Spotlight on Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas

Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas, managed by Aramark, is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. From camping at the Lake Powell Campground to renting jet boats and water toys, boat tours, fine dining at the Lake Powell Resort and houseboat rentals – they offer something for every one of our families to enjoy at beautiful Lake Powell!

Michael and I recently attended a tour operator “familiarization” conference with representatives from Lake Powell Resorts. This was in part to discuss houseboat rentals and operation and to meet with other tour operators. Our very generous hosts also treated us to a tantalizing dinner at the Lake Powell Resort, a day of jet boating in and out of the beautiful canyons at Lake Powell, an evening on houseboats moored at the beach in Warm Creek Bay, and a ½ day boat tour to Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

The water was like glass in this canyon – you can hardly tell where the water begins and the canyon walls end.

Opportunities to visit with suppliers give us first-hand experiences to pass on to our clients - and the opportunity to experience what our clients will do on their vacations? - priceless! Sound like fun? Check out these trips on our website: Exploring the Southwest's Canyons and Lake Powell; and Utah's Amazing Canyons and Lake Powell.

These are our charming Lake Powell hostesses Sarah Bailey, Assoc. Director of Sales, and Laura Litke, Group Sales & Conference Services Mgr. With 10 years of combined experience, they help us make sure that your visit to Lake Powell is all that it can be!

How about Canadian bargains?

Here is an addendum to the last post -

With the current exchange rate being so in favor of the US dollar versus the Canadian dollar, we are strongly urging our clients that are planning a trip to Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Jasper, Banff or other western Canada destinations, to BOOK NOW! Much of last year the exchange rate was at par or US$1 equaled CD$1. As of today, US$1 buys CD$1.27. This is a great opportunity to essentially get more than a 20% discount on a trip to Canada. We can book your RV now and the sooner you pay for the RV rental portion of your trip, the sooner you can lock in what are unprecedented exchange rates. Early bookings are also getting a discount on top of the great exchange rate for booking and paying early.

Please, if you have any questions, you can call me directly at 800-247-0947 or comment on this post. You can also reach one of our talented and gifted Tracks & Trails trip consultants at the same toll-free number above.

Looking for bargains?

Many factors will affect travel for pleasure in the next 12 months and we are seeing many reasons to book now for next year's summer vacation. We realize that many folks are watching their wallets very closely and have concerns about their job security. Optimistically, we also see that most people are still working and many still want to show their kids the National Parks.


First, with the price of oil down 50% from its record highs in the summer, airlines are not under the same financial pressure as they were just a few months ago. I personally have been getting fare alerts from a major travel website nearly weekly with great prices and availability.


Second, we still see the RV as the vehicle of choice when it comes to packing everyone comfortably to experience the great outdoors of the National Parks. There is nothing like staying in the parks, seeing stars at night and having a campfire. Your meals can be much healthier than eating out and cost less too. Overall, for the experience, we see RV travel as a great bargain.


Third, with many travelers looking for big bargains, we have found that we can still help with creating an itinerary that includes a rental car or SUV that is sized to your family or group and accomodations that will save travel dollars. While eating out becomes more of a necessity, you can still eat healthy if you have a simple cooler with you in the car.


Our hope is that you let us help you with your National or state park vacation plans. If cost is an issue, let us know and we'll do our best to create the best vacation that meets your desires and is within your budget. You can call toll-free at 800-247-0970 to talk to a trip consultant or check out our trip catalog on-line. We're ready to help plan that "trip of a lifetime".

Just got back from Lake Powell

Sorry it's been a while since we've posted on the blog. We've been taking some time off to recharge, visit some new destinations and reconnect with some of our outfitters, campgrounds and the road itself. We've spent time researching Florida from Orlando, St. Augustine and the Kennedy Space Center down to Key West. We also did some preliminary research on the Canadian Maritime provinces, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

This past week some of us spent time just outside Canyonlands National Park (someone turned 50, eek!), in and around Monument Valley and cruising Lake Powell.

The picture to the right is from the Salt Creek Overlook just south of Canyonlands National Park. While you can't get here with an RV, it's a good example of the types of vistas you can see in this area (it was pretty quiet at night too!). Unfortunately, the best time to see stars was at about 3:00 AM since there was a strong full moon.





This is a picture of the Mittens in Monument Valley. We had strong winds with gusts over 50 mph, so this shot was from inside the car. Unfortunately with the sand and dust being kicked up, we had to cancel our tour of Mystery Valley. Oh well, maybe next time... Wildlife highlight: We did get to see an adult brown tarantula on the road as we drove through Valley of the Gods!



Our last stop was in Lake Powell. We had a chance to visit with

some of the folks that run the Navajo Village Heritage Center in Page, AZ. We found that if you want be thoroughly educated on Navajo culture and heritage, this is the place. The four families that have created the Center, go to great lengths to provide an authentic experience. Here is a picture of one of the hogans they built at the Center.




We also visited the slot canyons just east of Page called Upper Antelope Canyon. This unique canyon is well known to photographers around the globe for the unique interior structure and lighting that changes by the minute. Here is a good example of a picture that I took with a simple digital camera. I think that it's amazing... Look at the purples that show up in the rock in this picture!


