Winter road trips ideal offshoot of low gas prices
The plummeting price of gasoline has made this winter prime time for an outdoors-inspired road trip.
With the exception of a couple of months in 2008, drivers haven’t enjoyed gasoline so cheap across the continent in 10 years. Prices in the U.S. have decreased nearly 60 percent since late June. A gallon of unleaded regular was $1.74 at some stations in Spokane last week.
Reschedule the family vacation or call in sick. Make sure the tires are appropriate and stock your vehicle with winter travel survival gear including sleeping bags. Head out and save hundreds of dollars on travel costs for driving wherever your heart desires, whether it’s for surf, sun, nature or snow.
Here are five top outdoor winter road trip choices to consider and approximate round-trip distances from Spokane.
Grand Canyon
• Distance: about 2,500 miles
• Info: nps.gov/grca
Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim north of Flagstaff, Arizona, is a base for an assortment of fun along The Big Ditch. Eye-popping strolls include the 1.3-mile Trail of Time, with markers to help put geological time in perspective as you walk sometimes precariously close to the canyon rim.
Hiking from January to April has advantages here – fewer people, cooler temperatures. Day-hike down toward the Colorado River and back or haul a backpack and stay put to relish the reddish bowels of geological history. It’s nearly 10 miles down through five life zones from the South Rim by way of the famous Bright Angel Trail to the developed backpacker campground at Phantom Ranch. (Mule packers can be hired to haul your gear.) The route is shorter but steeper via the Kaibab Trail.
Spectacular backcountry sites also are available. Explore the Tonto Plateau Trail, which contours at a middle elevation of the canyon for views up and down the canyon walls.
Bring Yaktrax or other devices that attach to boots for traction on ice that coats shady stretches of upper trails. But if you head into the canyon, you might be peeling off layers as you descend and find yourself in T-shirt weather along the river – at least until the sun starts dipping.
Wintering elk are popular with visitors to the South Rim. Stargazers venture away from the lights at elevation 7,000 feet along the rim for wide-horizon, crystal clear views of the heavens.
Ins ide scoop: Find quieter, less crowded attractions at various sites along the Grand Canyon, which flanks the Colorado River for 277 miles, save for some interruptions with Native American lands. For example, Lee’s Ferry, where most rafting trips begin, has excellent hiking trails, camping and insights into Mormon history. California condors nest in this area.
Canada’s Powder Highway
• Distance: about 1,500 miles
• Info: PowderHighway.com
The moniker has been a great marketing success for a driving circuit that links eight mountain resorts through interior British Columbia. But the scenery along Canada’s Powder Highway is even better.
This road trip into the Columbia Range and Canadian Rockies has more mountains of eye candy than the Golden Globes after parties.
Head north to Cranbrook and take a spur trip to Fernie Alpine Resort, known for abundant snowfall and skiing in five open bowls.
The chance of finding world-class slopes doesn’t deteriorate as you head farther north. Sample Kimberley ski area and Panorama near Invermere. You may be tempted for another side trip to Lake Louise Ski area for more stunning scenery in Banff National Park.
Then prepare to sip the champagne of powder resorts near Golden, British Columbia. Visit the mostly expert runs of Kicking Horse and then to Revelstoke, which boasts the longest lift-served terrain in North America – and whopping 5,620 vertical feet. Its longest run, Last Spike, winds down the mountain for 9.5 miles.
Revelstoke claims to be the only resort worldwide to offer lift, cat, heli- and backcountry skiing from one village base.
Spice the return trip through the West Kootenays with visits to the trendy lakeside town of Nelson. Drive up to Whitewater, which Powder Magazine has called “one of the best powder mountains on the continent.”
Then before returning to the USA, turn off in Rossland to pillage the snowy slopes of Red Mountain.
Inside scoop: In addition to the a eight alpine resorts, there are 56 other ski operators – including nine heli-ski operators, 16 snowcat guides and 21 backcountry ski touring outfitters to serve winter enthusiasts along Canada’s Powder Highway. Choose companions wisely: Anyone in the car with a DUI record may not be allowed through Canadian customs.
Stormy Oregon Coast
• Distance: about 1,000 miles
• Info: traveloregon.com
Waves and whales are major winter attractions to the Oregon Coast.
Catch sight of great gray whales on their southern migration from the Bering Sea to the warm waters of Baja. Peak viewing occurs from mid-December through January and then in spring, peaking around late March when mother whales parade their calves along the coast from Mexico to summer pastures near Alaska.
Travel Oregon pinpoints 24 designated whale-watching spots, including Oregon’s famous coastal state parks, for best views. Check out the Whale, Sea Life and Sharks Museum in Depot Bay.
Winter is also storm-watching season, when Pacific weather whips the surf to beach-pounding proportions. Hiking routes lead to many spectacular viewpoints. (Lighthouses are likely destinations.) Always stay well away from winter surf for safety.
