Green Travel

Writing a story on my favorite eco-resorts in North and Central America for Away.com, I came across the Lodge at Sun Ranch.  Tucked away in Montana’s Montana River Valley in the southwestern part of the state, Sun Ranch is a 26,000-acre chunk of property manned by genuine cowboys as they tend to the more than 1500 head of cattle so it’s not some canned dude ranch experience.  You can horseback ride, fly-fish in trout-laden streams, go on a naturalist-led hike or paddle, and feel good knowing that the resort goes over the top to reduce its environmental footprint.  Sun Ranch recently donated a 10-year lease to Trout Unlimited to make sure the tributaries on their property are free of irrigation.  They also removed barb wire so elk can roam the grounds, purchase local produce from nearby farmers to ensure fresh meals in the restaurant, and used recyclable materials to renovate the main lodge. 

Jumping on the green bandwagon, eco-ranches are becoming the latest trend in the West.  It wasn’t so long ago that environmentalists butted heads with ranchers, charging them of destroying the land and the local ecosystem. But a new generation of owners in the West, like the Lodge at Sun Ranch and Lazy E-L, a working cattle ranch on the outskirts of Yellowstone Park, has emerged in the past year offering a sustainable style of ranching.
 

In the 80s and 90s, the buzzword in travel was eco. Add solar panels, throw a compost in the backyard, hire several locals and you too could call yourself an eco-resort. That soon gave way to a more sustainable development of tourism, or simply the trend for the new millennium, “sustainable tourism.” Now the National Geographic Society has pushed the envelope even further by implementing what they call “geotourism,” tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of the place being visited. According to Jonathan Tourtellot, Director of Sustainable Tourism at NGS, “ecotourism focuses only on nature. It’s a niche. Geotourism includes the environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture, and well-being of its citizens. It’s a more holistic way of traveling.” 

Tourtellot and the NGS have designed a Geotourism Charter for countries and states to follow. Honduras, Romania, and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific have signed the charter and started to practice some of the basic principles of geotourism. Here in the United States, the Yellowstone region of Montana formed a geotourism council and recently unveiled a map created by locals that highlights historical, environmental, and cultural points of interest. In addition to Old Faithful and all those bison and elk, you’ll find the affordable 360 Guest Ranch, a historic dude ranch specializing in horseback riding and fly-fishing excursions. There are also canoe rentals on the Jefferson River in Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, dinosaur displays at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, and a favorite local hot springs in Chico.
 

Calling all yoga lovers!  Morgan’s Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge, which put ecotourism on the map in Nicaragua, is hosting one of LA’s best-known yoga instructors, Sara Ivanhoe. From August 10 to 16, 2009, this “Yoga on the Edge” retreat will provide two daily sessions of Asana, Pranayama, Meditation, Mudra and Mantra. Oh yeah. I’m feeling more relaxed just writing about it. The retreat will be conducted in the Yoga Pavilion, located on Morgan’s Rock’s pristine Ocotal Beach. The daily program will cover six days of yoga combined with cultural experiences with time for relaxing by the pool or beach. Cost is $2395 per person, including transfers from Managua, all meals, daily classes, a massage, and an evening of tapas with sangria.  
 

A story in last week’s Boston Globe talked about how the Slow Food movement is creeping into other areas of our life, including travel. How travelers want to delve deep into one locale on vacation, instead of killing themselves trying to see everything in the country. Well, active travelers have been doing this for decades, slowing down to backpack in one national park, to bike in one region of Italy, to paddle one river. This works well on multi-day camping trips where you’re far removed from your laptop and cell phone. Here are some of my favorite places to savor Slow Travel:

Paddling the Saranac Lakes Region, Adirondack State Park, New York
The countless rivers, lakes, and ponds in the Adirondacks are connected by short trails, resulting in a seemingly endless combination of canoeing options. One of the finest is a 4-day figure eight loop in the St. Regis Canoe Area that includes eight ponds and the Upper and Middle Saranac Lakes. Creeks, inundated with beaver dams and lily pads, connect the placid waters of the ponds. Mountains hovering over 2500 feet surround the lakes. St. Regis Canoe Outfitters will help plan an itinerary and provide all the necessary amenities for a canoe trip including canoe, paddles, maps, tents, backpacks, and sleeping bags. 

