New water bottle stations in Grand Canyon make park safer, more “green”

by Kraig Becker on

Stretching for 277 miles through the Arizona desert, the Grand Canyon is amongst the more impressive natural wonders you’ll ever see. It is over 6000 feet in depth and at its widest point, it is 18 miles across. Everything about the place is truly epic in scale, and that is why the park receives nearly 4.5 million visitors a year. But all those visitors can have an impact on the environment there, which is why the National Park Service recently took steps to protect the Canyon, while serving its visitors better at the same time.

A few weeks back the NPS completed the installation of nine water bottle stations in the park. Those stations, located in the highest traffic areas, will provide visitors with plenty of water while hiking in the canyon, which can be quite warm in many months of the year. Visitors are now encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottles or hydration packs, and refill often while on the trail.

Keeping visitors hydrated during hot days in the park was only one of the reasons these stations were installed however. The Park Service estimates that about 30% of all the waste removed from the park comes from plastic water bottles, and they are hoping that these filling stations will become a more viable option for hikers, while cutting down on litter and the use of plastics in general. The Park’s leadership has made a commitment to being more environmentally friendly, and they’re encouraging visitors to do the same.

Six of the water stations have been installed along the South Rim at Hermits Rest; the Bright Angel and South Kaibab Trailheads; the Canyon Village and Desert View Marketplaces; and
Grand Canyon, Verkamp’s and Desert View Visitor Centers. An additional three refilling stations have been installed along the North Rim at North Kaibab Trailhead, North Rim Visitor Center, and at the North Rim Backcountry Office. Two of those, the North Kaibab Trailhead and the North Rim Visitor Center are for seasonal use only, while all others provide access year round.

Considering how environmentally unfriendly plastic water bottles are, this is a great move for the Park Service. It is also a fantastic resource for travelers in the Grand Canyon as well. The hot, dry weather often surprises visitors to that park, and there are a high number of evacuations there each year for heat and dehydration related issues. Hopefully a readily available supply of water will help address that issue as well.

New website helps travelers find their next adventure

by Kraig Becker on

A new website promises to help adventure travelers find their next getaway, as well as discover new destinations they weren’t even aware of. The goal is to connect consumers with tour operators and guide services from around the globe, in an effort to make booking an adventurous holiday all the easier.

The recently launched Kumutu is the brainchild of CEO Ryan Off, who came up with the idea of an adventure travel aggregator after growing frustrated with other online options. The site already has more than 900 adventure travel companies already signed up, and they’re targeting to build that number to 20,000 by the year’s end. That means that consumers will have a wealth of options at their fingertips when it comes to booking their next trip, and online ratings and reviews will help us to decide if the option we are interested in is right for us.

As you would expect with similar websites, Kumutu offers you the option to search by activity, such as cycling, kayaking, mountaineering or by country, with nearly 60 destinations, including Antarctica, currently available. The approach is very straight forward, and easy to understand, with your options being presented in a quick, clean manner.

Perhaps the best way to search is by using the Kumutu map however. When this option is selected, you’re presented with a Google powered view of the world, with specific operators represented with a push-pin on the map. Clicking on a pin in the location of interest gives you a pop-up with a very brief description of the tours on offer. Clicking on the tour operators name will take you to a page that is specific to that company, with far more information about what they do and exactly what kinds of adventures they offer.

Kumutu is a nicely laid out and very easy to use travel aggregator, but we have seen a number of these types of sites pop up over the past year or two, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to stand out in the crowd. If they hit their goal of 20,000 tour operators by the end of the year however, Kumutu could become your one-stop shop for booking all of your future adventures.

Nepal launches campaign to “Save Everest”

by Kraig Becker on

The Nepal Tourism Board has joined forces with the Everest Summiteers Association (ESA) and Eco Himal to launch the “Save Mt. Everest Campaign,” a project which is designed to clean up the world’s tallest mountain, and the Khumbu Valley where it resides, by June of 2012.