Or book a beach-side room – perhaps at Whaleshead Beach Resort – and watch it all from fireside.
Winter’s higher water levels on coastal rivers, bays and estuaries improve wildlife- and bird-watching from a kayak. If you don’t have your own boat, join a wildlife-watching and hot apple cider tour with Kayak Tillamook.
Inside scoop: While watching winter storms is exhilarating, the calm weather that follows is ripe for agate hunting and beachcombing on freshly scoured sands.
Wild Yellowstone
• Distance: about 1,000 miles
• Info: yellowstonenationalpark.com
Sprawling over the Montana-Wyoming border, Yellowstone National Park is a winter wildlife-watching paradise.
About 110,000 visitors enter the nation’s first national park during the entire winter compared with the 400,000-900,000 visitors each month during the summer season.
Dress for cold weather and bring snowshoes or skis to keep the blood flowing at 7,000 feet when the temperatures dip.
It’s the cold and snow that concentrates big game near roads, rivers and lower basins. Steam billows out of bison nostrils and adds volume to the spouting geysers.
The park’s two winter portals for eastbound travelers include West Yellowstone, the area’s snowmobiling hub. The town also features the excellent Rendezvous groomed nordic skiing area.
Consider the rewarding option of riding a snow coach from West Yellowstone into the cozy Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Old Faithful area features a dense concentration of geysers and other features plus wildlife such as bison, elk and wolves.
The best course for visitors who want to stay with their vehicles begins at Gardiner, Montana, and runs 44 miles, passing Mammoth Hot Springs, to Cooke City. This is the only stretch of highway in the park plowed and open to wheeled public travel in winter.
The Lamar Valley, a sweeping expanse in the northeast portion of the park along this road, holds the park’s highest concentration of bison, antelope and elk plus several packs of wolves.
Since being reintroduced to the park 20 years ago, wolves have become Yellowstone’s hottest wildlife tourist attractions.
“Yellowstone is the best place in the world to view wild wolves,” said Doug Smith, the park’s wolf project leader. And the road between Mammoth and Cooke City is the epicenter of wolf activity.
The Yellowstone General Store in Silver Gate (just outside of Cooke City) rents high-quality Swarovski spotting scopes – worth the price.
Both the Yellowstone Association and the park’s concessionaire offer winter classes and tours led by naturalists.
The century-old Chico Hot Springs, about 30 miles north of Gardiner, is a highly recommended stop along the Yellowstone River as you return through the Paradise Valley. Chico has one of the best restaurants in Montana in addition to the natural hot springs pool.
Inside scoop: Bicyclists have a once-a-year opportunity to pedal vehicle-free roads between West Yellowstone and Mammoth starting in late March to mid-April as road crews clear snow for the summer season. It’s a wild experience. Riders must prepare to encounter sudden wintery conditions as well as bison and bears emerging from their winter dens.
Sunny Sonoran Desert
• Distance: about 3,000 miles
• Info: visittucson.org
You could devote the entire winter to exploring Arizona’s outdoor attractions, but the Sonoran Desert, the most biologically diverse of the North American deserts, is worth focused attention.
Branch out from Phoenix to Gila Bend for an introduction and perhaps some hiking in Sonoran Desert National Monument.
Then set the cruise control and head for Tucson to join a range of athletes, especially cyclists, who take advantage of the dependable sunshine and bicycling, hiking and running routes. You might be motivated to keep up with a roadrunner or evade a javelina.
The Tucson area features five mountain ranges laced with trails, and a thigh-burning road-bike ride up to Mount Lemmon to nearly 9,000 feet.
Area trails systems to check out include Sabino Canyon, Rincon Mountains and the Catalina Mountains.
And don’t miss Saguaro National Park, where you can drive, pedal or hike through forests of towering cacti up to 200 years old. Saguaros are the largest cactus in the United States. Normally they reach heights of 40 feet, but the tallest saguaro on record towered 78 feet heigh.
Desert blooming, starting with poppies and progressing to cacti, usually begins around late February.
An attraction worth the entire trip is a visit to the 21-acre Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. Be waiting at the gate in the morning when the museum opens – early is prime time. The grounds include nearly 2 miles of paths, more than 1,200 plant species and 300 animals, including about 240 birds.
Take advantage of the special presentations that might cover anything from tarantulas and raptors to desert bighorns.
The Hummingbird Aviary is especially captivating. Sit still as the tiny, iridescent jewels of the desert dart about, sometimes hovering so close you can feel the air disturbed by their wings.
Inside scoop: Tucson and southern Arizona include North American birding hotspots. The region is along a migratory path between Canada and Mexico, at the north end of the tropical zone and the south end of the temperate zone. More than 500 bird species have been observed here at different altitudes through the year. Check out The Nature Conservancy’s Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve 60 miles south of Tucson and the Ramsey Canyon Preserve near Sierra Vista. Best birding tends to start in March.