My听relationship with Grand Teton National Park started inauspiciously: I moved to Jackson Hole in northwest Wyoming unaware of the park or the mountains that are its heart. Of course I knew the town had mountains鈥擨鈥檇 gone听there to be a ski bum for a听year, after all鈥攂ut had no idea these mountains were the snaggled, serrated, rising-7,000-feet-straight-from-the-valley-floor Tetons, part of one of the world鈥檚 most intact ecosystems and home to glaciers, shimmering alpine lakes, and wild animals I knew only from photos, as well as more opportunities for adventure than I had the skills or fitness听to handle. On my first hike in the park, I got my mom and myself spectacularly lost鈥攁nd also contracted a case of听giardia.

While floating down听the Snake River below Jackson Lake Dam two weeks later, my GI tract听still suffering,听I knew one year here would not be enough. I鈥檓 now on听year 24 and have learned that a lifetime isn鈥檛 enough听to explore this park, even if, at 310,000 acres, it鈥檚 only a fraction of the size of its 2.22-million-acre neighbor to the north, Yellowstone.

The first decade听I was here, family and friends on the East Coast and in the Midwest frequently asked when I was moving 鈥渂ack to civilization.鈥� Then most of them came to my first wedding, a weeklong Wyoming affair packed听with hiking, wildlife watching, picnics, and scenic floats in my backyard, Grand Teton National Park. That marriage is long over, but听so are the queries about when I鈥檒l move from this place. Now family and friends ask when they can come visit, what new things they can do in the park, and how they can avoid the crowds (it hosts听3.3 million visitors annually). I鈥檓 sharing with you what I tell them.

What You Need to Know Before Visiting听

Wildlife is wild. Whether it鈥檚 a herd of bison on the flats just south of the park鈥檚 Moran entrance, grizzly bears in Willow Flats near Jackson Lake Junction, or moose up Cascade Canyon, the animals here are wild and need to be given space. Don鈥檛 be that visitor who gets gored or mauled: by听law you must stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves and 25 yards from all other animals, including bison, elk, pronghorns, and moose. These are minimum distances, though; if an animal reacts to your presence, you鈥檙e too close. As ungainly as bison look, they can run at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour and jump a six-foot fence.

Expect the weather to change quickly. Bluebird summer mornings can morph into afternoon thunderstorms, and a calm lake can quickly develop whitecaps during the spring, summer, and fall months. Locals joke, 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 like the weather, wait five minutes.鈥� Always bring layers and check meteorologist Jim Woodmency鈥檚 before heading out.

You鈥檒l likely need to make reservations for park campgrounds in advance. Summer 2021 is the first time sites at all of the park鈥檚 campgrounds can be reserved in advance. Previously, some campgrounds in the park worked on a first-come, first-served basis.

Roads close.听The park鈥檚 Inner Loop Road鈥攆rom the Bradley-Taggart Lakes Trailhead to Signal Mountain鈥攁nd its Moose-Wilson Road between the Death Canyon and Granite Canyon Trailheads are closed annually from November 1 to April 30 due to snow. The scenic drive up Signal Mountain is often closed until early July.

How to Get to Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton is unique among the national parks because it鈥檚 the only one home to a commercial airport.听That鈥檚 right: Jackson Hole Airport is in the park. So if you鈥檙e flying in,听you鈥檒l want a window seat鈥攁nd get the side of the plane correct: pick something on听the right side if your flight will be landing听from the north and something on the听left side if the plane will be coming听from the south.听You鈥檒l be treated to amazing views of the Tetons.

If you鈥檙e driving, there are three听routes into Jackson Hole: U.S. Highway 191 from the south, Idaho Highway 33/Wyoming Highway 22 from the west, and, if you鈥檙e coming from Yellowstone National Park, an hour north of town, U.S Highway 191. If you鈥檙e after听the most awesome views, arrive from the northeast via Moran and Highway 26. There鈥檚 a point as听you鈥檙e descending Togwotee Pass (toe-go-tee) when the trees part and the Tetons explode into view. Even though I know this vista听is coming and have experienced it hundreds of times, it still takes my breath away.

The Best Time of Year to Visit Grand Teton National Park

Winter

None of the park鈥檚 lodges, visitor centers, campgrounds, or restaurants are open in winter, usually from November to March or April. But that doesn鈥檛 mean you should stay away. From mid-December until mid-March, in partnership with , the park grooms the 14 miles of road that are closed to cars for classic and skate cross-country skiers. Visitors create snowshoe trails around Bradley and Taggart Lakes, and pretty much every peak in the range has听backcountry ski-adventure potential. Winter temperatures can sound brutally cold鈥攖here are usually a couple dozen days that don鈥檛 get warmer than zero鈥攂ut there鈥檚 something to Wyoming鈥檚 cold being a dry cold. More usual winter highs are in the twenties,听with nights around zero.

Spring

This season is amazing for three user groups: skiers, cyclists, and grizzly bear watchers. For others, everything that is closed in winter remains closed. Trails that are not buried beneath snow are muddy, and lakes are usually still frozen. Spring skiing in the Tetons can be amazing, though: steep couloirs and faces that may be prone to avalanches are on the menu in corn-snow conditions.

Each spring since 1977, the Inner Park Loop Road has opened to nonmotorized traffic听the weeks between when it鈥檚 plowed (usually April 1) and when it opens to cars (May 1).听This tradition started because the former road surface needed to dry out for several weeks before cars could use it without damaging it; however,听though that surface was replaced in 1992, the custom听lives on. (It鈥檚 not just open to cyclists鈥攔unning, in-line skating, skateboarding, and anything nonmotorized is fair game.)

The park鈥檚 grizzlies begin听to come out of hibernation in March, although females with cubs usually don鈥檛 appear until May. Spring temperatures are the most variable of any season: early-spring听highs can be in the teens, and when the season truly arrives in late April and early May, days are in the fifties听and sixties,听with nights around freezing.

Summer

The park usually stays quiet until mid-June, but听after that it鈥檚 game on鈥攁t least in the front country. is gorgeous and so, naturally, it鈥檚听the single most visited spot in the park, but there are plenty of places to escape the crowds. Depending on the elevation, wildflowers are at their best in June (on the valley floor), July (between听7,000 and听9,000 feet), and August (at 9,000-plus feet). High-alpine trails are usually snow-free come July. Daytime temperatures听can be anywhere from听the seventies to the听nineties, while nightfall brings them down into the thirties听and forties. That said, I鈥檝e听been snowed on while hiking at higher elevations in July and August.

Fall

Fall is my favorite season in the Tetons. Yes, the wildflowers are gone, but so too are the hordes. Also, have you ever heard an elk bugle? It鈥檚 an otherworldly sound. One of my favorite things to do is to grab a sandwich and a bottle of wine at , a restaurant just outside the park鈥檚 Moose entrance, and head to the historic , which was Jackson Hole鈥檚 second dude ranch when it opened in 1912, for a bugling concert. Bull elk often hang out near the Snake River here.

While it鈥檚 possible there will be new snow at the park鈥檚 higher altitudes, most hikes and backpacking itineraries are doable into October. Expect daytime temperatures听between the fifties听and seventies,听with most nights in the twenties听or thirties. Climbing season on the Grand Teton usually shuts down in mid-September.