Everest has always held a certain appeal with climbers and the general public alike, and over the past few decades, more and more adventure travelers have made the journey to visit that natural wonder. As a result, the mountain, and the communities in the region surrounding it, have seen an increase in trash and solid waste to the point that it has become a major problem. Most of the poor villages in Nepal don’t have a safe, ecologically sound method of dealing with those issues. This campaign hopes to change that.

Over the course of the next year, organizers of the Save Mt. Everest Campaign hope to remove as much as eight tons of garbage from the mountain itself, as well as along the trekking route between Lukla and Everest Base Camp. They also hope to build 15 waste management plants, and train 100 individuals living in the Khumbu region to staff those facilities. The Nepali Ministry of Environment and Science says that it will also issue new guidelines for climbing and trekking expeditions in the Everest region as well. Those guidelines will be specifically designed to reduce the amount of waste that is generated by the visitors to Everest.

Having visited the Khumbu just last year, and made the trek to Everest Base Camp myself, I can tell you that garbage and other waste can be a serious problem there. I was surprised to see that they still sold bottled water, as I think it would be more ecologically friendly to require visitors to bring their own reusable bottles or hydration packs. This new program hopes to make those kinds of changes and have a positive impact on an environment that is amongst the most spectacularly beautiful on the planet. Lets hope they’re successful.

Celebrate National Parks Week with Call of the Wild

by Kraig Becker on

National Parks Week is now just a couple of weeks away, and the Park Service has a host of events planned to celebrate, not the least of which is free admission to nearly all of the parks. Adventure travel company Call of the Wild, which specializes in women’s only travel, is celebrating too, offering a 5% discount on all of their trips that take place in one of the national parks this year.

Travelers wishing to take advantage of the discount have plenty of great options to choose from. For example, there are multiple opportunities to go backpacking or hiking in Yosemite National Park, truly one of the crown jewels of the entire system. There is also an excursion to Zion and Bryce National Parks scheduled for October, and another trip to Joshua Tree planned for November as well.

Perhaps the most exciting option on the schedule however, is an August hike along the John Muir Trail, one of the most popular and beautiful treks in the U.S. That adventurous trip will take intrepid travelers on a six day journey through the Sierra Mountains of California, offering up spectacular vistas and crystal clear mountain lakes. While this hike isn’t for the uninitiated, it promises to be a once in a life time experience for those who take part. It also happens to be eligible for the 5% discount mentioned above.

Call of the Wild has been organizing women’s only adventure travel since 1978, which makes it one of the oldest companies to cater to the ladies only crowd. If you’re looking for a fun, adventurous escape with your girlfriends this year, you’ll definitely want to check out all the options they have to offer.

Ireland added to the Appalachian Trail

by Kraig Becker on

You’ve heard us sing the praises of the Appalachian Trail on more than one occasion here on Gadling. It’s the 2181-mile long trekking route that runs from Georgia to Maine that is considered amongst the best in the world. Turns out, the trail just got a whole lot longer, stretching all the way across the ocean to Ireland.

Officially, the AT is an American trail, and more than 2.5 million hikers use at least some segment of it on an annual basis. But there is also an International Appalachian Trail that extends all the way to the most northerly point of Newfoundland, Canada, adding an additional 1900+ miles to the route. That IAT is now jumping across the pond to Ireland, where it will run from Donegal to Antrim. According to Paul Wylezol, Chairman of the International Appalachian Trail, Ireland was added to the IAT because of “its direct physical connection to Newfoundland across geologic time, and its cultural and ethnic connection to eastern Canada and the US in modern times.”

In other words, Ireland once was connected to North America as part of the super-continent known as Pangaea, and because of that, it is getting added to the Appalachian Trail. Organizers hope to also add sections in Scotland, Norway and Greenland, as mountains in those locations are geologically related to the Appalachian Mountains. In fact, there are some indications that they may have once been a single range, before continental drift pushed the Earth’s land masses out to their current locations.

Hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail has long been considered one of the most impressive accomplishments in long distance trekking. For those hoping to achieve that feat in the future, it has suddenly gotten a lot longer and more challenging. I don’t think a pair of water proof boots are going to cut it.

[Photo credit: Paulbalegend via WikiMedia]