Articles tagged “adventure travel”

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The Inca Rally: A Road Race Through South America

by Kraig Becker on

Looking to add a little excitement to your summer? Then look no further than the Inca Rally, a new road race that is set to get underway in August and promises to offer plenty of adventure to those crazy enough to enter.

The three-week long event begins in Lima, Peru where racers will first barter for a car that is utterly ill suited for the roads they’ll be driving on. Once they’ve acquired their sacrificial vehicle, they’ll hit the road on August 1, driving across Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana. What route they take along the way is completely up to the drivers, they simply have to reach the finish line in time for the blowout party at the end of the three weeks.

This is pure adventure at its finest. There will be no support crews, few directives and plenty of freedom on the open road. Teams can choose to make their way through the Andes, visit the Amazon Rainforest, follow the scenic coasts or get completely off the beaten path. They can visit large, bustling cities or remote villages; they just have to get to the finish line in Georgetown, Guyana.

While the Inca Rally is meant to be a spirited adventure it will also help shine the spotlight on local charities and help raise funds for those organizations. You can find out more about the event and those charities on the Rally’s official website, where you can sign up for the race as well.

We definitely need a Team Gadling in this event!


Plenty Of Campsites Available In Yellowstone This Spring

by Kraig Becker on

Unlike last year when late season snows hampered travel, visitors to Yellowstone this spring will find plenty of campsites open and available. The park has 12 campgrounds sprinkled across its 2.2 million acres of wilderness and each of them offers a unique and affordable way to visit one of the most spectacular wildernesses in all of North America.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Yellowstone for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the lack of crowds. By summer the park begins to fill up and during the peak months of July and August it can get quite crowded at times. But book your visit before June 15 and you’ll avoid the high season altogether, giving you peaceful solitude across most of the park.

The return of spring also means that Yellowstone’s trees and flowers are in bloom and its plentiful wildlife is on the move once again. Not only have the bears left their winter dens, cubs in tow, but the elk and bison are also birthing their calves throughout the region. Sharp-eyed visitors might even catch a glimpse of a moose or an elusive wolf as they explore the park’s landscapes.

If you would like to experience spring in Yellowstone for yourself then book a campsite online by clicking here. Reservations can be made at five of the 12 sites online and at a cost of just $20.50 per night it is a real bargain.

Catch The May 20 Solar Eclipse From A National Park

by Kraig Becker on

Later this month, North America will witness its first solar eclipse in more than 18 years. On May 20, the moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun, blocking out most of the light from our star and blanketing much of the western United States and Canada in darkness. For astronomy buffs it promises to be quite a celestial event and most will want to take it all in while surrounded by a beautiful setting.

The National Park Service has a few suggestions for those searching for just such a setting. The NPS says that 33 of its parks will offer prime viewing opportunities with six of those falling directly in the eclipse’s path. Those six include Redwoods National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park in California; Zion National Park in Utah; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona; and Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico.

If the skies are clear that day, the parks listed above will be the absolute best places to view the eclipse, which at its peak will cover 96 percent of the sun and create a “Ring of Fire” around the edge of the moon. An additional 125 parks, mostly west of the Mississippi River, will be treated to a partial eclipse, which will also be fun to witness.

Many of the national parks are planning events for the day of the eclipse, which just so happens to fall on a Sunday. That makes it a perfect time to pack up the family and head out to a park near you for an enjoyable day with a rare light show. For a full list of events, click here.

[Photo credit: Sancho_Panza via WikiMedia]

No Refunds For Everest Climbers

by Kraig Becker on

Mountain guide company Himalayan Experience (Himex) announced yesterday that there would be no refunds to climbers who spent roughly $55,000 on an expedition to Mt. Everest which was abruptly cancelled earlier this week. In a statement released on their website, the company said that most of the money has already been spent on logistics, permits, supplies and salaries for this season, but those clients wishing to return next year could do so at a discounted rate.

Calling the 2012 spring season the most dangerous he has ever seen, team leader Russell Brice elected to pull all of his guides, Sherpas and clients off the mountain out of fear for their safety. In the same statement in which he broke the “no refunds” news, Brice also went into detail about how he came to his decision. He noted that unusually warm and dry weather on Everest has led to unstable conditions across the mountain, and the dangers created by those conditions were too great to put his team at risk.

Himex is already planning to return to Everest next season and they say that they’ve had preliminary meetings with the Ice Doctors regarding a safer route through the Khumbu Icefall. That section of the mountain sits just above Base Camp and has been one of the most dangerous areas of the mountain for years.

I salute Brice for making the tough decision for pulling his team off the mountain when literally millions of dollars are on the line. But I also can’t help but feel sorry for the clients who have saved their pennies, trained hard and prepared physically and mentally for the opportunity to climb the tallest mountain on Earth. They must feel incredibly deflated at the moment and the promise of a discounted return trip next year can’t really help soothe that. While a successful summit is never a guarantee, the fact that they didn’t even get the chance to try must be crushing.

Lets also hope that the teams that remain on Everest will get up and down safely without any serious issues or accidents.

Adventure Athletes Share Their Dream Destinations

by Kraig Becker on

When your job already takes you to some of the most remote and beautiful places on the planet, where exactly do you go when booking your own personal trip? That’s the question that the National Geographic Adventure Blog recently put to some of the top adventure athletes in the world and their picks for their dream destinations were often surprising.

For example, rock climber Alex Honnold says he would enjoy hiking the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, while professional snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler wants to seek personal growth and wisdom while visiting an ashram in India. Kayaker Ben Stookesberry has dreams of exploring the solitude of the wilderness in Yosemite and mountaineer Ed Viesturs hopes to take his wife and kids to the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, a place that he knows all too well.

Many of the men and women who were surveyed for this article live lives of adventure on a regular basis and yet some of them still couldn’t seem to avoid it in their off time as well. For instance, you would think that polar explorer Sarah McNair-Landry would list a warm, tropical beach destination as her dream trip, but instead she says that she would prefer to sail and ski around the world instead. Likewise for ice climber Will Gadd, who dreams of piloting his paraglider down the entire length of the Great Rift Valley in Africa.

Of course, you had to expect that some of these adventurers would come up with something a little out of this world. Long distance hiker Andrew Skurka and climber Ueli Steck took that quite literally, as both indicated that they would love to go into space. Skurka, who has hiked just about every major trail on Earth, says he wants to trek across the moon, while Steck is quite content with simply going into orbit and taking in the view.

There are more dream destinations revealed in the article, which you can read in its entirety by clicking here. Who knows, you may even find a few new items to add to your bucket list as well.