Yellowstone National Park Opens For Winter Season Tomorrow

by Kraig Becker on

The National Park Service has announced that Yellowstone National Park will open for the winter season beginning tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Visitors will be able to gain access to the park via the North, South and West Entrances and travel is allowed on interior roads via commercially operated snowcoaches or on guided snowmobile excursions. Also opening for the season starting tomorrow will be the Geyser Grill, the Bear Den Gift Shop, and the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center, all centrally located near Yellowstone’s star attraction, the Old Faithful geyser. Other lodges and restaurants around the park, as well as its East Entrance, are expected to open next week.

Established in 1872, Yellowstone is America’s first national park and remains incredibly popular to this day. On an annual basis, the park attracts in excess of 3.3 million visitors, but only about 100,000 of them actually come during the winter. That means that travelers who venture into Yellowstone during the colder months will find a pristine and serene setting that is free from the crowds that are common during other times of the year.

I was fortunate enough to visit Yellowstone during the winter a few years back and found it to be an amazing travel experience. The place is so vast that you can spend the whole day cross country skiing, snowmobiling or snowshoeing, and never run into another person. The wintery landscapes are simply breathtaking and when intermixed with all of the geothermal activity, the park truly takes on an otherworldly look at times. Additionally, much of the wildlife that Yellowstone is so famous for is at a lower elevation and easier to spot during the winter months. Bison, elk and even wolves are common sights, although the bears are all sleeping comfortably in their dens.
Yellowstone is one of my favorite parks any time of the year, but during the winter, it goes to a whole new level. If you’re looking for a great winter escape for 2013, then definitely consider visiting the park. I recommend staying at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel or Old Faithful Snow Lodge to get the full experience.

If you do go, be sure to bundle up in your warmest clothes and pack your sense of adventure. You’ll need them both!

[Photo Credit: Kraig Becker]

Photo Of The Day: Cancun Landscape

by Meg Nesterov on


There are certain images we see in our social network feeds over and over, especially at certain times of year: the Thanksgiving turkey, the decorated Christmas tree, and the vacation favorite: the bare feet on a beach chair (recently called “the loneliest pic in the world” on TV’s “Up All Night”), alcoholic beverage in hand. Today’s Photo of the Day is thankfully foot-free, though the image is still plenty jealousy-inducing. Flickr user Nan Palmero framed the shot beautifully under a thatched umbrella, giving the landscape sky an almost surreal quality, and the distance of the water and few people make Cancun seem practically serene. I’d definitely “like” this picture.

We’d love to see your travel images in the Gadling Flickr pool to choose for a future Photo of the Day.

[Photo credit: Nan Palmero]

Survey Suggests American Airlines Has Rudest Employees Among Domestic Carriers

by Laurel Miller on

According to a recent Airfarewatchdog study, a preponderance of surveyed travelers think that of domestic air carriers, American Airlines has the “rudest employees.” United was a close runner-up, followed by Delta.

Ranking last (which in this case, means winner) is a four-way tie, between Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier and Virgin America. Hmm. Seems budget airlines know how to bring it.

Here’s the full list polled in alphabetical order:

AirTran 4%
Alaska 2%
Allegiant 3%
American 25%
Delta 18%
Frontier 2%
JetBlue 2%
Spirit 10%
Southwest 6%
United 21%
US Airways 12%
Virgin America 2%

Our friends at Airfarewatchdog run these unofficial consumer surveys every now and then and this is a great snapshot of the general consumer psyche. Bear in mind though, this data is unsubstantiated and unverified, so take it with a grain of salt. In our experience, most of the airline employees regardless of the airline are pretty darn chipper.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Fabird Blue]

Food Trucks Gone Wild: A Video Tour Of LA’s Melrose Night

by Dave Seminara on


Care for a $5 ice cream sandwich made with fried chicken and waffle flavored ice cream and a gluten-free coconut almond cookie? Or how about some Hawaiian breakfast sliders, made with Portuguese sausage, sautéed onions, and Shoyu scrambled eggs on Hawaiian bread? Those of are just a couple of the tantalizing selections I noticed when I stumbled across Melrose Night in Los Angeles last Thursday night.

On the first Thursday of each month, more than a dozen food trucks and an assortment of shops set up on Melrose Avenue between Ogden and Curson between 6-10 p.m. The event began in January 2011, and the crowds and vendor list continues to grow. I counted 15 food trucks at Melrose Night last week and almost every one of them had something I wanted to eat.There was gelato on a stick ($4) at Cool Cow Feel Good, Frito pies ($6) and chicken and waffles ($8) at the Trailer Park Truck, red velvet chocolate chip pancakes ($6), lobster rolls ($12) and a host of other goodies. One truck was even selling flatiron steaks at $15 a pop.


I love the gourmet food truck trend, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to order a steak or fried chicken and stand on the street eating it. I will order tacos, ice cream, lobster rolls, burgers, basically anything that doesn’t require a knife and fork, but I really don’t want to be eating pancakes, omelets, steaks and the like on the street.

My other issue with some gourmet food trucks is the high prices. Some are offering very good values. We had a rocky road ice cream sandwich that I thought was pricey at $5 until I realized the thing was big enough to feed my family of four!


But others are pricing their menu items as though they were restaurants. There is a difference between standing on a street corner eating something and being able to sit down at a restaurant, be it fast food or sit down. I do expect a discount at a food truck, but I think a few food truck proprietors are getting a bit high and mighty.

I know that they need permits and have overhead as well, but their fixed costs are lower than restaurants, so I don’t expect to pay $11 for a veggie burger and fries at a food truck when that is roughly the same price I’d pay in a restaurant.

Those minor beefs aside, I highly recommend checking out Melrose Night. Show up hungry and you will definitely eat well. It’s also a great area for window-shopping and people watching. L.A. isn’t much of a pedestrian city, but this is one of the few opportunities to walk around on sidewalks that are full of people and life. You might not save a ton of money by dining on the street, but you’ll eat well and have a blast.

Airline Liquor Bottles To Be Replaced With Robot Bartender

by Chris Owen on

Feel like cracking the cap of a mini airline liquor bottle in flight? You better hurry; the skies could be filled with robot-like bartenders soon.

The Skytender Trolley dispenses hot and cold drink options without the cabin crew having to pour and open traditional drink containers for passengers. Flight attendants using the system are able to serve hot and cold drink items like juices, soft drinks, cocktails and hot drinks in less time.

Airlines and passengers will like the more efficient operation, enabling cabin crew to serve more people, faster. Skytender can produce 235 drinks out of 100 or more available flavors. Cabin crew can forget about making coffee or going back and forth to the aircraft galley for water refills as Skytender holds 30 liters of hot and cold water too.

In the works for several years, Skytender Trolley went along on its first ever commercial flight on German airline WDL Aviation flying from Cologne to Palma Majorca with in-flight caterer LSG Sky Chefs along for the ride.

“Our first ever test flight was a complete success, the system operated as expected and we have generated even more interest in our innovative product,” said Oliver Kloth of Skymax in a Travel Daily News article, adding “the passengers were extremely pleased with the beverage options and most importantly the quality and speed of service.”

Want to see the Skytender Trolley in action? Check this video:



[Photo Credit: Flickr user Eph Zero]