Where to Stay in and Around Grand Teton National Park

Lodging

Although many of the park鈥檚 lodges have听names that make them听sound like they鈥檙e on the water鈥擩ackson Lake Lodge, Colter Bay Village, Jenny Lake Lodge鈥攖he only accommodation with waterfront rooms is (from $287). Its suite-style Lakefront Retreats are located听a stone鈥檚 skip from Jackson Lake. If you鈥檙e looking to splurge, (from $927, including breakfast and dinner for two adults)听is a collection of luxe, historic log cabins that are only a five-minute walk from hiking trails that lead to Cascade and Paintbrush Canyons.

The American Alpine Club runs the park鈥檚 most affordable non-camping option, the hostel-style (from $83 for two people). The ranch has a bathhouse, a communal cook shelter and library, and cabins with bunks. The park鈥檚 lodges are open from early May into October. 顿辞谤苍补苍鈥檚 , just outside the park鈥檚 Moose entrance, are open ten听months of the year (closed in November and April; from $125).

Campgrounds

This summer marks the first time all seven of the developed campgrounds in the park (from $38) are operating on an advance-reservation system. This year听the Colter Bay RV Park and Tent Village and the Headwaters Campground remain reservable via the听听but will move over to Recreation.gov for the 2022 season. The only has tent sites. The campgrounds accommodate tents, RVs, and trailers, and all of these (with the exception of ) have various听levels of hookups and dump stations.

What to Do in Grand Teton National Park

Backcountry Skiing

All backcountry skiing requires knowledge of how to safely travel amid听avalanche terrain. If you鈥檝e got the skills, ski objectives in the park range from the relatively mellow听 to steep couloirs on . Even the Grand Teton is skiable. (June 15, 2021, marks the 50th anniversary of 听becoming the first person to ski the Grand; his descent is often credited with jump-starting ski mountaineering in the U.S.)

Fishing

A river (the Snake) runs through this park, and anglers travel from around the world to . The Snake is special for its endemic species of trout, the Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat, and is also home to rainbows, browns, and brookies. The park鈥檚 lakes are open to fishing, too. A Wyoming fishing license is required.

Rock Climbing

Royal Robbins, Fred Beckey, Al Read, Yvon Chouinard, Willy Unsoeld, Barry Corbet, Mike Munger, Leigh and Irene Ortenburger, Richard Pownall, and Peter Lev are just a few of the climbers to establish听many of the routes听that are Teton classics today. Non-climbers often set their sights on summiting听13,774-foot Grand Teton, which is possible for those without climbing experience as part of a multi-day climbing-school experience with one of two guiding companies that work in the park, and . Experienced trad climbers head up Death Canyon for routes like the Snaz (5.10) and Dihedral of Horrors (5.9) or听up Garnet Canyon to Irene鈥檚 Ar锚te (5.8) and Open Book (5.9). Got climbing questions? Your best bet for beta is the .

Rafting

The Snake River is scenic鈥攖hink Class I鈥揑I rapids鈥攂ut that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 easy. It鈥檚 heavily braided and clogged with deadfalls and snags, and people die on these sections as often as they do in the Class III鈥揑V whitewater of听Snake River Canyon, south of the park. Several outfitters offer guided trips in the park. I send my visiting family and friends on the stretch from .

Backpacking

If you want to backpack here, chances are you鈥檝e heard of the 40-mile Teton Crest Trail, which stretches from Granite Canyon in the southern part of the park to Paintbrush Canyon in the north. Highlights include Marion Lake, the (a skinny听three-mile plateau where cliffs rise 300 feet to听one side and Death Canyon is visible 1,000 feet below听on the other), the Alaska Basin, and Schoolroom Glacier (so named because it is a textbook example of one). Done over three to five days, start by hiking up Granite Canyon to Marion Lake, or if you鈥檇 like a lift assist up 4,100 vertical feet, hop the听听and hike down to Marion Lake. (Note that the tram is closed this summer for routine maintenance.)

If you can鈥檛 get permits for the Crest Trail or are looking for a shorter trip, making a loop of two of the park鈥檚 canyons is a worthy consolation. Granite Canyon can be looped with Open or Death Canyons,听Death Canyon can be looped with the South Fork of Cascade Canyon,听and the North Fork of Cascade loops with Paintbrush Canyon. These vary in length from 18 to 26 miles. ($35) for all backcountry camping.

Day Hiking

It won鈥檛 feel like it as you approach Lake Solitude, but this hike is one of the flatter options in the park. (Mountain ranges lacking foothills are steep.) The six-mile trail from Jenny Lake to climbs only 2,300 vertical feet. In comparison,听the five-mile hike from the Lupine Meadows Trailhead to climbs 3,000 feet, and the eight-mile hike from the Death Canyon Trailhead to 鈥檚听11,308-foot summit ascends听5,000 vertical feet.

My single favorite trail hike in the park is the 18-mile , which passes Holly Lake and Lake Solitude and tops out at Paintbrush Divide, elevation听10,700 feet.

Truly flat (and shorter)听hiking trails are found in the park鈥檚 , a 1,106-acre park within the park and the former site of a Rockefeller summer home.听Eight miles of trails here head听to and around Phelps Lake.

Wildlife Watching

Grand Teton is part of the , one of the largest intact temperate ecosystems in the world. This means that all of the wildlife living in the region prior to the arrival of Europeans, including grizzly and brown bears, moose, bison, wolves, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, and elk, among other animals, still live here. This park鈥檚 most famous wild resident is , a sow born in 1996 that has birthed three sets of triplets and, in 2020, emerged from her den with four cubs, which is rarer than having Jenny Lake to yourself on an August day. Grizzly 399 is famous not only for her fertility, but also because she hangs around roads in the park鈥檚 northern reaches. If you鈥檙e looking for moose, try the wetlands at the northern end of .听Bison are most often found on the northern part of Antelope Flats Road or in the sage flats several miles south of the park鈥檚 Moran entrance.

Stargazing

This park isn鈥檛 recognized by the 听like some parks in Utah and Nevada, but the skies here are still clear enough that you can see the Milky Way and thousands upon thousands of stars with the naked eye. If you want to see Saturn鈥檚 rings and distant galaxies, the Jackson-based nonprofit offers stargazing safaris. It also hosts astrophotography lessons.

Cycling

There might be prettier pathways than those in Grand Teton National Park, but I鈥檝e yet to ride them. Pair the park鈥檚 听from South Jenny Lake to the bridge over the Gros Ventre River south of Kelly Junction with and you can pedal听all the way from Jenny Lake to downtown Jackson without sharing space with cars. Jenny Lake to Jackson is 18 miles one-way. A shorter option is听Jenny Lake to the park鈥檚 , a 12-mile round-trip.

The Best Places to Eat and Drink Around Grand Teton National Park

You don鈥檛 usually go to national parks to eat, but Grand Teton is an exception. If you want to treat yourself to fine dining, there are two excellent choices:听the at Jackson Lake Lodge and the . The former has an on-site butcher and panoramas听of Jackson Lake and Mount Moran that can make you forget you鈥檙e here for the food, and the butter that accompanies the warm, house-made bread comes in the shape of a moose. The latter features听a five-course prix fixe menu served in a cozy and historic log cabin. Men are听required听to wear sport coats. (In non-COVID听times, the Jenny Lake Lodge Dining Room is open, by reservation, to non-guests. This summer听it is only open to lodge guests.) Jenny Lake Lodge鈥檚 breakfast menu includes bison hash, huckleberry pancakes, and hot-from-the-oven pastries. Enjoy drinks with a view at the in Jackson Lake Lodge and at the听 at 顿辞谤苍补苍鈥檚 in the community of Moose.

