Over the holidays my husband and I had many opportunities to see old and new friends as well as family. The topic of renewing travel plans in the new year has often come up, how the pandemic started to get worse, travel restrictions being lifted and the optimism that comes with a new year.
Several popular destinations came up in various conversations. One trip was to the California Desert area, putting in national parks like Death Valley or Joshua Tree national parks in late winter or early spring. Another was many variations on the theme of touring Wyoming and Montana and exploring three of our most iconic national parks, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole and Glacier, the absolute gems of those beautiful states.
So let’s share some ideas about advance, smart planning for trips to these attractions. We will provide our experience and the resources we have found to make such trips fun, painless and truly memorable. Our resources: our vehicles GPS system, Susan’s cell phone (my copilot), AAA, the internet, national and state park websites, travel apps like KAYAK and Hopper, hiking apps like AllTrails and state travel agencies and local. For fellow travelers’ impressions of motels, restaurants and travel destinations, TripAdvisor and Yelp will provide cumulative and individual ratings from real travelers. Internet searches will lead you to specialty sites (if you’re looking to stay ranch white, to sites like duderanch.org, which offers detailed options in many western states).
We’ll start by discussing trips to the California Desert area, taking in Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks and we’ll also point out some additional nearby attractions that shouldn’t be missed. These include the eerie Salton Sea, Anza Borrego, California’s largest state park and perhaps a stop in the nearby winter destination of the Hollywood set, Palm Springs. The best time to plan a trip to the two SoCal national parks is probably late winter or early spring, as Death Valley and Anza Borrego can be unexpectedly warm by May.
If you’re considering one or both national parks, both national park websites are valuable tools for what to see, when to go, camping and lodging options within each park, children’s activities and many others. Similarly, the California state parks website will provide similar data for Anza Borrego (as well as 279 other California State Parks).
Then, check out sites like visitCalifornia.com, or visit PalmSprings.com. Scanning such sites, you’ll see nearby destinations come to mind, such as the eerie, Salton Sea, just east of Anza Borrego State Park. The sea at the time of the Salton Sink, the second lowest point in the continental United States, was 260 feet below sea level, almost as low as Death Valley. Throughout recent history, it has regularly been flooded by overflows from the Colorado River, including a massive spill in 1904-05, which created the Salton Sea, 60 miles long, 30 miles wide and 50 feet deep. depth.
In the 1930s and 40s, gamefish were brought into the new inland sea and a variety of resorts sprang up on the shore attracting talent such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. However, drought continued to reduce the depth of the sea, dealing a blow to the holiday traffic; then massive floods in the late 1970s overwhelmed the sea, leaving these large centers around the lake essentially abandoned. Today they show some eerie ghost resort, perhaps the most interesting, Bombay Beach Resort on the east side of the sea. On several camping trips to Anza Borrego, we took day trips to tour these nearly deserted resorts.
Well before you leave, do a refresher on your vehicle’s GPS system, it’s a valuable travel resource on many cars. The same advice applies to exploring the mapping and wayfinding capabilities of smartphones. Being an old Army platoon leader, I still want paper maps, so a few times a year I’ll visit the AAA offices and update my supply of state and regional maps. My insurance company also provides me with good atlases with travel maps, another useful tool.
To book hotels, motels, we use KAYAK, TripAdvisor, or Hopper. Unless it’s peak travel season, we often wait until late afternoon to book a motel, using Priceline.com, which often saves up to 50% off regular rates as motels try to fill empty rooms. .
Veteran travelers will reserve campsites at desired destinations six months in advance. If you wait a month before your trip, these parks are likely to be fully booked and you will have to rely on “first come, first served” campsites, which require you to arrive early in the morning in anticipation of land an empty campsite. Likewise, if you want a lodge or motel/hotel near the destination of the park, book in advance. You can usually cancel advance bookings if your plans change without penalty. For advance camping reservations, you can usually cancel if plans change with only a $10 penalty.
If you’re setting your plans on the three parks in Wyoming and Montana (or, the five national parks in Utah) – let’s face it, they’ll be swamped in the summer when school’s out – so the best options late May to early June. , or, September and October. And with millions upon millions of fellow citizens contemplating similar travel scenarios, prudent forward planning will pay untold dividends.
As always, don’t ignore Covid-19 planning; taking a supply of face masks and rapid tests if a new variant appears, as well as medicines for family members. Prepare your personal car in advance, by checking the brakes and tires are properly inflated; recent tuning will allow your car capable of delivering 30 MPG to deliver that result.
For more information; Anza Borrego State Parkparks.ca.gov; Death Valley National Parknps.gov/deva/; Joshua Tree National Parknps.gov/jotr/; Palm Springsvisitpalmsprings.com; Salton Sea, visitgreaterpalmsprings.com. For camping reservations, recreation.gov for national parks/federal campgrounds; reservecalifornia.com for California state park campgrounds.
Contact Tim, [email protected]; Happy travels in 2023!
