Glacier National Park's Centennial

Rededication ceremony May 11, the 100th anniversary of northern Montana park

In early May, the big rotary plows are still working to clear Going-to-the-Sun Glacier Road through Glacier National Park, a similar operation to the annual reopening of Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park. I can only imagine how deep the snows lay on On May 11, 1910, when Glacier  was designated as the 10th national park in the U.S. system. There are many similarities between these two iconic parks in the Rocky Mountains -- and also Yellowstone between them -- fantastic scenery, great wildlife habitat, far more vistation in summer than in winter when through roads are buried in deep snow.

In the Park Service's words,  "With a horizon dominated by snow capped mountains, and more than 130 lakes contained within its 16,000 square miles of pristine backcountry, Glacier quickly became a popular destination for outdoor adventurers and vacationing families a like. Today, 100 years later, Glacier attracts more than two million visitors a year, making it one of the most popular national parks in the States."

This Tuesday, May 11th, beginning at 10:30 a.m., the park celebrates its centennial with a rededication ceremony at the West Glacier Community Building with commemorative items and cake, of course, for attendees. After the ceremony, retired Park Service employees returning to Glacier for this one special day conduct special walking tours with stops at various historical points in the park's compound include the park's museum collection, historic fire hose tower, the original park headquarters building and the historic Belton Bridge.
 
Another landmark event in a fabulous national park. CEntennial events continue through the year, but I especially wish I could be there for this week's kickoff.

Hotel Room Rate Roulette

Online booking site's two-week game can pay off with dollar deals


For two weeks from January 26 through February 6, LastMinuteTravel.com will begin selling its worldwide hotel room inventory for just a dollar per night for up to a seven-night’s stay. The catch is that the the transaction must be completed within 10 15-minute windows scattered randomly on weekdays during those two weeks. During each booking period, the first 500 entrants who complete the process will be able to book every room in its inventory of over 15,000 global hotel partners

To participate in this "World for a Dollar" promotion, sign up here, and to increase the odds of success, travelers can capture clues from the posted videos to the exact sale time. I don't know whether there is a final date by which successful entrants must use their room reservations.

Arizona Travel Boycott Gains Momentum

Associations and municipalities pull meetings in Arizona; some individuals simply won't go

Municipal employees in Boulder, a very liberal place that has been described as a city with its own foreign policy, will not be traveling to Arizona on city business in the wake of stringent regulations seeking to identify and detain illegal immigrants. Specifically, it is now a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police and other law-enforcement agents to check documents of people they "reasonably" suspect to be illegal. Those opposed to this law, which requires local law enforcement agencies essentially to act as an adjunct of the federal government and stop individuals with or without additional cause (like a traffic violation), with a demand to produce papers has all the signs of racial profiling.  Mexican citizens have been cautioned against visiting Arizona, and a number groups have begun pulling meetings out of the state.

Arizona has suffered self-inflicted tourism wounds before. It reportedly lost some 170 conventions and the Super Bowl in the early 1990s from boycotts because it refused to approve the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday holiday. Overlapping that boycott was one against Colorado, after state voters approved a confusing, anti-gay constitutional amendment that was never put into effect but that earned it the nickname, "The Hate State." It seems as if Arizona is poised to take that mantle, with social media calls to avoid Arizona going viral. The Arizona hotel industry trade organization has launched its own defense Facebook page.

In addition to the Boulder City Council vote to boycott Arizona, Boston, San Francisco and Oakland have done so. An immigration lawyers convention has pulled out of Scottsdale, ABC reported that the law, if not repealed, could cost Phoenix the 2011 All-Star Game. The 2009 All-Star Game brought on the order of $60 million. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of Major League Baseball players at all levels (including Minor League and farm organizations) are Latino. Some interviewed on camera say the law does not disturb them, but some of them might well come from countries with random police stops and a requirement to carry a nation identity card.

While some entities and individuals are avoiding Arizona while this law is on the books, others predictably think it's a damn good thing, by God! A USA Today online  poll currently shows that two-thirds of the respondents clicked on "I'm more excited than ever to visit the state." The remaining third split their clicks among four other opinions.


Repressive policy. Support from some. Anger from others. Backlash and reverse-backlash. Defensive actions. Posturing politicians. Innocent people (low-wage hospitality workers in particular) caught in the cross-fire. Business as usual.

The Sound of Silence in Mexico's Copper Canyon

Riding a railroad to a stunning, quiet place

Most Mexican cities and towns are noisy places, filled with traffic, voices, music and miscellaneous sounds. The Barranca del Cobre, which in English we call the Copper Canyon, is one of the quietest places I have ever been. It is actually not one canyon but a labyrinth of seven enormous canyons that could swallow our Grand Canyon several times over. Other than the two times a day when the train (below) rumbles through the clefted upland called the Sierra Tarahumara, nature's sounds prevail: wind whipping through the trees, rain splashing on rocks and roofs, rain water coursing down hillsides, insistent roosters crowing from dawn to dusk.

Below is the view from the terrace of my room at the Posada de Barrancas.

Tarahumara women make and sell exquisite baskets crafted from pine needles, reeds and other natural materials. These quiet, shy people do not hustle or pester -- nor do they invite bargaining or other aggressive shopping.