It鈥檚 worth making the trip into either Jackson or Wilson to stock up on sweet and savory treats at one of two locations. For beer, don鈥檛 miss , where you can sip a pint of Snake River Pale Ale or Jenny Lake Lager while sitting around a giant bonfire on the front lawn, or the beers served at , where Kung Fu movies are sometimes playing on the TVs at the bar.

If You Have Time for a听Detour

Almost 20 years ago, Connie Kemmerer, one of the owners of , located a couple of miles south of the park鈥檚 Granite Canyon entrance, was vacationing in the Dolomites in Italy. While on a guided hike, Kemmerer says she saw 鈥渢hese people up on a mountain, climbing but not totally climbing.鈥� Her guide听explained that they were on a听via ferrata, a type of rock climbing in which bolts, rungs, and strands of cable are affixed to natural rock features with the goal of making routes easier and safer. Kemmerer thought the resort鈥檚听granite buttresses would be ideal for such climbs, and in 2017, it introduced听four , with several more following听in 2020, including Iron Way, which ends by crossing a 110-foot bridge suspended 80 feet above what听in winter听is a double-black-diamond ski run. Recover from your adventures with a soak in the newly revitalized (from $18) on the banks on the Snake River about 45 minutes south of the park.

How to Be a Conscious Visitor

You鈥檝e just hiked to the most Instagrammable high-alpine lake you鈥檝e ever seen and want to share it with all your followers. Please don鈥檛 geotag your precise location. At听, a malachite-hued, glacial-fed body of water听picturesquely positioned at the feet of Disappointment Peak and the Grand Teton that creates incredible mirror reflections of those mountains, the area听has been so severely damaged by hundreds of quick-hit daily visitors that the local tourism board started an ad campaign asking them听to use the generic geotag 鈥溾�� instead of specific locations.

The post The Ultimate Grand Teton National Park Travel Guide appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Above It All

Lagoon Resort

SOUTHERN COMFORT: A garden path at the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort

Bora Bora Lagoon Resort and Spa, Society Islands

WITH AN OPALESCENT BLUE LAGOON, views of a velvety green ancient volcano that juts 2,385 feet into the sky, and a banyan-tree-house spa, the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort and Spa—set on its own 150-acre jungle islet—is the original South Pacific idyll.

THE GOOD LIFE: Fifty Polynesian-style thatch-roofed bungalows stand over the water on stilts. Employees leave a supply of bread near the door so you can feed the fish below. The roomy digs also have private swim platforms from which you can cannonball into the water before breakfast, which arrives via outrigger canoe.

SPORTS ON-SITE: The 160-square-foot infinity swimming pool is the largest in Bora-Bora, perfect for serious laps. Drinking mai tais at the poolside bar should qualify as exercise, too. For salt water, take a complimentary Hobie Cat or kayak for a spin in the lagoon.

BEYOND THE SAND: Check out the shark-feeding excursion. Mask-wearing guests submerge in waist-high water—safely behind a rope—while a wrangler baits the toothy predators.

THE FINE PRINT: Over-water bungalows from $830, garden bungalows from $485; 800-860-4095, . Air Tahiti Nui flies direct from both LAX (from $923) and New York (from $1,223) to Tahiti (877 824-4846, ). From there it’s a 45-minute flight to Bora-Bora on Air Tahiti (from $320; 800-346-2599, ).

Royal Davui Island Resort

Fiji

FOR CENTURIES, UGAGA ISLAND, an inconspicuous eight-acre chunk of rock, sand, and coral about 20 miles south of Viti Levu, was little more than a resting place for local fishermen. Today it serves as a refuge of a different sort: Since it opened in November 2004, the Royal Davui has become one of Fiji’s most sought-after hideaways. The marble-and-onyx bar feels straight out of a slick L.A. club, giant two-foot clamshells line the walkway to the massage studio, and gnarled century-old tree roots run across the $8.5 million property.

THE GOOD LIFE: Each of the 16 multiroom villas is designed more like a house than a hotel room, with private plunge pools, a titanic Jacuzzi bathtub, and retractable bathroom skylights. Sit down for dinner under the branches of a 100-foot banyan tree and enjoy a four-course meal of mahi-mahi with freshwater mussels or papaya ravioli.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Reef sharks prowl the 25-foot wall drops along the private coral garden circling Ugaga Island. Myriad dive sites sit farther offshore, some of which have never seen a scuba diver.

BEYOND THE SAND: The resort offers tours of Beqa Island, where you can join the village chief of Naceva for a kava ceremony.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles from $1,013, including all meals; 011-679-330-7090, . Air New Zealand (800-262-1234, ) flies from LAX to Nadi, Fiji, starting at $806 round-trip. Forgo the nearly three-hour car-and-boat transfer to the island and take the helicopter shuttle; from $690 round-trip.

Pacific Resort Aitutaki

Cook Islands

Pacific Resort Aitutaki

SOUTHERN COMFORT: Deckside at Pacific Resort Aitutaki

DURING WORLD WAR II, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built two miles of runway on the island of Aitutaki for use as a South Pacific refueling and supply station. These days, the bustle is gone on this fishhook-shaped atoll, 183 miles north of Rarotonga. But on an island of white-sand beaches and azure water, who needs action?

THE GOOD LIFE: Pacific Resort Aitutaki’s three beachfront villas, complete with Italian-marble bathrooms and woven-bamboo ceilings, sit atop black volcanic rock, crowning the three-year-old, 27-room resort. From garden-fresh mango-and-passion-fruit smoothies to the house specialty, ahi katsu—chile-spiced rare tuna wrapped in nori (paper-thin dried seaweed)—the resort’s restaurant is all about blending island flavor with modern flair.

SPORTS ON-SITE: The shallow waters of Aitutaki’s 20-square-mile lagoon make for some of the Cook Islands’ best bonefishing. Or ditch the fly and think bigger—because the volcanic island rises up from a depth of more than 13,000 feet, big game like marlin and sailfish are waiting to be hooked just minutes from your beachside sundeck.

BEYOND THE SAND: Guide Ngaakitai Pureariki teaches guests local medical and cultural practices on three-hour island tours. Slice your foot on coral? The meat of an utu fruit will ease the pain. Upset stomach? The juice from a noni tree eases gastroenteritis.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles from $543; 011-682-31720, . Air New Zealand (800-262-1234, ) flies from LAX to Rarotonga starting at $806 round-trip. Air Rarotonga (011-682-22888, ) offers round trips from Rarotonga to Aitutaki starting at $263.

Traders’ Ridge Resort

Yap

OK, SO IT’S NOT EXACTLY in the South Pacific, but Yap is worth crossing the equator for. This collection of more than 130 low-lying atolls pockmarking the North Pacific between Guam and the Philippines has a mere 3,000 annual visitors. (By comparison, neighboring Palau sees 90,000 tourists a year.) The lack of outsiders, combined with sporadic access to Internet and TV, makes Yap’s culture the most intact in Micronesia—no staged luaus with stuffed pigs here. And at Traders’ Ridge Resort, the native staff loves to teach guests about their traditions, like the national addiction to chewing betel nuts. Bartender James Funwog makes it easy by shaking up betel-nut martinis.

THE GOOD LIFE: Atop a ridge overlooking Chamorro Bay, in the quiet capital town of Colonia, the 22-room Traders’ Ridge was built to resemble the 19th-century clipper ships that came here to trade. Each airy room has rich wood floors, carved paneling, and private decks. Expect Yap-inspired spa treatments (turmeric is a favorite ingredient) and seafood often caught by the chef himself. And don’t miss the spicy tuna sashimi.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Hike miles and miles through breadfruit, noni, and monkey pod trees lining millennia-old stone pathways.

