Recently in _US: West Category

Eco-boutique Hotel Terra is giving guests one more reason to stay in Yellowstone this summer. From May 1 September 30, the Jackson Hole hotel is offering the new "Eco Adventure" summer package, which includes an wildlife tour (hosted by wildlife biologist Taylor Phillips) and free Flip video camera to keep. The rates for the package start at $348 per night for two, or $570 per night for a family of four. On the wildlife tour, guests will ride in a bio-diesel-fueled vehicle (the tour also includes an organic lunch).

The hotel--Jackson Hole's only LEED-certified digs--is located just outside the entrance to Grand Teton National Park and offers a variety of green features, from eco-shake roof shingles, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems (100% of their electric power is offset), energy recovery technology, natural water runoff mitigation, as well as sophisticated recycling programs.

For reservation information, check out www.hotelterrajacksonhole.com or call +1 800 631 6281.

Photo: Hotel Terra

The National Geographic Channel's series DogTown kicks off its third season tonight, Friday, March 20th, at 10 p.m. The series examines the important and emotional work of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, among the largest no-kill animal shelters in the U.S., as it houses, treats, and seeks permanent homes for dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, goats, pigs, parrots, and other domestic animals. Best Friends is often these animals' last hope as many are tough to adopt due to advanced age, shyness, or medical conditions.
  
Best Friends is set on 33,000 acres in southern Utah's Red Rock canyon country, not too far from what's appropriately called the Golden Circle of parks: the Grand Canyon (about 75 miles away), Zion (25 miles), Bryce (60 miles), Lake Powell (65 miles), and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park (10 miles). Best Friends, about a four-hour drive from Las Vegas, welcomes visitors and offers eight spacious guest cottages for those dropping by. You can even spend the night with a dog or cat from Best Friends if you're thinking of adopting; they provide the supplies and kibble, too. Camping is also available on their extensive grounds and there are some pet-friendly hotels in town in Kanab. Beyond a day visit and tagging along on one of the four, 1-1/2 hour tours offered daily, it's possible to stay a little longer to volunteer to help feed the animals, clean enclosures, assist with grooming, and even take Fido for a stroll and play fetch.

If you're planning a trip in out West this summer, consider stopping by Best Friends to check out DogTown (or Cat World, Horse Haven, even Piggie Paradise) yourself. My dear friend Jill Williams, a Pennsylvania native like yours truly, did just that for two weeks five years ago and was so moved by the important work of Best Friends and the sheer beauty of the place that she now lives in Kanab with her husband and son; they both work for Best Friends (she as part of their Guardian Angel program), and her family of three humans, three dogs, and three cats love it. She tells me she can't imagine a more beautiful place.

Photos: Left, National Geographic Channel; Right, Jill Williams

Hey there, city fans! Today's city comes to us from Nancy Brown, who tells us why we should leave our hearts in San Francisco!

Want to see your city on IT? Complete our list of fill-in-the-blank questions, copy and paste the list into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're attempting to post them as fast as we can (hint--it helps if you include links and photos!)

San Francisco is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Fisherman's Wharf.

When I crave dim sum I always go to Chinatown.

To escape people I head to Angel Island.

If I want to shop I go to Union Square.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with the Golden Gate Bridge.

Spring may be on the horizon, but Intelligent Travel Contributing Writer Cathy Healy doesn't want you to pack away your skis quite yet.



JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- I was getting ready to tell you about how skiers of all ilk, including me, an impassioned green-run cruiser, can find their bliss in this valley of extreme skiing...when I discovered that the region is on sale. After a 60 percent drop in bookings over the bad-economy holiday season, Jackson merchants are hoping for a spring rescue, so negotiate. This may be the year you can afford one more ski trip.

What people often forget, and I count myself among them, is that there are four ski options at Jackson.

One: There's Jackson Mountain, of course, the big one, which offers the world-famous 4,139-foot vertical drop and a new tram that lifts 100 people to the top of the mountain in nine minutes. No greens up there, and most intermediate blue trails at Jackson are like blacks in other places. Good skiers love Jackson. Great skiers really love it. Check out their packages (many of which include airfare) here and here.

Friend of IT Brian Schott sends us a dispatch from the ski slopes of Utah, where he and others attempted to ski all of the state's 13 resorts in one day.

"Intelligent" was not the word uttered by anyone when I mentioned my upcoming trip. "Insane!" "Absurd." "Ridiculous"--these were a few of the adjectives that slipped easily into email or conversation when I remarked that I would join a team of ten skiers who would attempt for the first time to ski all of Utah's 13 resorts--in a single day.
 
