"The Extra Mile" - the Tracks & Trails blog

Dan and I just got back from the 2009 Go West Summit in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico. We spent a couple of days in a 15 minute "speed dating" format, meeting with representatives of various visitors & convention bureaus, hotels and outfitters from throughout the western United States.

We have been busy bees here since the holidays as many start to plan their summer vacations, particularly folks that are big planners because they want their trip to go just right or they have big families (takes a lot to coordinate 6-8 calendars, right?).

We are already seeing limited availability of campgrounds along the California coast around the Fourth of July holiday. We expect to see a continuation of the trend of vacationers staying closer to home, so it's not surprising to see California campgrounds booking up (there's a ton of people living in California!).

If one of your main objectives while on vacation is to view wildlife, here are some of the top National Parks to consider visiting (Glacier, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Everglades), along with the types of wildlife you are most likely to see there:

Whether you’re an adrenaline junkie looking for your next “fix” or a discerning traveler searching for that “once-in-a-lifetime” experience that will become the highlight of your entire vacation, here are a few destinations that are "off-the-beaten-path" that we include in some of our custom itineraries (tree climbing, zip line, fossil hunting, animal sanctuary):

We know that you have many choices in where and how to take your summer vacation so we thought we'd give you a quick comparison that may help you make a decision for this year's trip. We've tried to keep these comparisons as "apples-to-apples" as possible. We have not included the additional costs of airfares or optional excursions in our comparisons either. Click on 'read more...' to see prices below for a family of four.

In spite of our faltering economy, National Park vacations are expected to be a hot ticket in 2009. We are urging you to book now to be sure you get the best that’s available! If you are considering putting off a decision to book your vacation, here's a couple of good reasons to not procrastinate:

If you're at all interested in visiting Yellowstone this year and have been searching the internet, you may have seen what amounts to a fake US Geogolical Survey website calling for the evacuation of Yellowstone and the surrounding areas.

We have seen these fake reports and wanted to let you know that the real USGS website has not changed their alert levels based on the recent earthquake activity in the park over the past couple of weeks.

Last year, many of our clients started their Tracks & Trails adventures in Las Vegas. It's a great jumping off point for the National parks in Utah, Arizona and California. And here's the good news, airfares right now are just fantastic to Las Vegas from many cities in the eastern half of the United States. And even better news: there are screaming deals for hotel rooms in Las Vegas! The economic situation has had a big impact on tourism in southern Nevada and many hotels are using discounted prices to lure travelers that may be on the fence - wanting to travel but trying to stay on a tighter budget.

Big families have to plan ahead all the time. If you have more than three children in your family, you know that as a parent you have the equivalent of a degree in logistics. Getting the kids here and there between school, play dates, soccer practice, shopping, family stuff, more sports, band practice and tons of other stuff qualifies any parent to organize a major symposium.