BEYOND THE SAND: Hop in a skiff for the half-hour ride to Mill Channel, where you can dive with giant manta rays. Be sure not to miss the dancing in the resort’s Ethnic Art Amphitheater. The dozen basic steps are arranged into an infinite variety of hopping combinations.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles, $215, including airport transfers; 877-350-1300, . Continental Micronesia (800-525-0280, ) offers flights from LAX, via Guam, starting at $1,925.

Sinalei Reef Resort & Spa

Samoa

WHEN WORLD LEADERS LIKE Australian prime minister John Howard visited Samoa for the 2004 Pacific Islands Forum, they stayed at the Sinalei Reef Resort & Spa. The locally owned resort, set on 33 manicured acres on the southern coast of Upolu, has open-air rooms with native teak furniture, giving the place an off-the-beaten-track Samoan spin.

THE GOOD LIFE: Each fale has three folding cedar walls that can be closed for privacy or opened for a 180-degree garden or beachfront view. Sinalei completed the most luxurious of the resort’s 27 rooms—including the Honeymoon Villa, which has a private spa pool framed between a large deck and the beach—in August 2004.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Sinalei offers something most luxury resorts can’t: world-class surf. More than a half-dozen surf breaks, including hollow lefts like Siumu and Nuusafee, break within a 30-minute boat ride. Maninoa Surf Camp (011-61-2-9971-8624, ), right next door, will take you wherever the surf is best.

BEYOND THE SAND: Begin the day scanning the horizon for whales at the South Pacific’s first national park, O Le Pupu-Pue (translation: “From the Coast to the Mountaintop”). Then hike past an enormous swallow-filled lava tube and take a shower under the powerful cascade of Cedric Falls. Or head to Samoa Breweries, just outside Apia, for a taste of the island’s award-winning national suds.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles from $239, including breakfast, airport transfers, and various activities; 011-685-25191, . Air New Zealand (800-262-1234, ) flies from L.A. to Apia, Samoa, starting at $848 round-trip.

Reflections on Rarotonga

Cook Islands

Reflections on Rarotonga

SAVAGE MEETS SUBLIME: Mirror image at Reflections on Rarotonga

UNTIL RECENTLY, RAROTONGA, a 26-square-mile volcanic cone in the South Pacific, was known as a prime offshore tax haven and money-laundering center. It’s also a good place to cleanse the soul, and Reflections on Rarotonga, the Cook Islands’ charter member of Small Elegant Hotels of the World, wants to heal you one massage at a time. Reflections’ sister hotel, Rumours of Romance, opened in Muri Beach last September, offering all the cush of Reflections plus indoor and outdoor waterfalls.

THE GOOD LIFE: Whole days can slip away in your 1,500-square-foot-plus “room”—complete with super-king four-poster bed—but the champagne brunch might coax you out. For a private alternative to the ocean, head for your six-foot-deep backyard plunge pool.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Grab a sea kayak and paddle for the outer reef, less than a half-mile offshore. Drop anchor, slip on your snorkeling gear, and find Nemo or his parrotfish brethren.

BEYOND THE SAND: After your subaquatic survey of the reef, get a gull’s-eye view with a 30-minute 国产吃瓜黑料 Flights Rarotonga ultralight or paragliding flight that—in the right wind—can take you around the entire island. Soaring across clear skies and over a vivid multicolor ocean begs the question “How many shades of blue are there?”

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles at Reflections on Rarotonga start at $350, including airport transfers; 011-682-23703, . Doubles at Rumours of Romance start at $595, including airport transfers; 011-682-23703, . Air New Zealand (800-262-1234, ) flies from LAX to Rarotonga starting at $806 round-trip.

Kia Ora Sauvage

Tuamotu Archipelago

SAUVAGE MEANS “WILD,” which is what you get at Kia Ora Sauvage, set on an 11-acre islet accessible only by boat, one hour away from the island of Rangiroa. The resort has no electricity and no phone—nothing other than a white, sandy, palm-tree-dotted beach, five rustic thatch-roofed bungalows, and an open-air dining room. If you want to eat fresh, speargun-armed staff members will buzz out in a fishing boat and return with dinner; think grouper or snapper. Later, the only distraction is a sky full of constellations.

THE GOOD LIFE: The five bungalows all face the coral-studded lagoon and are separated by sand and palms. Each is equipped with the basics: a large bed draped in mosquito netting, a bathroom with a hot shower and seashell-stringed curtain, and a sink shaped like a giant clam.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Before boarding the boat at Rangiroa, guests are given snorkeling gear so they can swim among the harmless blacktip reef sharks. Or try spearing a parrotfish.

BEYOND THE SAND: Most guests combine a visit to Kia Ora Sauvage with one at its sister hotel, Kia Ora, on Rangiroa, a world-class scuba operation.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles from $400 (two-day minimum). The round-trip boat ride to Kia Ora Sauvage is $200 for two people (011-689-931-117, ). Air Tahiti Nui flies direct to Tahiti from both LAX (from $923) and New York (from $1,223; 877-824-4846, ). From there it’s a one-hour flight to Rangiroa on Air Tahiti (from $326; 800-346-2599, ).

Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort

Fiji

LANGUID DAYS UNDER LEMON TREES at Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort drip by with such tropical serenity that the universe could be on the verge of collapse and few surf-soaked guests would bother to stir. Can you blame them? They’re on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island, snoozing on orange futons by the pool under the swish of paddle fans.

THE GOOD LIFE: Twenty-five bures with vesi-wood floors pepper the grounds under mango and palm trees. Inside each, a king bed, private bath, and writing table sit under vaulted, thatched ceilings. Leave the wood blinds open to feel the night breeze pour through the screens.

SPORTS ON-SITE: Some of the best snorkeling on the planet is right off Cousteau’s pier, where myriad soft corals wave in the currents and big guys like docile eagle rays cruise off the shelf. Or work your core with a morning yoga class taught just off the beach.

BEYOND THE SAND: Head for the secret sandy beach around the point from bure number 25 with a stubby of Fiji Bitter and melt in the waves while the sun sinks. L’Aventure, the resort’s 37-foot dive boat, takes guests to Namena Island, a marine reserve an hour by boat from Cousteau, where you’ll find wall dives with a rush-hour volume of barracudas, sharks, and corals. Or paddle a kayak half a mile out to Naviavia, Cousteau’s private island.

THE FINE PRINT: Doubles, $535–$1,950 (minimum one-week stay may be required), including all meals, most activities, and airport transfers; five-day packages of daily two-tank dives cost $512; 800-246-3454, . Air Pacific flies nonstop from LAX to Nadi starting at $900 (800-227-4446, ). From Nadi, Sun Air offers daily one-hour flights to Savusavu, on Vanua Levu, for $123 each way (800-294-4864, ).

The post Eight Islands on the Half Shell appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

WHEN YOU’RE LIVING WITH THE MASAI at 18 months old, learning the Swahili words for lion and hippo at two, and making your own travel videos at 12—all while your dad shoots films for National Geographic and PBS—chances are you’re not going to grow up and take a desk job. And Tristan Bayer, son of renowned cinematographer Wolfgang Bayer, didn’t. Now 29 and addicted to globe-trotting, he’s living his dream as a filmmaker—and bringing new energy to the world of nature documentaries.