To set the stage for our gluttony, we loaded into a twelve-passenger van at 2:30 p.m. in Salt Lake City for a 250-mile drive south to Brian Head Resort. As I settled into the back seat, I began to think that perhaps I should have looked more carefully at a map before offering to participate in this road trip that seemed ripe for a bad reality TV show. As we pulled onto I-15, the brakes of the van started to grind. But under an expanding sky, across an empty highway, following an ever-setting sun, I began to get excited.
 
After dinner on my way to my room in the Cedar Breaks Lodge, I longingly eyed the indoor pool and hot tub before asking the concierge for a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call. The front desk called my room to make sure that I was serious.
 
"Dizzy." "Skeptical." "Nervous." These were the words slithering through the withered roots of my brain as our dedicated driver piloted us toward the maintenance shop located half way up the mountain slopes. We clicked into our skis and rambled down smooth corduroy on Giant Steps under the big moon. 4:37 a.m. Mood elevated and adrenaline rushing, we took off our ski boots, chomped bagels, and settled down to sleep as the van rocketed us back towards the big Salt Lake.

It doesn't completely surprise me when places like Philadelphia pop up on the map as being great places for brew pubs, but I was a bit taken aback by a recent New York Times article on Utah's brewery scene.

Utah hasn't always been pub-friendly. The state has strict laws against alcohol, mainly due to its large Mormon population. But in the 1986, Greg Schirf opened Park City's Wasatch Brewery, and until 1989 fought for the legality of brew pubs. Today the pub is a local hot spot, and its 1st Amendment Lager and Polygamy Porter join other award-winning ales.

Brew pubs are popping up all over Utah, and mostly in popular tourist areas (skiiers need a way to warm up, right?). There's the new (2005) Zion Canyon Brewing Company, Moab Brewery, Roosters Brewing Company in Ogden, and a host of others. Of course, when you try a Utah ale, don't expect to get the same kick as other beers worldwide. The alcohol limit in the state is 3.2 percent for beers on tap. Beers there are made with higher alcohol, but they are considered a liquor.

Image: Wasatch Brew Pub

After returning from her trip to Mongolia, our Next Great Travel Writer contest winner Suzanne Roberts donned leopard pants and headed out to the annual Burning Man festival. Here, she sends us a dispatch about how the huge party in the desert has been working to become a sustainable event.

Every year during the week leading up to Labor Day, Black Rock City, a fully functioning metropolis, complete with a post office, radio station, airport, recycling center, bars, boutiques, and night clubs, is erected in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada as part of the annual Burning Man Festival, then disappears, virtually without a trace. Although many would call it the “biggest party in the world,” Burning Man is also the largest “Leave No Trace” event in the world, restoring the dry lake bed, aka "the playa," to the condition in which it was found before the 50,000 or so people arrived.

Burning Man began in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco when an 8-foot-tall wooden man was burned by Larry Harvey and his friend Jerry James. The event moved to the dry lake bed in the Black Rock Desert in 1990. Since then, the event has grown from a few hundred participants to a record 49,599 in 2008. People who haven't been to Burning Man may think of it as a hedonistic free for all, but those who attend know that it is about radical self-expression, self-reliance, and gifting. These tenants create an artistic community, known as Black Rock City, but they also contribute to an environmental ethic. In 2006, Burning Man adopted its Environmental Statement, and was praised by Al Gore in 2007 for its “Green Man” theme and dedication to the environment. Here are some of the innovative ways in which the festival incorporates its "green" theme.

Give of Yourself: The society runs on a gift economy, which means that no money is exchanged (except for at the center café, which sells coffee and ice - passing proceeds along to charities) and that everyone comes prepared to give something of him or herself, whether it be an art installation, volunteer work, yoga instruction, solar recharging stations, dance clubs and bars, or performances that range from ballet and cabaret to fire dancing, flaming skydivers, and even geology and native plant courses taught by PhDs. From this creativity and gifting community have come ingenious ideas regarding ways in which to “green” Burning Man, as well as take the gift-giving off the playa in order to make positive contributions to the greater world.

Watch Out for ‘MOOP’: According to Roger Farschon, an ecologist with the Bureau of Land Management, the amount of debris created at the festival has consistently come in far short of their quota; the majority of the mostly wood matter left behind is roughly the size of a dime. Burning Man participants call this sort of debris “Moop” or “Matter Out Of Place,” and are instructed never to “let it hit the ground.” There is not a single garbage can on the playa, so participants must be self-reliant and “pack it out.” Also, a huge clean-up effort takes place during and after the event. Farschon calls Burning Man “a valid use of public lands,” and says, “to date, there has never been any major problems with the way they have left the playa.”