Backpacking The Long Range Traverse, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland
Nestled within Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, are the Long Range Mountains, one of the last remnants of pristine wilderness within a three-hour flight of New York, Boston, and Chicago. The Long Range Traverse is a 22 mile semi-circular route where topographical maps and a compass are a necessity to find your way among the web of caribou paths. Thus the need for a reputable local guide like Bob Hicks, owner of Gros Morne Adventures. On their 4-day trek, he’ll take you into stunning landlocked fjords and up snowcapped peaks where the caribou and moose far outnumber other backpackers. 

Whitewater Rafting the Firth River, Alaska and the Yukon
Every year, 35 to 50 lucky souls get to cruise down the Firth River and witness the spectacular migration of some 150,000 caribou. Add grizzlies, wolves, and arctic foxes and you start to grasp the magnitude of this incredibly vast and isolated wilderness. The Firth flows northeast from Alaska through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into Canada’s Northern Yukon National Park. After flying to the put-in by seaplane (there are no roads here, not even trails), you’ll start your descent down this lively Class III-IV river. On the shores, a boreal forest rises to 5,000-foot peaks known as the British Mountains. There’s no need to pack a flashlight for this trip.  The Firth lies above the Arctic Circle, where the sun refuses to set in the summer months. Rivers, Oceans & Mountains (ROAM) offers a 12-day trip down the Firth.
 

In 2006, a snorkeling charter from Maui headed to Molokini with an inexperienced captain. Mechanical problems soon developed and the ship sank. None of the snorkelers were injured, but in their lame attempt to salvage the ship, the company, Maui Snorkel Charters, ruined much of the coral they went out to see. This week, Hawaii fined the tour company close to $400,000 for damaging more than 1200 coral colonies. It’s about time states and countries get serious about coral destruction. It takes centuries to build healthy coral, seconds to destroy. It reminds me of the time I was in Candidasa, Bali, wondering why the beach had disappeared. A local told me that they destroyed the reef building a new hotel and now the water was coming straight up to the resort’s edge. That’s what I call the dark side of travel.
 

Emails from readers are usually of the vein, “great story, we’re going to try to take that trip to (fill in the blank) next summer.” Other people write to tell me of their horror stories. Then there are the folks who took a trip that was pure bliss. Here’s a letter I received recently, in its entirety:

Dear Mr. Jermanok,

A friend recommended that I write to you, she reads a lot of travel things (saw you in National Geographic Traveler maybe?) and said I should write to you and tell you about an experience I had in Hawaii. I am not what you would call an "avid traveler" myself, in fact I can rarely afford it and had never been to Hawaii before. But my son, who had cystic fibrosis for thirty years, passed away recently and it turned my world upside down. I desperately needed to do something to turn it right side up again, if there was ever a time to splurge this was it.

I wanted to take some of his ashes someplace special, I knew it was Hawaii and all I knew is I didn’t want something "touristy" if that’s a word. I found this place on line called Wellness With Aloha (.com) and something just clicked when I talked to them. It turns out the guy on the phone was the owner, this totally amazing guy named David, but I didn’t know that then. So they were on the Big Island, I had never been to any of them before and it seemed fine to me, there was a flight from Seattle near where I live to Kona. It’s all black lava and really dry, right away I felt drawn to the other side of the island. I really don’t know if these details matter to you, I don’t know why I’m writing them! Somehow it matters to me, though. Anyway it turned out that the place I was staying was sort of over that way, near a place called Waipi’o Valley.

So I go to the rental and it’s in the side of the cliff! I’ve never seen anything like it, looking down on the ocean and the valley and the black sand beach. And the energy of Waipi’o Valley is amazing, I just sort of cried when I sat there with it. It turns out that this is an apartment in a house on private property, not even advertised as a rental, all hooked up by this guy David. I never saw the owner, it was totally private. I don’t know what Hawaii is supposed to be like, but I felt like I was already in it. It’s all so beautiful and green and so alive and so quiet all at the same time.

