Ask Susan,
Your Personal Travel Counselor
Tell me how you really feel about paddling through gorges, water-dancing around boulders and portaging log jams. How about dropping cliffs on your mountain bike or hiking knife ridgelines? I see. Perhaps you are perfectly content paddling flatwater or mountain biking old logging trails? Do you need gourmet meals? Does your exhausted body require a comfy bed? Lie back on your couch with a glass of wine and let me help you solve your trip planning problems.
I am a journalist with 14 years of experience researching and writing about travel, with special emphasis on “soft” adventure travel such as hiking, paddling, biking, camping, skiing and snowboarding. The Internet has made it infinitely easier to research and book travel, but with all the information resources out there, it’s difficult to sort through the conflicting messages and choose the right vacation. My “travel counseling” services can rescue you from the abyss.
Photographer's Notebook:
Lose Yourself in the Mystique of White Sands National Monument
White Sands, New Mexico. If you’ve heard of it, you’re either a history buff or a landscape photographer. White Sands was the test site for the infamous Manhattan Project and also is one of the most beautiful albeit otherworldly places in North America.
Nestled into Southeastern New Mexico in the Chihuahuan Desert are 275 square miles of gypsum dunes. This is the largest pure gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum is a water soluble material. Consequently it can only accumulate in extremely dry environments. The Tularosa Basin, besides being sufficiently dry, also is an area that has no drainage. Rain, when it does fall, has no where to go. Dissolved gypsum dries and is then recycled into the dunes.
Unlike sand, these dunes are almost...
New Whistle Stop Service Accesses Chugach Backcountry
The U.S. Forest Service and the Alaska Railroad have partnered on The Whistle Stop Project to provide recreational access to the spectacular backcountry of the Chugach National Forest between Anchorage and Seward. No roads lead to this wilderness area, which means you'll be able to get away from the crowds.
The Chugach Whistle Stop service to Spencer Glacier officially opened in August 2007, making Summer 2008 the first season it's been fully operational. The Spencer Glacier stop is the first of five Whistle Stops planned for the future; other stops will include Leubner Lake, Bartlett Glacier, Grandview and Trail Creek.
Passengers board the Glacier Discovery train in Anchorage, Girdwood or Portage and travel deep into the Chugach National Forest to remote areas of Alaska that can only be accessed by train. The Spencer Glacier Whistle Stop has toilet facilities and pavilions reminiscent of a historic railroad camp...