Bayer’s new Animal Planet series, Caught in the Moment (premiering June 20 at 9 p.m. EDT), features plenty of rare creatures, from spirit bears in British Columbia to snow monkeys in Japan. But the show—co-hosted by Bayer and Vanessa Garnick, a 28-year-old naturalist and actress he’s known since childhood, and featuring footage shot by Bayer—is as much about the couple’s adventures as it is about the animals. With these two, there’s no standing in the jungle whispering esoteric facts: Their mostly unscripted banter is more along the lines of “God—it’s the money shot” (when they find capuchin monkeys gobbling clams in Costa Rica) or “I love it when every plan goes out the window” (when they find themselves arriving a month early to film an annual olive ridley turtle migration).

“We’re showing that you can go to wild places, live a wild lifestyle, and still try to make a difference,” Bayer says. “You don’t have to be a dorky tree hugger or an old scientist with a beard to deal with conservation.”

Indeed. Bayer’s rugged good looks have won him modeling jobs for Vogue, Nike, and Abercrombie & Fitch. But, he’s quick to note, he used the money he earned to buy camera equipment, and he’s building up the credentials to confirm that he’s more than a pretty face. Earthling—the feature-length documentary he co-wrote, directed, and, with his father, filmed in locations around the world—won the 2005 EarthWatch Film Award (past recipients include David Attenborough) and prizes at numerous film festivals. He hopes to find a national distributor in 2006; meanwhile, he’s off to India, Mongolia, and Thailand with Garnick to film Caught episodes, and he’s editing the 300-odd hours of additional Earthling footage for a second movie, code-named Moonling.

“The world is my base,” he says. “I don’t have a car or a house, but I have passion, the desire to inspire—along with cameras, airplane tickets, and friends with couches.”

The post Hollywood and Vines appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Group Mind Meld

Get the latest on-the-ground travel tips, online

TIMELY LOCAL TRAVEL advice was once as tough to come by as a stiff drink in Salt Lake City. Looking for the new underground club in Tokyo or a drivable road to the coast in Peru’s rainy season? You no longer need to hit up other travelers once you’ve landed, thanks to growing Web-based travel forums. Designed for swapping stories and info, these sites let you tap into the knowledge of thousands of frequent fliers聴some logging on from the road聴to float plans before making a critical mistake.

禄
BEST FOR: Leisure vacations 禄 PROFILE: 444,000 users trade thoughts on international getaways 禄 TO USE: Plug keywords into the search engine 禄 CHOICE BETA: Hit the best bed-and-breakfasts along the Tour de France route.

禄
BEST FOR: Exotic adventures 禄 PROFILE: Extended travelogues (some with photos and video) filed by 10,000 bold wanderers 禄 TO USE: Skip the sermons and e-mail a member who’s been where you want to go聴or is still there 禄 CHOICE BETA: Find the most secluded beaches in Fiji.

禄
BEST FOR: Essential travel info 禄 PROFILE: 175,000 savvy travelers drill each other with pressing questions 禄 TO USE: Post your specific queries in a regional discussion group 禄 CHOICE BETA: Learn the latest visa requirements for Libya.

The post Peak Season appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

(a) SMARTWOOL ADRENALINE MICROS This biker-hiker-runner uses a padded footbed, moisture-wicking wool, and a tightly knit weave to hold the sock close to your foot. An ankle lip ensures it won’t slip under your heel. ($14; 800-550-9665, )

(b) WIGWAM MILLS INGENIUS REBELS Before you tackle a soggy spring trail run, don a pair of these superlights. A thin Olefin liner wicks the wet from sweat, rain, mud bogs, or stream crossings into a merino-wool outer layer that keeps your dogs toasty even when your socks are soaked. ($11; 800-558-7760, )

(c) EX OFFICIO BUZZ OFF HIKERS A synthetic insect repellent bonded to these wool-and-Lycra babies makes them a must-have for anyone looking to tromp through skeeter, fly, or tick country. ($18; 800-644-7303, )

(d) DEFEET BLAZES Built tough as a bank vault, with double-thick footpads and elastic midfoot supports, the polyester Blazes are a trail runner’s dream. Appreciate variety? Choose from among DeFeet’s ten designs and colors. ($11; 800-688-3067, )

(e) PATAGONIA CAPILENE MIDWEIGHT HIKERS Felted footbeds—thicker, warmer, and more durable than traditional knit footbeds—make socks perfect for long days. Vertical side channels pipe heat out from underfoot, and Patagonia’s patented hydrophobic Capilene treatment sucks sweat away ($17; 800-638-6464, )

(f) DAHLGREN OUTDOOR XTs Alpaca fur is softer yet three times more durable than wool, which makes this foot mitten perfect for daylong Central Park treks or multi-day transects in Tibet. ($14; 800-635-8539, )

(g) FOX RIVER AXT PATHFINDERS Seeking the ultimate pair of socks for a round-the-equator trip? The Pathfinder weds wool and polypropylene for quick-drying (as fast as 30 minutes in direct sunlight) and odor-shedding (polypro doesn’t absorb sweat) performance. ($13.50; 641-732-3798, )

The post The Soft Parade appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

THE FOLKS WHO RUN THE BEST WILDERNESS LODGES are something like the best masseuses: They know exactly what you want and where you want it, and when they’re done…oh, my. Breakfast is too good and too abundant, but it doesn’t matter, because you’ll just burn it off. The kayaks and canoes are ready. The mountain bikes are tuned. The guides know exactly where to go, but you’ll feel like no one’s been there before.

Life on the edge: cabins bordering Lake O’Hara, BC, Canada

The lodges that get it really get it. Once, at one in the far north, I stole off alone (and, I thought, unnoticed) after an evening of stories and red wine, grabbed a fly rod from the shed, and cast for grayling till after midnight. When I returned, there was a chocolate cookie on my pillow and a note inviting me to tap on the kitchen door if I had any fish to be cleaned.


The ten places we’ve featured below, from a Utah desert oasis to a Quebec salmon-fishing outpost, know the formula without being formulaic. Plus, by definition, they’re in or on the edge of wilderness. Which leads us to an inspired suggestion that each of our top ten can facilitate: After a tenure in their graces, step right off the porch or push off the dock and launch your own foray into the wilds, by foot, kayak, canoe, or llama. Revel deep in the setting you’ve been nibbling at. When you return a few or many days later, leave your boots on the stoop and enjoy full-on ambience, where you’ll find strong coffee wafting (and stronger beverages chilling) and leather armchairs pulled up close to a crackling fire, inviting unclocked repose. Great day. Great life. What’s for dinner?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Elk Lake Lodge

