People have asked me if there’s a website I use when planning my trips.
Nope. It’s old-school all the way … or, at least MOST of the way.
Before starting any trip, I check out as many relevant travel books as possible through our wonderful Kenosha Public Library System.
And then I get busy reading.
For this trip, I read through several guides and brought four of the most helpful books on the trip with us.
The books that helped with planning are:
Fodor’s Travel’s “The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA” (2022 edition).
Moon Travel Guide’s “USA National Parks,” by Beck Lomax (2022 edition). This book came to me by way of the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville. Thanks, inter-library loan program.
People are also reading…
“The World Almanac Road Trippers’ Guide to National Parks” (2022 edition).
Lonely Planet’s “Maine & Acadia National Park” (2019 edition).
Eyewitness Travel’s “New England” (2018 edition) (from the Rochester Library).
National Geographic’s “100 Drives, 5,000 Ideas,” featuring road trips across all 50 states, plus 10 Canadian provinces (2020 edition), from the collection of the Milton Public Library in Milton, Wis. That book is a terrific source for planning road trips, with everything from Route 66 to something called the “Jurassic Drive,” a 1,760-mile journey from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada to Denver, Colo. The route takes in what author Joe Yogerst describes as “some of the globe’s paramount dinosaur digs, fossil finds, primordial landscapes and top-notch museums where the totally magnificent beasts from the past are reconstructed.”
While I prefer to get my travel information from books, I’m not totally anti-tech. One of my favorite resources is the free National Park Services app, which offers details on each park, from operating hours to current road conditions and ranger programs, along with trail maps and driving tours. My favorite feature is “Parks Near Me,” which lists nearby National Park Service sites, from 20 to 80 miles away.
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