We also visited with the folks at the Lake Powell Resort. We got to experience what our clients see when they take the Half Day Rainbow Bridge Tour or enjoy a rented powerboat around the lake as we snaked up through narrow canyon walls. A new experience for us to spend the night on a houseboat rental with the lake like glass and a full moon. Wildlife highlight: We saw an adult California Condor (tagged "02") at the Visitor's Center at the Glen Canyon Dam. Just stunning...


Yes, we're lucky to take these types of trips and we try to take a bunch of pictures so we can share them with the rest of the staff. All the information that we gather on trips like these are designed to help us provide the best assistance possible when planning what may be a "trip of a lifetime" for some of our clients. Just give us a call or check out the website to see where we can start!

A big thank you to Shane and Emmy at the Navajo Village Heritage Center, Carolene at Antelope Canyon Tours, the staff at the Glen Canyon Dam (great tour!) and Laura, Sarah, Rusty and Chef Josh at Lake Powell Resorts. You all made our trip wonderful and informative. Thank YOU!

New Florida Itineraries!

In our first blog entry, we told you that we would have new itineraries in a brand new region soon. Well, today we've loaded on our website two new trips in our Florida region. After extensive research, recent travel to central and south Florida and staff experience in personal travel to these areas, we have created what we think are great trips that incorporate tons of fun and activities.

These Florida RV vacations are ideal for a fun, affordable winter getaway! Dan and Sheri (the owners of Tracks & Trails) spent three weeks this summer combing the areas around Orlando and the Florida Keys. While the theme parks are a great destination for many families, they found that there is so much more to see and do. After their fact-finding mission, they worked with the rest of the team to create two great trips that deliver the outdoor family adventures that Tracks & Trails clients expect but with plenty of kicking-back-on-the-beach time.

The first Florida itinerary is called "Central Florida & the Space Coast". This 7-10 night route starts in the Orlando area and takes you to St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in the United States, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. And yes, we can help you with making this trip what you want it to be by either making the trip a little longer (closer to 10 nights) or by having you spend a little more time in one location that has something you want to see.

The second Florida itinerary is called "Florida Keys and the Everglades". This trip is also 7-10 nights and starts in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale. This trip will take you down the Florida Keys' Overseas Highway to Key West. If you love the water, this is the trip to take! From sailing and snorkeling to swimming with dolphins and walking in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, there is plenty for the family to do including building a sandcastle or two.

So why visit Florida in an RV? We think that you'll see much more than you would from a fixed base at a hotel or condo. Another is the Florida State Parks. These magnificent gems include John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo and Blue Spring State Park in Orange City. And these are just two of the great state parks that we've discovered! And let's not forget Everglades National Park, one of the few places where you can walk the boardwalks over alligators!

Now, where to get started? Click on any of the links above to find out more or just give us a call at 800-247-0970 and ask to talk to one of our fabulous trip consultants. We'll take out the mystery and make your trip easy and effortless. Better to call sooner rather than later, particularly if you are thinking about traveling to either of these locations this winter.

Review of our excursion outfitters

As a staff, we just spent some serious time reviewing the performance of many of our excursion suppliers. These are mostly mom-&-pop companies that provide great activities for our clients while they are out visiting the National and state parks. They provide excursions such as horseback riding, whitewater rafting, whale watching, guided hikes, fly fishing, surfing lessons, ATV & jeep tours, jet boat river trips, guided kayak trips and much, much more.

We understand that each and every one of these outfitters has our clients' families in their hands during their fun and exciting activity. We listen to our clients, read their surveys and review their emails for good and bad comments. We also consider how easy or difficult it is for us to work with them as well.

With that, we specifically looked at the new outfitters that we added last year. With these new outfitters (at least new to our clients), we paid particular attention to every client's experiences to ensure that our future clients have the best vacation possible. We also look at outfitters that we stopped using in 2008. Some went out of business, some areas had less travelers than others and some simply weren't requested by our clients.

On each trip in our catalog, we list optional excursions on our website that we think our clients will want to add to their vacation plans. Unfortunately, due to extreme specialization or their location being more out of the way than most, we do not post every outfitter on our website. So if you are thinking of taking a road trip by RV with Tracks & Trails and you don't see a favorite activity associated with a trip on our website, just ask. You never know what we may have up our sleeves!

It's time for a break!

Sorry that there haven't been too many posts to the blog in the past week or so. We're all taking a deep breath after another record setting season! And some of us have been out traveling doing research on new locations as well as some of our most popular destinations. Dan & Sheri have been in Florida, the Atlantic Maritime provinces of Canada and Yellowstone. Karen has been in Montana and Wyoming, while Nancy has been to Bryce Canyon National Park. Early next month, some of the staff will be traveling to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah for a long weekend of hiking and relaxation!

We've been receiving many surveys from our clients that have traveled this summer. We take the many constructive comments and praises to heart. Every fall and winter we work on making our processes and information even better than the previous year based on everyone's feedback. Thank you to all who take the time to help us make future vacations for our clients the best they can be!