Nightly loon concertos included: the view from Elk Lake Lodge

NOW MORE THAN EVER, New Yorkers, or anyone else needing space and distance from a city, will appreciate Elk Lake Lodge. This 1903 Adirondack hideaway commands a stunning view, indeed the only view from a manmade structure, of a private wilderness comprising a 12,000-acre boreal forest and 600-acre emerald lake. The isolated retreat, 240 miles north of New York City (100 miles south of Montreal), anchors a 40-mile network of half a dozen mountain trails that visitors share with patrolling deer and black bears. With all this pristine privacy, you’ll be longing for the claustrophobia of New York City’s No. 6 subway line by week’s end.
AT THE LODGE Eight wood-framed cottages are scattered along the lake’s eastern shore, their knotty-pine interiors filled with comfortably rustic furnishings—sorry, no Jacuzzis or wet bars. If it’s available, reserve Windfall, a cabin whose terrace faces the sunrise, or ask for Little Tom, the cottage closest to the lake and thus the best from which to hear a nocturnal loon concerto. Just a couple hundred yards away, in the lodge’s timbered dining room, guests warm their hands by the fieldstone fireplace and their bellies by dining on pork chops, shrimp scampi, and other great American comfort foods, while overlooking the ramparts of New York’s other dramatic skyline, the Adirondacks.
THE SPORTS In mid-May, the islands on Elk Lake are covered with witch hobble and star flowers, making them picnic-perfect. Thanks to a lakewide ban on speedboats, the noontime stillness can be deafening. Grab a pack lunch and one of the lodge’s canoes, and try to catch dinner en route. Fishermen, like the squadrons of native ospreys, don’t need much patience to catch lake trout and landlocked salmon. Miles of easy lowland trails, edged by mushrooms, fiddleheads, and carpets of lady slippers, weave along the shore and across little bridges: Try the Sunrise Trail, a six-mile out-and-back hike.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY Aim for 4,857-foot Dix Summit, a dramatically poised peakaccessible from a lodgeside trail. Backtrack down the five-mile-long driveway, and at the top of the hill on Elk Lake Road follow the Dix Trail 3.5 miles to the Lillian Brook Lean-to, an opportune place to overnight. The next morning, pass Dix Pond and climb 1.9 miles and 2,000 feet toward Hunters Pass. Approaching the windswept ridgeline, the trail crosses a narrow arETe and tackles a series of cirques where stunted trees sprout improbably from nearly vertical faces. At the summit, a kingdom of peaks lies before you and 5,344-foot Mount Marcy frames tiny, sparkling Elk Lake.

Brooks Lake Lodge

Over the hills and far away: trail riding on mountain-bred horses

A STAY AT THIS 13,500-square-foot post-and-beam ranch in the northwestern part of the Wind River Range will make it evident why Wyomingites escape to the Winds. Relaxing on the flagstone porch, you’re dwarfed by the Pinnacles, a jagged mile-long cliff band towering nearly half a vertical mile above. There’s a nearby stable with real horsepower, a stocked lake (just 400 feet away), and a guide waiting to show you a sliver of the 5,000 square miles of surrounding wilderness.
AT THE LODGE Enjoying high tea in their Western-style sitting room, it’s not difficult to see why Brooks Lake Lodge is 95 percent full throughout the summer. Wild game, fish, and fruit are trucked in daily from as far away as California to ensure fresh meals. The lodge’s six cabins, six rooms, and presidential suite are all themed. Lamps carved to resemble trophy animals flank beds piled high with down comforters. In 2003, the lodge will open a 4,000-square-foot spa with a Jacuzzi, steam room, and exercise room—as if the spectacular terrain weren’t enough.

THE SPORTS Unbelievable but true: You can tickle fish. Follow a local to a stream where unthinned throngs of rainbow, brook, and cutthroat trout feast, and grab one…with your bare hands. Or just amble to Lower Brooks Lake, where you can cast from your canoe. For more exercise, pick up a hearty bag lunch and hike or mountain bike the five-mile Kisinger Lakes Trail. Ascend switchbacks to a 10,100-foot-high open ridge before descending to the four Kisinger Lakes, glowing green and blue from sediment and algae.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY Take a one- or two-night guided horsepacking trip, perhaps to Cub Creek in the Teton Wilderness. Two hundred feet from the water, lodge staff will set up a plush camp, with deluxe cots, washrooms, and down pillows. The lodge discourages overnight backpacking because of the resident grizzlies; about 400 make their homes within a 100-mile radius.

King Pacific Lodge

586,000 acres and not a soul in sight: at the footsteps of the Great Bear Rainforest

YOU’RE IN A LUXURY floating lodge moored to uninhabited, 568,000-acre Princess Royal Island in the heart of northern British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest: a realm of deep fjords, islands thick with old-growth red cedars, and astounding vertical relief. Stand at the edge of the craggy, exposed rock of the ridgelines and you feel like you’re on top of the world—at sea level. The channels below teem with salmon, halibut, and killer and humpback whales, and the forest behind you is home to the rare white kermode (“spirit”) bear.
AT THE LODGE It doesn’t seem possible, but this 17-room, 20,000-square-foot structure, with its soaring atrium, is built on a barge that gets hauled 90 miles back to Prince Rupert in the fall. Despite the lodge’s portability, which has kept development off the island, no detail has been spared—from the edge-grain fir tables and forged-iron chandeliers to the slate floors, red cedar walls, massive pine columns, and quarter-sawn fir beams. Rooms are big enough for a king-size bed plus a couple of cushy chairs positioned for gazing out over Barnard Harbor. Alex Rolland, a young chef from Quebec, astounds with his fresh fish and shellfish creations—yet uses a light touch, going easy on the beurre.
THE SPORTS Most guests—typically cost-is-no-object fly-fishing gentry and splurging honeymooners—come for the summerlong parade of salmon or for catch-and-release fly-casting (rainbow, cutthroat, and steelhead) in streams on Princess Royal and neighboring islands. Or you can join Norm or Chris, the resident naturalists, and head off on a different hike or sea-kayak paddle every day, or just motor out to watch the spectacle of 45-foot humpbacks breaching and feeding.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY The lodge can set you up for, say, a three-day paddle out the door and up through the tide-induced reversing rapids of Princess Royal’s Cornwall Inlet and past a Gitga’at longhouse. Set up beach camps and hike up the Cornwall Creek for the off chance of a kermode sighting. Or have a guide motor you to the east side of Campania Island, which you can traverse the easy way (through meadows and stunted forests) or the hard way (up 2,398-foot Mount Pender, along the ridges) and end up camping on the west side of Wolf Track Beach. A lodge boat will meet you there a few days later.

Kachemak Bay Winderness Lodge

Children at play: bears frollicking in McNeil River Brown Bear Sanctuary

THE SINUOUS CHANNEL in front of Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge, just southwest of Kenai Fjords National Park, evolves with the tide into broad, salmon-rich China Poot Bay, reflecting the southern light and the colors of the forest and unnamed peaks beyond. And it all seems to belong to you. A guide grabs you after breakfast like your best pal on the first morning of a long school vacation. “What do you want to do today?” he asks. “Kayak, hike, fish?” For five days, you’ve got Eden to explore together.
AT THE LODGE Weathered docks, decks, and fanciful little buildings blend with big Sitka spruces, gray churt, and beach grass, giving it the feel of an old fishing camp. But inside a cabin where you’d expect to find a rusted cot and a coffee can of nails there appears instead fine art, antiques, and a tile-and-cedar bathroom. Each cabin is only a short jaunt down a forest walk paved with rounded beach stones to the sauna or hot tub. The ceilings of the main lodge are low-slung, the dark wood walls worn smooth by years of polishing. Instead of a grand entryway, there’s a rubber-boot collection. After sushi on the deck, guests gather inside to feast on seafood, garden produce, and carefully selected wines.

