Hotels, Motels, and Cabins

I've been a little worried about finding motels along our trip since there are times we will be without internet to look up phone numbers or make reservations electronically. We've got a GPS unit, but it would be nice to call ahead and verify vacancies.

A very few chains offer print directories of their locations. I suspect if I visited the local location I could get more, but here's what I found online.

• Motel 6 will send you a print directory
• Holiday Inn (family of hotels) has a print directory available for download. States like Wyoming and Colorado can be downloaded in a single file. Texas is divided into FOUR download files, and the cities are listed alphabetically. Unfortunately, the state did not position towns geographically according to the alphabet.
• Choice Hotels (Econolodge, Rodeway, Comfort Inn, etc.) allows you to download their e-directory or order a print version.
  

Colorado Spring, Colorado... the town so nice they named it a couple of times

So we've pretty well decided that we'll spend some time in Colorado Springs on our drive north. We're thinking we'll drive from Carlsbad Caverns to somewhere near Colorado Springs (about 9 hours driving), spend most of a day in Colorado Springs, then try to make a little progress north before we sleep (Denver is 2 1/2 hours north).

And Colorado Spring has quite a few activities. The Pikes Peak Attractions Association website summarizes a lot of the area sites and activities. They have a nice PDF map that includes some coupons. Some of the sites that are high on our list at this point:

• Pikes Peak Cog Railway
• Garden of the Gods
• USAF Academy
• Manitou Cliff Dwellings

But there's lots more there... Focus on the Family, Numismatist Museum, The North Pole... Do you know anything about the area we're missing?

I Got a Postcard

As I mentioned before, I sent off for tourism information from several states. That has increased my mail and e-mail. Which is fine, I had the opportunity to opt out of them sharing my info.

I have received e-mails about lodging options, fliers about casinos in the area, brochures from regional tourism boards.

I just got a postcard from Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado. I scanned it for you here. Since I'm sharing their photo, I'll share the message they sent, too:

Visit us at
www.royalgorgebridge.com
for more information about
the world's highest
suspension bridge and
surrounding park with over
20 rides, shows and attractions

1-888-333-5597

If you're not familiar with Royal Gorge, it is one of Colorado's deepest canyons. Cañon City, Colorado owns and operates a bridge across the gorge and a sort of theme park at its edge. There is a separately operated train that runs along the bottom of the canyon, called Royal Gorge Route Railroad.

Reviews indicate that the sights are pretty, but pricey. Anyone been there?

Yellowstone's Virtual Visitor Center

Wow! Yellowstone's official NPS site includes a Virtual Visitor Center. It's one of those hidden gems on the website that takes some effort to find, but when you do, it's worth it.

The site includes many maps, computer generated videos, educational links, organized links to webcams... The image on the left is the opening shot of a virtual model that shows one day's worth of geyser activity in the Upper Geyser Basin.

Check it out and leave a comment telling us what you found there.

Scouring the Web

I've found that the National Park Service website has plenty of useful information, but it's not always easy to find. Some of the individual parks' website are far more robust than they seem on the surface.

For example, the Carlsbad Caverns website. There is a large link on the homepage of each park labeled "MAP." At Carlsbad's site, that link takes you to a message saying, "No high resolution map is available..." but looking around for a while, you find two very nice maps of good resolution. The moral of this story is to patiently explore the park websites. Use the search feature and look around. You'll find lots of great stuff.

I found a really useful park publication on the Carlsbad website a couple of days ago. I printed it out, but went back looking for the link... no luck. I looked under "brochures and publications." Not there. I finally found it, though. Under the "News" link. The Park Newspaper. I don't know why this isn't a "brochure and publication," and I don't know why it's not listed under "planning your visit," but now I know where it is! Useful details include:

• Fees
• Hours & Dates
• Tour Types and Schedules
• Reservation Phone Number
• Scenic Drives (and other "topside" activities)
• Nearby Attractions
• Map
  
• Junior Ranger Programs

I particularly recommend pages 4, 5, and 8.

Yellowstone Podcasts

The National Park Service creates neat two-minute podcasts about Yellowstone. Each video covers wildlife, scenery, safety, weather, history or some other park issue. Very entertaining, and can get you your travel fix in between visits.

You can view or download the podcasts from their website! You can also download a map that is numbered to correspond with the sites shown in the videos. (How cool is that?!)

I'm going to be up-front here... I stole the photo on the left from the park service website. My ipod is cooler.

Thanks, Postal Person!

