Junior Ranger Programs

“I, (fill in name), am proud to be a National Park Service Junior Ranger. I promise to appreciate, respect, and protect all national parks. I also promise to continue learning about the landscape, plants, animals and history of these special places. I will share what I learn with my friends and family.”

Kids interested in exploring? Do they enjoy art, history, science, animals or nature? Junior Ranger programs help keep your kids’ ears and eyes open as you explore your National parks.

Junior Ranger programs are usually free (or nominal for supplies) and are offered in about 286 of the 388 National parks. The programs are typically available for children ages 6 through 14 (depending upon the park you are visiting.) Zion National Park, for instance, has a program designed for children ages 6 to 12, but children under 6 can complete an activity sheet to earn a decal from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center. At the Grand Canyon, there are now 5 ways for you to complete the Junior Ranger requirements (ages 4 and up) and be sworn in as a Grand Canyon National Park Junior Ranger. Their requirements include writing down your observations, answering questions about the park, writing poems and attending one of their Ranger-led programs offered throughout the day. Upon completion of the activities for your age group, bring the booklet back to the Visitor Center for review by a ranger.
Some ways to prepare for these programs would be to eat before you go. No food or snacks are served during the programs. Wear closed-toe shoes – activities are typically held outside and sandals are not usually allowed. BYOW – Bring your own water. And be prompt – Programs start right on time, and kids will need to arrive approximately 15 minutes early to register.

Fun, new airline websites

Unless you've been under a rock, you know about websites to book airfares such as Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline. As you can imagine, we have access to a ton of industry information, including some that still comes from magazines (I know it's hard to imagine...). Now that we're in our off-season, we get a chance to get caught up on our reading. One of our regular reads is Travel and Leisure magazine. One of the few things that we do not include in our road trip adventure packages is airfare. So here are a few sites that were in an article from T&L earlier this year:

1) www.momondo.com - This is a great site to help you uncover cheap flights around the world. They do this by searching over 450 websites to give you the cheapest deals available.
2) www.yapta.com - This site can help you keep tabs on changes to fares both before and after your flight so you can get any applicable credits or refunds. Know that the refund policies are only applicable if you book directly with the airline.
3) www.milemaven.com - This site is updated daily to give you the latest on limited time offers for bonus miles. The search capability will allow you to search by the frequent flyer program so you can work on cranking up those miles in your favorite awards program.

Hopefully this information is a help to you in planning your vacation with Tracks & Trails. Let us know how else we can be of assistance!

Low holiday airfares and where to go!

While we are all hearing about doom and gloom in the economy (and it may be worse for some than others), we are hoping that would-be travelers are seeing the economy of a Tracks & Trails vacation. One portion of a total vacation, in addition to what we provide on the ground - either RV or car-based National Park vacations - there is another significant cost to most of our clients: airfare.

We have written in this blog in a previous post about airfares being more affordable due to the price of oil falling back to more financially reasonable levels. We have also been reading about holiday airfare sales right around the corner. In the coming days and weeks, there may be discounts up to 25% on airfares to key gateway cities. This is great news since we see an opportunity for families to spend their holidays in new, different and exciting locales such as Tucson, Florida and San Diego. Depending on what you want to do, each of these three destinations has so much to offer.

The wild west of Arizona calls in our most popular winter destination, Tucson. The trip from our catalog called Tucson, Tombstone and the Sonoran Desert features great sites such as Kartchner Caverns, western movie sets, the world's largest outdoor airplane display and wildlife uniquely adapted to the desert.



Don't forget the the quintessential winter getaway - the state of Florida. This is a new region for us and our Orlando-based RV vacation and our Florida Keys trip are hard to beat! If you're trying to beat the cold, then a Tracks & Trails Florida trip is the answer. This is also a great location to bring together family for a reunion. We have experience with planning family reunions, honeymoons and just good ol' fashioned family fun.

To visit the San Diego area, we have created a beach and desert itinerary that will give you a great mix of activities where you can visit the world famous San Diego Zoo, pedal around La Jolla or off-road in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Some have described the beautiful weather in San Diego as the most ideal in the 48 states. And there is so much to do! Check our our San Diego itinerary for a taste of what's possible!

If you're thinking of somewhere else to play for the holidays, give one of our trip consultants a call at 800-247-0970 and we'll see how we can help you create a holiday trip of a lifetime!