power his flour mill if he's not allowed to use the area's waterfalls for power. A Wildlife Conservation Society official says park rules won't be as rigid as they are in, say, the US:
I don't think that our job here...is to re-create an American park. And, in fact, other than gentle nudges, I don't really want to be saying, 'Here is the vision.' I want the vision to be grown from theirs.
How that all shakes out is still up in the air--as is payment for the current park rangers. Might yet be awhile till we see this one in Lonely Planet Afghanistan.
We already credit the Swiss with being quite good at a range of things: Army knives, watches, chocolate and banks. Turns out we can add something else to the list: an impressive network of hiking, cycling, skating and canoeing paths perfectly signposted for us to use, as part of the SwitzerlandMobility project.
Apparently all of these trails and paths have been around for ages, but now that they've got them properly interconnected and have standardized the signage, there's no stopping us, whichever method of getting around we choose.
Hikers can choose from almost 4,000 miles of paths, cyclists from nearly 5,300 miles and even mountain-bikers get over 2,000 miles of signposted Swiss beauty. Those clever Swiss have even tied in public transport routes to help us get to and from these trails. No excuse for staying still in Switzerland now.
After a particular post on Monday, some people accused us of being heartless. As evidence to the contrary, allow us to present Davy and Daryl Vogel, two youngsters planning to bike from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. These kids are cute!
OK, yes, they'll also be biking with their parents, two schoolteachers who will help Davy and Daryl make it to Argentina. Along the way, the twin brothers hope to educate other, less fortunate kids about geography and set a world record as the youngest duo to bike the Pan-American Highway.
Obviously, there's a blog involved. We'll be watching for updates from the road, boys.
Hibernation time is over! Maine's Acadia National Park reopens its central Park Loop Road tomorrow for the official season. The road, built by philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as a set of carriage trails criss-crossing the preserve, takes visitors throughout the park, which is located primarily on Mount Desert Island.
The only national park in New England is heavily traveled during the summer months but it's a great place to hike in spring, before the hordes arrive. Use of a camp site is just ten dollars a night.
There are hikes, and then there are hikes. Anyone looking to take on the Continental Divide Trail is interested in the latter variety--and is also probably a little nuts. The entire route stretches nearly 3,100 miles, following the Rocky Mountains from Montana down to New Mexico. And there are two catches: over 1,000 miles of the trail are incomplete, and the whole thing has no official map.
But with winter thawing out, the folks over at Backpacker magazine might be looking to finally change that. Last year editor-in-chief Jonathan Dorn called on readers to help map the CDT and got an outpouring of almost 3,000 applications to volunteer. Three hundred were chosen and grouped into teams, and they tracked their progress on the CDT Project blog.
By the end of September the teams had defined over 2,000 miles of the trail, and Backpacker's map editor Kris Wagner left off saying he planned to pick the project back up after the snow melted. We haven't heard anything since, but we'll be keeping an eye out--and maybe doing some training. The CDT Alliance says a thru-hike takes about six months--if you average 17 miles a day!
Lonely Planet has just relaunched its series of national parks guides and the publisher sent over a couple for us to check out. We're not the biggest fans of LP books in general, but the sheer number of titles can certainly be helpful. (Who else sells chapters on Eritrea?)
There are four new guides to the national parks, and you'll get info on multiple parks in all but one of them. The books are designed specifically for the parks, with itineraries and activities based around what's inside the gates rather than in surrounding towns--though some of that info is there too.
What stood out to us is the cool "Hiking" section. Each book has a couple dozen different trails listed. After a header with the basics (distance, elevation change, etc.), a long description of the walk and what you might see follows. Totally handy, and given the fact that the new books are compact and light, you'll actually want to tote 'em along on the trail.
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by kjb