For the week David had set me up appointments with some energy and massage healers and even with some kahuna. The next day he gave me directions to a park by the ocean and I met one of the kahuna, Keahi. We moved to a private area and he started to chant. I felt like it reached right down into my bones! I started crying again, I don’t know why, it felt good! When the chant was done, he stood behind me and put his hands on my head and gave me a blessing. It felt like light was coming into my soul. He told me so many things about myself. I’ve had a few psychics do readings and this is way beyond that, I don’t know how to put it into words exactly. I just felt loved. The feeling never went away, even today.

The next day I had another appointment with more kahuna, but this time right at the caldera of a volcano. This is the one I was really looking forward to, I wanted to put my son’s ashes in the volcano, I’m not sure why. Anyway I don’t know how David does this or knows all these people because he isn’t Hawaiian, but he set up this time TWO kahuna, Nohoku and Kalei, to meet me at Volcanoes National Park and channel Pele. Really! They do. The first thing they told me from Pele was how happy my son was to be free of his body now, and they didn’t even know about his cystic fibrosis! I felt so much joy and peace with them and with my son. (and they actually told me to spread his ashes at the ocean, so I did and it was wonderful, I have video of it)

I spent five more days there connecting with the island, I had a wonderful massage and more, but I think this letter is already too long. I just wanted to say that all of these amazing feelings are still with me. If there ever was such a thing as Hawaiian Healing, I think this is it because I got some! People offer some free Hula shows and lei-making in a few places around the island and I went to one or two of those too but after what I had experienced it just couldn’t compare.

But most of all it’s what people like my sister said to me after I got back, how I looked like I had found peace. I think I found something authentic on a different level in Hawaii and it helped heal my heart. Perhaps it could do the same for other people as well, for me it was priceless.

Aloha!

Becky Lane,
Port Orchard, WA
 

According to a recent study by Ypartnership, a travel marketing firm, awareness of the term “green travel” in America has improved from 9 percent in July 2007 to 22 percent in July 2009. Okay, that’s a start. Then I read further and learn that only 9 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more to use eco-friendly travel services. Huh? Thankfully, many hotel companies are beginning to implement green practices. See the story I wrote in a recent issue of Executive Travel. Then see my picks for Top 10 Eco-Resorts in North America, the Caribbean, and Central America.

 

Good news from the Appalachian Mountain Club this week, which reported that they have just purchased the 29,500-acre Roach Pond tract in Maine’s North Woods. The land abuts the 37,000 acre Katahdin Iron Works property the AMC already owns. So what this means is that hikers, cross-country skiers, even mountain bikers will have the opportunity to go on a 63-mile-long corridor of conservation land near Greenville north to Baxter State Park, home to mighty Mount Katahdin. Instead of hut-to-hut hiking, the cornerstone of the AMC’s legacy in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, you’ll be able to venture from historic sporting camp-to-sporting camp. The purchase provides a permanent connection between four sporting camps, used for over a century to bring “sports” up from Boston and New York to fish and hunt.

AMC bought the Roach Ponds parcel from Plum Creek Timber Company for $11.5 million. The purchase is part of a planned 400,000-acre conservation network negotiated between Plum Creek, AMC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Forest Society of Maine. Plum Creek Timber Company was recently given the right to build 975 houses and two resorts on the shores of Moosehead Lake, so this is more or less a consolation prize for environmental groups. The Moosehead Lake real estate plan is currently being appealed by the National Resources Council of Maine.
 

First opened in 1976, Maho Bay owner Stan Selengut has reaped accolades for his eco-sensitive resort where 114 tent-cottages are woven into the tapestry of the landscape. And what a landscape that is! Only a few miles east of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. John has virtually nothing in common with its overdeveloped neighbor. More than sixty percent of the island and its surrounding waters are comprised of Virgin Islands National Park, a mecca in the Caribbean for the green traveler. Enjoy it now, because one of the Caribbean’s last natural outposts could be gone when Maho Bay’s lease is up in 2012. As luck would have it, Omega Institute, who normally books Maho Bay in January each year is heading to another resort in Costa Rica (more on that in a later blog). So Maho Bay has many openings in mid-winter. Starting at $80 a night, it’s a steal.
 

