Dry Tortugas National Park - cozy?
As I get ready to fly back home from Dallas today, I see that the Examiner has an article in their Outdoor Travel section entitled “Frommer’s top 5 parks for cozy camping.” Here are the picks:
Weaver Grand Slam, Minox BV and Vortex Diamondback - 3 value model binoculars at the top of their class
There is a lot to see when you go camping, particularly in the early morning and evening when much of the wildlife is out-and-about (but the people aren’t!). A good set of binoculars can enhance your wildlife viewing experience and these three models from Weaver® (strangely, no information on their website), Minox® and Vortex® are all great binoculars, even though they are considered low to mid-range by their respective manufacturers.
From cellphone towers to gas drilling and air pollution, our nation
It seems you just can’t turn around these days without stumbling across another story about modern civilization intruding upon our nation’s great parks. I started noticing it in September, when the Bozeman Daily Chronicle ran a story about the Yellowstone Park Wireless Communications Plan, which seeks to add a number of cellphone towers in the park. That was followed in November by the announcement out of Washington that President Bush planned to open public lands near Arches National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, and Canyonlands National Park to oil and gas drilling. Now today, as I unwind in my Dallas hotel room and catch-up on the day’s events, I see the Washington Post is reporting that the EPA is finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas.
Cold weather camping is an enjoyable family adventure
Labor Day is the traditional signal for the end of camping season for most families. We tend to equate camping with sunny summer days by the lake or beach and, let’s face it, by the end of September warm sunny days are getting fewer and far between for many of us.
Winter camping offers many advantages, though, including the fact that all of those “other†campers are staying at home and not crowding your campground! The trails are still there, the fish are still biting, and the peaceful winter calm will make you wonder why you didn’t start extending your family camping season earlier.
Checklists tend to be either too generic or too detailed
If you Google the term camping list right now, you will get just under half-a-million hits. That’s a lot of lists! I’m not a big fan of lists, I suppose they’re fine for things like shopping, where you have a lot of things to do or get and all the things are different each time you go, but I think their utility for camping is greatly overstated.