Fish for walleye deep in the wilderness of Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, on six-night guided trips offered daily through October.
Participants spend one night at the Wabakimi Eco-Lodge before embarking by canoe into the park for five nights of camping.
Wabakimi is a dense boreal forest laced with waterways and lakes in the lowlands of the Canadian Shield, which surrounds Hudson Bay. It is home to woodland caribou, moose, eagles and wolves.
“You don’t need to be an expert camper to go on this trip. It can be your first time out,” said Scott Adams of the Paddling Ontario Alliance, a consortium of travel outfitters. Gear and setup are provided. Guests take a train into the area and are picked up by floatplane when it’s time to leave, he said.
Cost: $1,695 per person, including lodging; meals; train from Thunder Bay, Ontario; return flight from Wabakimi to Thunder Bay; and all camping and fishing gear. Airfare from Los Angeles to Thunder Bay is not included.
Contact: Wabakimi Canoe Outfitters and Eco-Lodge, Armstrong, Ontario; 807-767-2022, www.wabakimi.com. Paddling Ontario Alliance, Peterborough, Ontario; www.paddlingontario.com.
Take a Yangtze cruise
Sail the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and tour the city of Chongqing Shi on nine-night trips that depart from Los Angeles on Dec. 5, 12, 19 and 26.
After one night in Chongqing Shi, travelers embark on a seven-night cruise aboard the 130-passenger Victoria Rose, traveling about 200 miles to the port city of Yichang and back.
They’ll pass through the Three Gorges, where the walls rise to more than 4,000 feet. The group takes an excursion to the massive Three Gorges dam project, and smaller boats take passengers to the clear-flowing Lesser Gorges to see rock formations.
The tour also stops in the so-called ghost city of Fengdu, where hundreds of gardens are filled with statues of ghosts and devils.
Cost: $1,299 and up per person, double occupancy ($600 single surcharge), including round-trip international airfare from Los Angeles to Shanghai, cruise and hotel accommodations, sightseeing, and meals. Taxes are not included.
Contact: Ritz Tours, Alhambra, Calif.; 800-900-2446 or 626-289-7777.
Historic California
Discover Tomo-Kahni State Historic Park near Tehachapi during guided tours on Saturdays.
The park is the site of an ancient Kawaiisu American Indian village.
“It’s awe inspiring,” said Judy Elgin of the Mojave Desert Information Center. Extensive rock art and numerous grinding holes are visible. Visitors can enter the park only if escorted by a ranger or trained volunteer.
The five-hour guided tours are offered Saturdays from mid-September to November and from April to June. High-clearance vehicles are recommended. Visitors are advised to bring water and snacks. Participants gather at 9 a.m. at the Tomo-Kahni Resource Center at 112 F. St., Suite A, Tehachapi.
Cost: $4 adults, $2 children 6 to16. Not recommended for children younger than 6. Reservation fees: $5 for up to six people, $10 for groups of seven to 12.
Contact: Mojave Desert Information Center 661-942-0662, www.parks.ca.gov.
Fall in the Rockies
Gold and white are the colors of the Rocky Mountains as the leaves change and the first snowfalls hit.
Snow already has fallen in several locations, and staff at the Loveland Ski Area in Colorado said they hoped to begin making snow by October.
The high country is a popular destination for day-trippers coming to see the aspens and other vegetation change color. Leaves change later in the season at lower elevations.
For suggested drives in the area, go to www.parks.state.co.us/fall.
Wedding fee in Smokies
Citing a five-fold increase in weddings inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the past half-decade, the National Park Service is set to begin charging for permits for them.
“We are not making money; we are just recouping our costs,” park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said of the plan intended to give Smokies’ managers greater control over the 600 or so weddings held annually in the country’s most-visited national park.
Beginning today, couples must pay a $50 nonrefundable fee for weddings in the park straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
That applies to standard ceremonies, Gray said. More elaborate ceremonies that call for rangers to be present for traffic control or other services require an additional $150 use permit.
Businesses that want to use the park as a location for weddings as part of packages they sell must buy a commercial-use authorization. The same applies to companies that transport people to wedding locations, wedding photographers and other such services. Those applications will cost $200 plus $10 each month of the 24-month authorization.
Some commercial operations stage as many as six weddings daily in the park, encroaching on the experience of visitors there for an outdoors experience, Gray said.
Grand Staircase marks 10th anniversary
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah is marking the 10th anniversary of the controversial decision to include it in the national park system.
President Clinton locked up 1.9 million acres with a stroke of a pen, preventing tons of coal from being mined. With no public hearings, he used authority under a 1906 law to create the monument in southern Utah near the Arizona border.
The park’s Web site – www.ut.blm.gov/monument – describes the remote monument’s landscape as “vast and austere” with a “spectacular array of scientific and historic resources.”
Travel classes, seminars
AAA Travel presents a travel show with something for every traveler – cruises, land tours, domestic and exotic destinations, packing workshops, travel merchandise and passport services – all in one place.
The Travel Expo takes place Oct. 7 at the Lynnwood Convention Center (3711 196th St. SW). Two feature presentations – “First-time Cruisers” and “Pack Like a Pro” – will start at 9 a.m.
The Travel Expo and hourly travel destination presentations take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For a complete list of presentations, go to www.aaawa.com/travelexpo or call for a brochure, 877-802-6895. Admission and parking are free.
Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door holds free travel classes from 10 to 11:30 a.m. most Saturdays at the Edmonds Theater, 415 Main St., Edmonds.
* France with Steve Smith, 10 a.m. Oct. 7.
* Packing Light and Right with Joan Robinson, 10 a.m. Oct. 14.
* Sicily and Southern Italy with Julie Coen, 10 a.m. Oct. 21.
* London with Lisa Friend, 10 a.m. Oct. 28.
Reservations are recommended. Call 425-771-8303, ext. 298, or go to www.ricksteves.com/seattle.
The Savvy Traveler offers travel seminars at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. most Saturdays at 112 Fifth Ave. S., Edmonds.
* Packing like a savvy traveler, 10 a.m. Oct. 7.
* German for travelers, 6 p.m. Thursdays, Oct. 19 through Nov. 23.
* Explore Northern Italy, 10 a.m. Oct. 21.
* Southern Italy and Sicily, 1 p.m. Oct. 21.
* Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, 10 a.m. Nov. 4.
* Slovenia and Croatia: Jewels of the Adriatic, 1 p.m. Nov. 4.
* France: Paris and Provence, 10 a.m. Nov. 18.
* Stunning Greece, 1 p.m. Nov. 18.
Classes are free, reservations recommended. Call 425-744-6076 or 877-225-1994 or go to www.savvytraveleredmonds.com.
The Herald is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with cruise lines, travel agents or tour operators.
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