Much grumbling has accompanied the fees being imposed by U.S. airlines on previously benign items such as a passenger’s first checked bag, in-flight pillows, blankets, and drinks. These costs, in addition to pricier fares, are meant to boost revenue in the face of high fuel costs. No one has grumbled quite as loud, however, as the surfers who are being charged as much as $300 to bring their surfboards along. And that’s just for one board. Many serious surfers will take as many as four boards in one bag, which—depending on where they’re flying to—could amount to a $1,200 bill one way. That’s more than most plane tickets cost.

Airlines such as Delta justify the high fees with the argument that the boards require special care: They don’t get put through the standard baggage carousel, but get transported to the claims area on special elevators. “There are handling costs associated with surfboards that we have to account for,” explains Delta spokesman Kent Landers.

Indignant surfers beg to differ and maintain that the charges they encounter are inflated. The L.A. Times reports that although surfboards are large, a typical short board weighs about four pounds while a larger board only weighs up to 15 pounds. It would seem, then, that the additional charges are not so much about weight but the overall inconvenience of adding surfboards to the plane's cargo. The Times cites an incident in which Hawaiian Airlines slapped passenger Mark Cowan with an $80 fee for his kite board (which was only 4 feet, 9 inches, and 11 pounds) at the Los Angeles International Airport. And this was on top of a $100 fee he was charged by Delta on his flight from Colorado to L.A.  “You know, I just realized I’m going to be paying $360 to take my board along,” said Cowan.

It’s getting to the point where avid surfers and kite-boarders like Cowan are considering just leaving their boards at home and purchasing new ones on location. For most good surfers simply renting boards is out of the question.

Airlines known to stick surfers with high fees—often exceeding $150 a board—include Delta, Continental, and United. Alternatively, airlines that keep costs reasonably low include JetBlue, which charges $50 a board, and international carriers such as Qantas Airways and Air New Zealand, which don’t charge surfers any fees.

Photo: Calico182 via Flickr

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When the Democratic brass and political junkies head to Denver next week, they might be wearing the requisite red, white, and blue, but they’ll be seeing green. In an effort to make this year’s convention, in the words of Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, “the greenest convention in the history of the planet,” leading Democrats, the city of Denver, the Democratic National Convention Committee, and community members are all working to promote sustainable practices.

Even before setting foot inside the Pepsi Center, delegates are being asked to think about their ecological footprints. Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the Green Delegate Challenge, which encourages delegates to offset the carbon produced in their travels to the Mile High City. Delegations with the highest participation will be recognized on the convention floor, and individual delegates, super delegates and alternates who participate will receive a “unique wearable ‘green item'” to sport for the cameras. DNC officials say they’re pleased with the participation in the program, which has 31 delegations offsetting 100 percent of their carbon output and a total of 2,895 individual delegates choosing to take part. According to DNCC spokesperson Damon Jones, the challenge represents a way to include delegates in an effort for sustainability that has been a priority for this DNCC all along.

“We’ve said from the beginning we want this to be America’s convention, and sustainability is something Americans are concerned about. We really wanted a way to get the delegates involved,” Jones says.

Inside the Pepsi Center, delegates might find it hard not to be green. The DNCC Green Team, headed by well-known environmental activist and first-ever “Director of Greening” Andrea Robinson (who managed sustainability at three of Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts), has been working for almost a year to create a sustainable event for an expected 50,000 or more attendees. As the Chicago Tribune reports, Robinson has established (non-mandatory) menu guidelines for caterers (fried foods are out, colorful, organic and locally produced foods are in), hired an “Official Carbon Adviser” to monitor the greenhouse-gas emissions of every tossed paper cup and plane trip, and assembled a trash brigade of 900 volunteers to ensure proper sorting of trash and recyclables. She’s buried balloons touted as biodegradable to ensure they really did degrade (they didn’t) and scoured the country (unsuccessfully) for union-produced, organic fanny packs for volunteers. Perhaps most ambitious of all, she’s set a goal of recycling or composting 85 percent of convention waste.

Last week, Traveler senior editor and resident tours expert Norie Quintos wrote about her sea kayaking tour in British Columbia. This week, she writes about rafting the Lower Salmon River in Idaho. And tune in next week when she shares tips on great family vacations.

My family likes salmon. We like it sautéed, roasted, poached, and grilled. I prefer to buy the wild kind (farmed fish contain higher levels of PCBs and fish farms have been implicated in contamination of the ecosystems they reside in) but with the slowing economy whatever is on sale usually rules the day.

But I can't say we really cared about salmon. Then came our five-day family rafting trip on the Lower Salmon earlier this month with ROW Adventures, an outfitter based in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. We never quite realized it, but in the midst of all the fun we were having, we were getting quite an education.