I’ve done my fair share of articles on the increasingly popular trend of placing green roofs on buildings, used to absorb rainwater and cool the structure, thus saving on energy costs. But I knew something was up last night when I followed Chef JW Foster to the roof of the Fairmont hotel in downtown Dallas. Wearing his goofy chef hat, Foster pointed out some of the 2,000 plants up top. We’re not talking grass. There were heirloom tomatoes, sweet potatoes, a half-dozen varieties of peppers, pumpkins that were recently used in the Halloween carving contest, numerous herbs including cilantro and mint, and a small fig tree. He tells me that 60 to 70 percent of all the vegetables he now uses in the hotel’s restaurant, Pyramid, come from the roof’s organic garden. A new greenhouse just arrived so Foster can plant saplings and four beehives are coming shortly so he can have homemade honey for his cheese plate. In the meantime, take the elevator down and sample the braised buffalo short rib, raised on the Broken Arrow Ranch in west Texas, topped with an heirloom tomato chutney. Then ask sommelier Hunter Hammett to bring over a coffee liqueur that he makes in-house for eight months. Life is good when the food and drink are local.
 

When it comes to creating ecoresorts, Costa Rica has always been at the forefront. These boutique retreats in the bush or on the beach employ all the tenets of ecotourism. The lodging is built on land that will be preserved for future generations. They employ and thus give back to the local community financially. They educate both their employees and guests on the natural and cultural significance of the surrounding land. And they use renewable sources of energy and local fare for building materials. But lately, the price of staying at an ecoresort in Costa Rica has come with too hefty a pricetag. Especially when you can get the same scenery from one of its Central American neighbors.

On an archipelago in the northwestern part of the country, a short boat ride from the town of Bocas del Toro, is a three-cabana lodge socked in the middle of the verdant jungle and surrounded by a working cocoa plantation.  All of the cabins at La Loma Jungle Lodge were created from fallen trees and inspired by the architecture of the local Ngobe Indians.  The employees are also local, including your guide through the rainforest and beach to see sloths, armadillos, small crocs called caimans, and the graceful blue morpho butterfly.  At dinner, lobster and conch will not be served, as the owners try to use only sustainably harvested fish like yellow jack. Rates are $110 per person a night, including three meals, the boat ride over from Bocas town, and some of the excursions. 
 

While we’re touching on ecoresorts in Central America this week, one of my favorites is in Belize. Home to the longest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, Belize has long been popular with scuba divers who head to the island of Ambergris Cay to float among the manta rays, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. As of late, however, travelers are heading inland to hike in a rainforest full of parrots and butterflies, visit rarely seen Mayan ruins, and canoe along the Macal River. This is where you’ll find a 365-acre nature preserve in the Cayo district called Chaa Creek. Mick and Lucy Fleming opened this eco-resort in Belize long before green was the magic word. They have grown over the past 28 years decades to include two dozen bungalows with thatched roofs and a restaurant that serves grilled fish from the region. But it’s the grounds, with its brightly colored flowers and a forest of tall mahoganies and cedars on a hill overlooking the river that gives the locale its deep-in-the-jungle allure. The resort’s expertise is setting up rainforest and Mayan tours with guides. Explore the Mountain Pine Ridge on foot or horseback or stay closer to home on the Macal River, where you can swim under waterfalls and very likely spot toucans.
 

The latest trend in urban design is blurring the line between civilization and nature to create parks from contaminated sites, landfills, and abandoned manufacturing plants. This week, I want to focus on green spaces that were once urban eyesores and are now popular spots to walk, bike, and simply be outdoors. For decades, the High Line served as an elevated railway track that brought freight into Manhattan. By 1980, the trains had stopped running and the tracks were sliding into decay that, somewhat remarkable, was also a kind of blossoming. Nature re-established itself as saplings and wind-sown grasses sprouted in the rail beds. The trees took root and so did an inkling of an idea, almost Seuss-like, to create a public space that would be 30-feet high above the city and nearly 1.5 miles long. What a way to see New York, from above!
 

The curved rusted steel of Richard Serra’s Wake (2004) resembles the hull of a ship, perfectly suited for Seattle’s seafaring tradition. Children run around the large structure, warned by their parents not to touch. Other families meander by Calder’s tall, red Eagle (1971), eyeing the iconic Space Needle in the background. A dog walker ambles past one of Oldenburg’s signature typewriter erasers, following the zig-zag trail that rises above railroad tracks and leads to the waters of Puget Sound and the snowcapped peaks that stand tall in the horizon. 

