Tonight I started planning our vacation for the year. We decided we'd like to take a southwest vacation this year on the way to California. I was about 1/2 hour into my researching and came across information on the Grand Canyon. I've been there before when I was a kid when my family first moved out from Minnesota to California and spent the whole summer traveling around all the western states and visiting all the scenic areas. But that was about 40 plus years ago.
To my surprise, it ain't like it used to be. Entrance to the Grand Canyon is $25 per vehicle, the cost of the Skywalk is $25 each, the cost of entering the reservation to get to the skywalk is $50. The estimate is $80 per person with additonal taxes and fees. And, get this, cameras are forbidden on the skywalk. However, they will take your photo and you can buy it from them at additional cost. This is a rip off. I wanted to see the Carlsbad Caverns, too. You can't take photos of the bat flight. Not even video without flash. Ya, you can buy the photo at the store. I long for the good old days when there weren't rules and regulations up the yahoo. Protect the enviroment? Mostly to make money. Oh, well. I saw the bat flight at Carlsbad Caverns. I heard the noise and suddenly saw the mass of bats and then fainted. Yep, missed the rest of the bat flight. Made my mom miss it, too, because she was trying to revive me. I wanted my husband to see this wonderful place.
All this commercialism really takes the wonder out of these wonders of the world. I went through this last year when I was planning our Boston trip. I wanted to see all the historic sites but the parking costs were ridiculous to the point we nixed it and went to North Carolina Blue Ridge Mts and had a low cost wonderful time.
This makes me want to change my plans and take a northern vacation. Maybe up through Montana, Washington and Oregon. I would say Canada, but I'm still mad at the Canadian Hockey team and even our (especially our)Penguin Sidney Crosby for taking the Olympic gold medal away from the USA team.
So what is an argonaut? Webster's says...an adventurer engaged in a quest. My quest is finding treasures in birds, landscapes and more around Erie.
3 comments:
Hi Linda - I had to smile when you mentioned the "hurt" feelings you have toward the Canadians for winning the Olympic Gold. It was a hard fought fight for USA and they weren't expected to win the gold anyway. And I was glad to see it was SC who got the game-winning goal. I like him. Anyway, regarding your disappointment in the cost today of visiting places we have enjoyed in the past without having to spend a fortune, I will totally agree. I remember years ago visiting the Taos Pueblo and there was either no charge or a minimal charge. The cost to visit today is about $10/person and if you want to take photos with your own camera it costs $5 for each camera. One thing I would encourage you to do is look into visiting either state parks or even National Wildlife Refuges. They cost much less to entrance fee. The down side, though, is that they probably don't have any overnight facilities. If you should change your mind and take the southwest route I would certainly recommend visiting Taos Pueblo as well as Bosque del Apache. If you plan to travel through Albuquerque I also recommend visiting the Rio Grande Nature Center. And if you should need overnight accommodations in New Mexico, I recommend staying in ABQ because it's much less expensive to stay in a motel than it is in Santa Fe.
Mary, reading your blog is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the southwest. But I started looking into other areas and Glacier National Park is looking really good to me. I've watched hours of YouTube videos about the Going-to-the-sun road. The park fee is only $25 for a 7-day pass. There are bears, elk, moose, mountain goats and lots of birds. I love planning trips.
Sounds good, Linda. I hope to visit that park some day, too.
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