THE SPORTS Paddle sports are supreme; on one day’s journey you can kayak up China Poot Bay, hike an hour to China Poot Lake, and then paddle a cached lodge canoe, feeling Lilliputian amid the high peaks surrounding the placid waters. But the lodge’s specialty is natural history: You can go tidepooling or birding, take a forest walk, or explore ruins left by predecessors of the Tanaina Indians. The staff recently included two biologists, an archaeologist, and a forest ecologist. Guest-to-guide ratios are four-to-one or lower.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY Mako’s Water Taxi (907-235-9055, ) rents and delivers kayaks. The first day, paddle up China Poot Bay to a natural waterway that connects China Poot to Peterson Bay; then go east through the roadless artists’ colony of Halibut Cove (stop for a bite at the Saltry Restaurant) to Halibut Cove Lagoon, which you can enter only at slack tide. Camp there, or stay in a Kachemak Bay State Park rental cabin. Next day, climb 2,600-foot Poot Peak. Start early the following morning to miss the day breeze, paddling out of the lagoon and along the shore to the state park campsite at Humpy Creek, a base for hikes to Grewingk Glacier or fishing in the creek. Arrange for Mako to pick you there.

Telemark Inn

Northeast of Eden: a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the Caribou Speckled Wilderness Area

THE AREA AROUND the Telemark Inn, ten miles southwest of Bethel, Maine, is proof that “East Coast wilderness” is not an oxymoron. The pastoral New England lodge is surrounded by 780,000-acre White Mountain National Forest—prime habitat for moose and black bear. Add to that owner Steve Crone’s domesticated llamas, sled dogs, and horses, and you’ll be surprised at how wild it gets just four hours north of Boston.
AT THE LODGE The cedar-shake inn, built as a hunting lodge in the late 1800s, can sleep up to 17 people in five rustic pine-paneled bedrooms. Just off a living room with creaky hardwood floors, a capacious front porch overlooks the birch forest. The inn is so far off the grid that it runs on battery power, making kerosene lamps the primary light source at the dining-room table, where guests eat family-style meals, such as grilled salmon accompanied by veggies plucked from the garden out back.
THE SPORTS Heat up on a thousand-foot scramble over massive boulders for a mile and a half to the top of Table Rock in Grafton Notch State Park. Then work your way down to several creeks feeding Bear River, where you can cool off exploring the smooth granite channels that link a chain of six-foot-deep emerald pools. Launch one of the lodge’s canoes on Umbagog Lake, a 15,000-acre national wildlife refuge surrounded by forest, to spot bald eagles, ospreys, and loons. Or rent a mountain bike and spin seven miles up a dirt road to Crocker Pond or grind out a 20-mile round-trip loop to Round Pond.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY Crone pioneered the llama-trekking business in Maine, and often loads up the woolly beasts with tents, food, and clothes for three-day trips into White Mountain National Forest. You’ll trek four miles on Haystack Notch Trail to the west branch of the Pleasant River, where you’ll camp under balsam firs and red spruces. The next day, hike about 3.5 miles to the top of 2,100-foot Red Rock Mountain for views of the Presidential Range to the west. Return to the lodge the next morning via trails along the Pleasant River.

Camelot 国产吃瓜黑料 Lodge

King of the desert: Camelot 国产吃瓜黑料 Lodge

YOU’RE ONLY SIX MILES from Moab as the crow flies, but traveling to Camelot from town on a 12.5-mile dirt road through a mad jumble of slot canyons, mesas, and buttes is excruciatingly slow and difficult, making you feel like a character out of a Paul Bowles novel. This suits owners Terry and Marcee Moore just fine. Formerly managers of a lodge in Alaska, they wanted a Lower 48 spot that replicated Alaska’s feeling of utter remoteness, except with warmer weather. Bare but for sunlight, shadows, and Anazasi petroglyphs, the sculpted stone surrounding the lodge inspires guests with a variety of visions: “It’s a vulture pulling a covered wagon.” “No, it’s three hillbillies in a bathtub.”
AT THE LODGE The solar-powered, 3,000-square-foot lodge, which opened in 1999, sits on 49 private acres just 200 yards from the Colorado River. The post-and-beam, pitch-roofed building has five guest rooms, each with a private bathroom, shower, and entrance from the deck. The views are modest, but there’s a reason: The small windows are meant to minimize solar exposure in the blistering summer. One big space encompasses the living and dining rooms, with welcoming couches and recliners. Through an archway, Marcee rules the kitchen, serving up salt-crusted prime rib and pasta with homemade pesto. For the morning frittatas, she collects fresh eggs.

THE SPORTS Leave the river’s thin ribbon of willows, grass, and tamarisk, and hike formiles in any direction up washes, over sandstone shelves, and down slot canyons. Or survey the desert like a sheik from a camel’s back. Terry, a former Hollywood trainer, has tamed five dromedaries for guests to ride. If you’D rather carry your own weight, mountain bike the Amasa Back Loop, 23 miles of road and singletrack starting from the lodge. Bring your own bike or rent one in Moab. The lodge can also arrange single- or multiday raft trips on Class III-IV+ sections of the Colorado.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY Step off the porch, shoulder a backpack, and head for Dripping Springs Canyon, about four miles from the lodge. Set up a base camp in this parabolic canyon and explore the caves that radiate into Catacomb Rock, hike the myriad unnamed drainages, and taste fresh water from a spring on the canyon’s eastern slope. The lodge also arranges three-day camel treks out to Chicken Corners, a skinny, vertigo-inducing ledge nine miles south of the lodge along a trail leading up to the mesa.

Triple Creek Ranch

Two hands deep: off-ranch horseback riding through the Bitterroot Valley

FIRST, THERE’S THE WELCOME basket full of warm oatmeal-raisin cookies. Then, you look out the window of your log cabin at the surrounding millions of acres of national forest in the foothills of Montana’s Bitterroot Range, and you realize that you’ve just passed on to sublime mountain paradise. General managers Wayne and Judy Kilpatrick and their staff of 50 (who serve 46 guests, max) will spare no effort to make your stay worthwhile: They’ll arrange a day on the Big Hole River with legendary fly-fisherman John Foust, send a masseuse to your cabin, or take a run into Darby, the nearest town, to satisfy your craving for a pint of B&J’s Wavy Gravy.
AT THE LODGE Nineteen pine-log cabins surround a main lodge with three-story-high windows. All boast special accoutrements, some coming with stocked wet bars, others with double-headed steam showers. Sit on your private deck for a morning with your favorite book or spend an afternoon by the lodge pool with a drop-dead-gorgeous view of the Bitterroots. Then slothfully move to the firelit dining room for filet mignon.

THE SPORTS Tease the browns into rising for the spring squala hatch on the Bitterroot River. Later in the summer, get in a little “rowing and throwing” during the salmon-fly hatch on the river’s west fork. Both stretches are only a few miles from the lodge. Be sure to set aside at least one afternoon for a horseback ride over brooks and through alpine meadows with Lady, one of the ranch’s 40 immaculately trained quarter horses. Or, from the Sam Billings Memorial Campground trailhead, five miles west of the lodge, hike a mellow four miles to a waterfall for a dip in a deep pool.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY With more than 19 million acres of national forest in the area, almost any trail can become a backpacking adventure. A local favorite: Drive about 23 miles east on the Skalkaho Highway, and park at the Skalkaho Pass turnoff. Hike five miles north on the Easthouse National Recreation Trail and then set up a camp with your tent flap facing 8,656-foot Dome Shaped Mountain. The next day, head four miles up to the 8,463-foot summit of Palisade Mountain, take in the views, and then continue down Trail 86 about 1.5 miles toward Skalkaho Mountain. Camp at an unnamed lake just north of the trail. On your final day, hike the two miles to Skalkaho Peak or take the south loop of Trail 86 to return to your car via the Easthouse Trail. For more details, call the Stevensville Ranger District at 406-777-5461.