I ordered some travel books the other day after a trip to Barnes and Noble. So let's get off topic for a minute to talk about ordering books. Here's some comparison shopping:

	At B&N:	Online
Frommer's Denver, Boulder & Colorado Springs Frommer's National Parks of the American West Yellowstone Treasures TOTAL:	$16.99 $21.99 $21.95 $60.93 (+$5.03 tax)	$0.75 + $3.49 sh $0.75 + $3.49 sh $11.00 + $4.00 sh $23.48

So when I tell you about buying books online, don't tell me I'm paying more in shipping than I am saving! As you can see here, on these three books I saved over $40 once you also consider the sales tax I pay at the brick-and-mortar store.

Now you're asking, "Where do you buy online?" Well, I recommend you try half.com (an e-bay site) and alibris.com. Each of these sites allows you to search by book quality. If you only want new, unread books, they will sort those for you. If you just want cheap, you can find that too.

In the case of these books, I found Yellowstone Treasures direct from the publisher online. It seems that the third edition was just released, so the second edition (which B&N had) is available for half-off direct, brand new! And this book is amazing -- the entire book is in full color. Photos, maps, history, details about each area of the park. Wow!!

The book includes many detailed walking tours, and driving details like I've never seen, pointing out items every couple of miles or so (with odometer readings so you won't miss them!)

Slow Down, Enjoy the View!

So this award winning short film shows a professional race car driver sprinting up the road to the top of Pikes Peak. Wow. Crazy. But you do catch many glimpses of remarkable scenery as he goes blasting by.

The road up to Pikes Peak is a toll road operated by one of the nearby municipalities... I can't remember which one. The rates are $10 per adult in the car ($5 for kids) or a max of $35 per car. The 18 mile road is paved for 6 miles and gravel the rest of the way.

(For the record, you can download this to your ipod through google video. And, yes, I have.)

Oooh... That's Pretty

To go east of the Rockies or west of the Rockies?

The east route is supposed to be faster, lower altitude, better roads. The west has better scenery (depending who you talk to).

If you stay on the east side, you drive through the middle of Colorado -- Denver, Colorado Springs, and so on. And there's a lot of stuff in Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak, Air Force Academy, a few gold mines, Focus on the Family, and Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is a set of striking geological formations. The park's admission is free. What I find remarkable about so many of the Colorado Springs landmark -- they are located just a few blocks from downtown. Weird.

Eh, the Fossils Aren't Going Anywhere

As I was looking at sites to see along our trip, Dinosaur National Monument was on many lists. I just learned that the "Quarry Visitor Center" there has been closed since 2006. And is not expected to open within the next couple of years.

The Quarry Visitor Center gave tourists access to view many fossils still in place in a cliff side. Unfortunately, the building has been suffering some structural damage due to foundation shifts and such.

The park still has many other fossils on public display (and even a virtual visitor center), and I am told by those who have been there that the surrounding scenery is fantastic, and a short driving tour of the area is still well worth it.

Yikes! Book Early!

The concessions (stores and lodging) in Yellowstone NP are now run by Xanterra. In my previous visits, it was Hamilton Stores (who had operated in Yellowstone for 87 years!).

I started looking into reservations through Xanterra's very thorough website. Wow! There's not as much lodging options available as I thought... they're already getting booked up. Here it is early February, and I can't find reservations for June.

I'm told that if you phone them up, they can sometimes work with you to find more options.

Well, looking at the end of July let us find some lodging. We spread our stay around the park (partly because there was nothing available for two or three days at a time!). The downside of this is we had to pay a one-night deposit for EACH of the three locations. So our four-night stay in the park will be at three different sites, so we had to pay up-front for three nights of our stay. And our stay is so far in the future that my receipt says I've paid an "estimated" deposit, and the actual cost may be higher or lower than what I have paid.

On the up side, our lodging places us in several of the popular areas of the park, so we will can sight-see without losing a lot of time driving around (driving in the park can be very slow due to wildlife, road construction, and the low speed limit).

The park lodging is tiered -- some of the cabins do not have a private bath, and some only have a sink in the room. The Xanterra site is very good about describing each room (many have wood burning stoves).

Hey, we've got reservations now. We're on our way!

Tourist Bureaus Rock!

I don't know how we successfully planned trips like this in the days before the internet. Each park/site/museum/hotel/restaurant/road has its own schedule of opening/closing, price lists, special programs, and on, and on!

I sent of requests (via the web) for the official state travel guide for each state we will potentially drive through. Here are the links for anyone else searching for info:

• Texas
  
• New Mexico
  
• Arizona
  
• Colorado
  
• Utah
• Wyoming
  
• Idaho
  
• Montana
  

Utah was the only state that did not include a highway map in their travel packet. (New Mexico's guide came with a center-fold-like road map enclosed in the magazine. Effective and cost effective.) Many states gave you the option to download the travel guide immediately from their website (but I'm trying to conserve printer ink!!).