Unveiled in January 2007, Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a glorious addition to the city’s waterfront. It’s even more remarkable when you understand the history behind this 9-acre parcel of land.  For more than 60 years, this section of Belltown was dotted with oil tanks owned by UNOCAL (Union Oil Company of California). The petroleum seeped into the land creating a brownfield that would take over a decade to clean up when operations ceased in 1975. Yet, today, the once vacated industrial wharf is now brimming with life as more than a half-million people visited Olympic Sculpture Park in its first year.
 

For most of the 20th century, this large plot of land in downtown Los Angeles was used as an immense Union Pacific railroad yard. When Union Pacific closed shop in 1989, the property laid dormant until 2001. As California State Parks hemmed and hawed about how best to convert the space into a park, artist Lauren Bon, backed by a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, had her own ideas. With the help of The Trust for Public Land, they excavated some 5,000 tons of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons and metals, planted more than a million corn seeds, and installed an irrigation system to create her artwork, Not a Cornfield. The large crop has now been harvested to make way for bike trails and fields of wildflowers. Los Angeles State Historic Park is still being landscaped, but close to half of the property is open to the public.
 

One of 34 Boston Harbor Islands that dot the waterfront and are part of a National Historic Park, Spectacle Island had its heyday in the 1840s as a large gambling resort and brothel. As of late, the island was merely a dumping ground for garbage. Then someone had the brilliant idea to create a dike to contain the trash and use the dirt from The Big Dig to reshape the island, providing topsoil for planting trees and other shrubbery.  Today, the heaping mound of soil has created the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine. Leaving its smelly past behind, the 105-acre park has a trail system weaving through the interior, beaches to comb for sea glass, and public access by ferry. Local naturalist and Walden author Henry David Thoreau didn’t have Spectacle Island in mind when he spoke of preserving America’s “wild spaces,” but it’s refreshing to see good ole Yankee ingenuity at work.
 

On the banks of the Mississippi River, Vento Nature Sanctuary is now home to bald eagles, blue herons, and acres of restored wetlands. It’s also popular with rock and ice climbers who like to propel themselves up the steep walls that rise from the river.  Yet, Vento was once a dying rail yard, left to rust by the Burlington National Railroad. Thanks to a grant from the city’s Metropolitan Council and private donations, all contaminated soil was removed and the boundaries of the park were expanded so folks can have more green space to play.
 

Located near Sacramento, Davis, California, is a city of just over 65,000 people that’s perhaps best known as the first city in the country to create bike lines on their streets. Well, yesterday, they just upped the ante by announcing their intent to cut the community’s carbon emissions by up to 50 percent by 2013. Using the tenets of David Gershon’s book, “Low Carbon Diet: A 30-day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds,” Davis is creating EcoTeams, peer-support groups to help households reduce their emissions. Cool Portland (Oregon), Gershon’s first pilot program, helped reduce carbon emissions of each household by 22 percent or 6,700 pounds. 50 percent seems ambitious, but kudos to Davis and Gershon for giving it a shot!
 

How does a rock band offset its carbon emissions from a 32-date world tour in 2009? Well, if that rock band is Pearl Jam, they plant 33 acres of trees around Puget Sound in Washington. The band just donated $210,000 to Cascade Land Conservancy to provide the plantings, which will help to make up for the 5.474 metric tons of carbon used during last year’s tour. The group has been mitigating its carbon output since 2003 and plans to do just that after this summer’s tour. When Pearl Jam rocks out to “Force of Nature,” they mean it.
 

Carlene Sullivan, owner of Symmetree Yoga in North Conway, New Hampshire, has just introduced a 2-night Yoga Adventure, where you take a guided hike or drive to the top of 6,288-foot Mount Washington, and top it off with yoga and meditation on the summit surrounded by the other ridges of the White Mountains. Prices start at $260 per person and include two nights’ accommodation, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, yoga class, breath work, and meditation, and transportation to the site from North Conway. Carlene also offers day-trips, where you hike to a serene spot in the Whites and have your own private yoga session next to a waterfall or rambling stream.