Irwin Lodge

Emerson, eat your heart out: the front porch of Irwin Lodge

COMPARED WITH THE QUAINT, Victorian B&Bs in nearby Crested Butte, Irwin Lodge more closely resembles a barn. But you forgive the lack of cutesy wainscoting when sipping a gin and tonic on the 10,700-foot-high veranda, watching meadows brimming with wildflowers, and basking in the glory of the West Elk, Raggeds, and Maroon Bells-Snowmass high-alpine wilderness areas. Guests at this weathered, unpretentious lodge spend most of the day outdoors, exploring 13,058-foot Mount Owen and slightly shorter mates Ruby Peak, Purple Peak, and Afley Peak (shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss). At day’s end, they return for fine dining and the evening show: sunset and mountains alight with alpenglow.
AT THE LODGE Built in 1977 and refurbished in 1997, Irwin sports a massive fieldstone fireplace surrounded by 8,000 square feet of common area (couches, board games, pool tables, books, and two hot tubs). Kitschy paintings of rams and bears adorn the walls, as do antique skis and snowshoes. Old West memorabilia are scattered throughout, helping distinguish the eminently casual lodge from a high-altitude frat house. (The 22 guest rooms, however, part ways with the Old West, offering up their own themes: Sunflower, Birch, Snowflake, and African, to name a few.) Irwin wisely pours its upscale energies into the kitchen, whose dinner specialties include elk medallions in shiitake-mushroom sauce.

THE SPORTS Mountain biking is spectacular here, for Irwin sits just 12 unpaved miles from Crested Butte and its world-famous trails. But you don’t need to go that far: The Dyke Trail starts right out Irwin’s front door, with 16 glorious miles of serpentine turns. Anglers fish for trout in Lake Irwin, just a few hundred yards below the lodge. Horseback riders hoof up to clear, glacier-fed Green Lake on lodge-supplied mounts. Hikers either stroll among the columbines and Indian paintbrushes or bag an alpine peak via the dramatic granitic rock of nearby Scarp Ridge.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY With trails spidering off in every direction, Irwin can launch any number of backpacking trips, including the historic three-day favorite: hiking through the Maroon Bells to Aspen. Less trodden is a multiday trail through the West Elk Wilderness to the Castles of Breccia—startling pinnacles of volcanic fragments about 26 miles from the lodge. Follow the Dyke Trail to Trail 840 over Beckwith Pass, and then take Trail 438 southeast over Swampy Pass to Trail 450. From the Castles, either return the same way to Irwin or do a clockwise loop around the heart of the Elk Mountains, via Storm Pass.

Pavillon du St. Jean

It can be easy bein’ green: the emerald waters of the St. Jean River

QUEBEC’S GASPE Peninsula is known primarily for its coastline, where the Appalachian Mountains drop dramatically into the sea. But a 45-minute drive from the coastal town of Gaspe reveals the peninsula’s hidden heart脗鈥攊ts mountainous interior of old-growth spruce, cedar, and poplar that’s the Pavillon du St. Jean’s backyard. The handsome, no-frills lodge is located on perhaps the best dry-fly salmon river in the world, the St. Jean, whose pools are so brilliantly emerald you’d think the water should taste like mint. Fifteen-pound Atlantic salmon make heart-stopping rises to your fly on the 25 miles of river, on which only eight rods are allowed daily. Head guide Austin Clark, a 54-year-old with a disobedient wisp of white hair, will dance a jig when you catch your first one.
AT THE LODGE Founded in 1958, the Pavillon comprises a main lodge and four cabins; each cabin has two bedrooms, a living room with a wood stove, a private bathroom, and a porch perfect for listening to the gurgle of the river while sipping the local (9 percent) beer, Le Fin du Monde. There’s a convivial main room in the lodge, with reading chairs, a grand stone fireplace, a pool table, and a dining table for 14. Dinner is a four-course affair that might include Gaspesie favorites like ginger-and-carrot consomme, lamb, and lobster, all specialties of the lodge’s renowned Quebecois chefs.
THE SPORTS In addition to fishing, there is excellent hiking in the nearby Chic-Choc Mountains. A short drive from the town of Gaspe will take you to Forillon National Park, where you can hike six miles along the Mont Saint-Alban trail, which provides spectacular views of cliffs that drop vertiginously into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Try sea kayaking along the park’s jagged coastline in Gaspe Bay (for park information, call 800-463-6769; for kayak rentals, call Cap-Aventure at 418-892-5055), or take a whale-watching cruise to see blues, humpbacks, and minkes (Croisieres Baie de Gaspe, 418-892-5500).
BACKCOUNTRY FOREY Drive 140 miles to Le Pluvier L’Hirondelle, in the center of the Chic-Choc Mountains. There you can access the newly christened International Appalachian Trail and hike south for five days and 60 miles. Along the way, you’ll ascend 3,770-foot Mount Logan, home to the last caribou herd south of the St. Lawrence River. Then descend to the Cap-Chat River and take a prearranged shuttle back to civilization. (For shelter reservations in Parc de la GaspEsie, call 866-727-2427; for shuttle information, call IAT Quebec at 418-562-1240, ext. 2299.)

Sentry Mountain Lodge

In the back of the backcountry: ski touring near Glacier National Park

YOUR JOURNAL MIGHT READ LIKE THIS: “We flew in by helicopter, dazzled by Kinbasket Lake, Mount Bryce, the Columbia Icefields, and high points of the Canadian Rockies. The bird dropped us at a cedar hut, on a 7,128-foot col cradled by the Selkirk Mountains. Before settling in, we explored some of the lodge’s 13 square miles of alpine meadows, heather-swathed valleys, and interlaced ridges. A herd of caribou crossed our path, but otherwise we didn’t see a soul. Afterward, we sipped Big Rock Ales, basked in the alpenglow rosying up the surrounding granite peaks, and waited for Venus to pop out, which would later guide us on a midnight hike.” Of course, that would be just the first entry.
AT THE LODGE This just-built hideaway feels like a European-style mountain home, one that you share with only seven other guests: a red tin pitched roof, soaring vaulted ceilings, mural-size windows, a gray-pebble hearth, and handcrafted bookshelves overflowing with maps, fraying paperbacks, and the best local reads, like Chic Scott’s The Story of Canadian Mountaineering. The kitchen, festooned with garlic braids and lined on one side by a pine bar, is where your hosts rustle up items like cheese fondue and coq au vin from the French-inspired menu. Each of the four airy bedrooms is outfitted with a custom-made mattress, downy duvets, and fluffy bathrobes for trekking to the sauna hut.

THE SPORTS There are countless hiking and mountaineering options, and best of all, the terrain connects effortlessly, with gentle meandering accesses to most ridge tops. One morning you might walk down a half-mile to spring-fed Tetras Lake, with its east-end waterfall, and then wrap back up through stands of subalpine fir into Secret Valley, where pine marten pop up like animatronic jack-in-the-boxes. Or follow mountain-goat tracks up a 1,200-foot climb to the crest of 8,344-foot Sentry Mountain. Come winter, the snowshoe, heli-ski, telemark, and ski-touring options are bountiful.
BACKCOUNTRY FORAY SML’s guides can help fashion multiday backpacking excursions, set up heli-hiking jaunts to the celebrated glaciers of the Selkirks, or arrange a hut-to-hut itinerary. The “Esplanade Haute Route,” an eight-mile south-to-north traverse over the Esplanade Range, leads to Vista Lodge, the first in Golden Alpine Holiday’s chain of three rustic huts. From here carry on to Meadow and Sunrise, each an alpine scramble and a day’s hike away.

The post Windows on the Wild appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.