Simple homes are perched on ledges or in valleys with some elbow room. Below, a washline with a wondrous view.

Tarahumara women wear bright clothes and keep babies on their backs.

Older children look after younger ones.

Simple, ancient churches established by Spanish missionaries are still used, with celebrations combining Christian and timeless Tarahumara symbolism. Below is San Alonzo de Arareko.

The Tarahumara walk up and down steep canyon paths and through widely scattered settlements.

The mother below set out her baskets near a roadside pull-out overlooking a reservoir called Arareko Lake.

Dawn and dusk create equally gorgeous light shows as the sun peaks over or dips toward the canyon rim.

A Tip for More Than a Tip for the Hotel Housekeeper

When you want to leave something besides cash for the hotel housekeeper, a simple step will keep her from getting into trouble

I just returned from a Society of American Travel Writers Western Chapter meeting in Mazatlan. In addition to printed material, our kind hosts presented us with gifts. Mine included a plastic briefcase, two T-shirts, three baseball caps, a zip-up rain jacket of a material like a lightweight Tyvek, a Nalgene water bottle, a mouse pad with three USB ports, several pens and probably some other schwag that I can't remember.

I will need the press materials and brochures that I gathered, and I already had filled much of the space in my one piece of luggage with Tarahumara baskets and other handicrafts. Sometimes at such meetings, there is a place in the press room where gifts we are unable to use can be returned to the hosts, but this time, there wasn't even a press room. My inclination would be to leave the stuff I couldn't take home for the housekeeper -- along with a gratuity, of course.

My well-traveled colleague Bob Bone suggested that when we do that, we also leave a signed and dated note with the giveaway material, specifying that perhaps the housekeeper or her children might be able to use it. He said that without such a note, a housekeeper might get into trouble if her supervisor sees her leaving with goods. Good point, and I did that.

Sometimes we take clothing or footwear with us for one last wearing before we plan to discard it. Doing this, especially in a developing country, can benefit someone down the line -- but not at the cost of getting the recipient into trouble.

Thanks, Bob, for the excellent suggestion.

TSA Tightens Policies -- After Bombing Suspect Slipped Through

Terrorists are creative; security agencies need to be as well

Little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors better be prepared for closer scrutiny by the Transportation Security Agency. After permitting Faisal Shahzad, who was charged with last Saturday's (fortunately) unsuccessful attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square, screeners permitted him to pass through security at JFK International Airport on Monday evening, and Emirates Airlines let him on the plane.

Shahzad's name had been added to the no-fly list a few hours earlier, but it appears that no one (or at least no one with both responsibility and a functioning brain) at the agency or the airline had bothered to look at the list. He reportedly purchased his one-way ticket with cash in the last minute.Isn't that supposed to be brightest of all red flags? He could well have been winging his way to Dubai International Airport andthen on to Pakistan efore anyone looked at the list. Things changed fast after the close call.

Even though TSA personnel are supposed to match names on airline tickets with photo IDs before letting them proceed to the metal-detector and X-ray of carry-ons, airlines are responsible for monitoring the no-fly list. Everyone involed has gotten a wake-up call.

The government is now requiring airlines to check the no-fly list within two hours after being notified that the list had been updated. Until this new policy was instituted, airlines had had to check for updated every 24 hours. In 24 hours, a passenger boarding an international flight could be anywhere in the world. While TSA agents missed Shahzad at the security checkpoint and Emirates missed him when he checked in, Customs and Border Protection spotted his name on the passenger list and apprehended him before the plane took off for Dubai, Emirates' home base Meanwhile, since the incident,.Emirates, an enthusiastic proponent of Open Skies, does not mention a word of new alertness on its website.

According to a report in Travel Weekly, a travel trade publication, "The U.S. government's plan is to eventually take over the task of watch list matching. In 2009, the government began phasing in domestic flights. International flights aren’t covered by the government yet."

Like the Army is often accused of "fighting the last war," the TSA has been obsessed with the America's big airline incident, namely 9/11. The hijackers took over aircraft on domestic flights, so the security efforts have been directed there. A U.S.-bound Nigerian with explosives sewn into his underwear and a troubled Pakistani-American on the lam for a failed midtown Manhattan car bombing just wasn't on U.S. security's radar screen.

Good that someone was paying attention. And I hope that the TSA can keep its collective eyes and minds open, look for something else "unusual" and lay off little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors.

Indigenous Dances -- And Adaptations

Traditions preserved -- for tourists?

Indigenous villages in tourist areas, like El Fuerte where Mexico's famous Copper Canyon train leaves from, often find ways to preserve some of their traditions (usually dance, music, food preparation) by demonstrating them for visitors.

Such is the village of Camposa, where a local tour operator called Turismo Fuerte, has arranged for a family to open their rustic home to visitors. Emilia makes tortillas the old way. Jose-Luis dances. I am time-crunched and will have no Internet access for several days, so blow are a two photo of a traditional dance representing a deer being hunted. First, Jose-Luis Martinez performis in the village. Then, a dance student does the same dance in town.

If you can tell from the only images I managed to take under conditions too challenging for my my small digital cameras Note the differences in costume details. Jose-Luis is holding a real deer head in his teeth near the end of the dance. The costumed dancer never does that. And the deer head he is wearing is elaborately decorated.