Photos Courtesy of Olympic National Park

Exploring National Parks

by Andy Vladimir

Given my choice, I think Americas national parks are as accessible and affordable as a vacation can possibly be. I do like cruises and resorts, but they cost a lot more and cant compare for scenery.

Indeed, our national parks offer free admission to people with disabilities and their companions in the same automobile, and you dont have to spend a nickel once inside. Here are four that I especially enjoy.

Everglades National Park, Florida

Because I live in Miami and Everglades is almost at our front door, we go to this park regularly. Im fortunate because not only is this the second largest park in the United States (Denali, in Alaska, is the largest), but its the easiest to get around because its flat.

Moreover, almost everything you want to see (alligators, birds, manatees, fish and park ranger tours) can be reached via boardwalks or paved pathways that are about as wheelchair-friendly as you can get. I recommend visiting this park during the cooler months when the concessions are open and the mosquitoes have gone.

There are three entrances to the park. The main one, about 45 miles southwest of Miami, has a fully accessible visitors center where you can also pick up maps, buy books and see an orientation film as well as some exhibits.

Once inside the park you can either stop at a series of trails to see the teeming wildlife, or you can drive straight to the Flamingo section, the center of the park, where theres a campground, a restaurant, a motel, cabins and some boat tours. There are even houseboats for rent if you can manage them.

For a shorter visit to the park go to the Shark Valley entrance, 40 miles west of Miami on U.S. Highway 41. Here, a 15-mile loop road has an accessible tram tour (with a ramp and wheelchair lockdowns). Theres also a half-mile boardwalk with interpretive placards at the entrance. If you need to see an alligator up close but dont want to tramp all over the park looking for one, this is the place to go.

For more information on Everglades National Park and other parks visit the National Park Service Web site at www.nps.gov.

Olympic National Park, Washington

When I lived in Seattle and we had three young children, the Olympic National Park was a frequent destination. Olympic is a World Heritage Park and a Biosphere Reserve, which simply means that it has some of the most gorgeous scenery on this planet and takes special care to conserve its natural resources.

Within the park youll find the worlds largest temperate-zone virgin rain forest as well as the biggest old-growth, mixed-conifer forest in the United States. There are also some spectacular trails with views, where you can see bald eagles, Roosevelt elk and mountain goats. In the summer the valleys and meadows are filled with wildflowers, and in the rivers you can watch the salmon jumping upriver on their way to spawn.

My personal favorite places are Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc Hot Springs and Kalaloch. There are various degrees of accessibility at all of these places, depending partly on how adventurous and mobile you are.

Photos Courtesy of Olympic National Park

Hurricane Ridge is a picturesque mountain drive to an altitude of 5,239 feet, where you can get a good look at Mount Olympus, some glaciers and subalpine meadows. Theres a fully accessible visitors center with a cafeteria, bookstore, restrooms and exhibits. Three asphalt-paved nature trails are perfect for wheeling, strolling and viewing spectacular snow-capped peaks.

I love hot springs and I havent found many that are accessible to me (if you know of one please e-mail me and Ill share it), but Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort does fit the bill. Theres an accessible lodge here (for information, call [360] 928-3325), some cabins and a ramp for reaching the springs. Theres even a wheelchair available so you can go into the water. If you want to make this an all-outdoor experience, rangers present programs at an accessible campground and an amphitheater.

Kalaloch is on the ocean 5 miles north of Queets, Wash. Here youll find the only accessible-designated campsites in the park. There are three of them: two in the woods, the other out in the open. Comfort stations are fully accessible, and you can get into the amphitheater.

Whats not accessible is the beach, unless you can negotiate some steps. Once you get there, however, the sand is hard-packed enough to get around at low tide. Nearby is Kalaloch Lodge, which has a pleasant dining room. The bathrooms and the lodge itself arent accessible, unfortunately. Still, its a great beach.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Established in 1872 and known as the home of Old Faithful geyser, Yellowstone has more diverse sites to explore than almost any other park I know. You want forest trails — Yellowstone has them. You want pristine lakes and dramatic waterfalls — it has them, too. You can go up peaks and down canyons while looking for bison, elk and bears.

Yellowstone is so huge and so diverse that you might want to consider a tour here. I traveled here with Wilderness Inquiry a few years ago. We paddled in Yellowstone Lake and camped on its shore.

I highly recommend this group, which has all kinds of tours, not only to Yellowstone but across the country. The program tries to match disabled and able-bodied people together, and has a staff adequate to make it possible for you to do anything you want. I have very little body strength so they had to lift me into canoes, tents, bathrooms and more.

They were terrific, and I had a wonderful time. They do winter and summer trips and take entire families. You can call Wilderness Inquiry at (800) 728-0719; visit www.wildernessinquiry.org; or write to 808 14th Ave., SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

If you want to do Yellowstone on your own, its fairly easy. There are boardwalks at the most interesting spots. The most accessible and, of course, the most crowded is Old Faithful, but you can also visit the Norris Geyser Basin, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park (Uncle Toms Lookout Trail) and Yellowstone Lake. The visitors center at Old Faithful has all the information youll need, along with some exhibits and a movie.

The Old Faithful Inn, a national historic monument, has a fully accessible dining room, and modern accessible rooms can be found at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Youll need reservations, though, and youd better make them early! Telephone TW Recreational Services at (307) 344-7311, or visit www.americanparknetwork.com.

Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Ive saved the best adventure for last. Katmai is our most remote national park — there are no roads leading in or out. But you can get there, and its worth the trip.

Brooks Camp at Katmai is a home of the largest land-living carnivore on Earth — the grizzly brown bear. Every summer these beasts come out of hibernation to converge on the Brooks River and feed on the spawning sockeye salmon.

The Anchorage Daily News writes, "At no other bear-viewing site can people roam so freely with so many big, unpredictable and potentially dangerous carnivorous animals. Its a bit like walking around inside the brown bear exhibit at the zoo."

To get to Katmai, you fly from Anchorage to King Salmon, where you board a small seaplane for a 20-minute flight into Brooks Lake. For me, the crew removed two of the six seats to accommodate my scooter and lifted me in and out of the plane quite easily.

Youre not allowed to enter the camp, however, until you go through "bear school," which takes another 30 minutes. Here you learn how to behave so that you dont bother the bears, who consider this place home and tolerate humans so long as they dont get in their way.

The bears are there for the serious business of survival. The salmon have arrived, and on a good day a bear can catch 20 of them by clawing them out of the river or diving below the surface. There are fishing spots to be staked out, blueberries to be picked and cubs to be protected. I was able to see all of this just by wheeling around the hard-dirt trails in the camp and from the ramped viewing platform.

The rules for humans are very simple. Youre supposed to make noise as you move down a trail to let the bears know youre approaching. Bears dont like to be surprised. If you see a bear, back away slowly. Get off the trail if you can; bears always have the right of way. And most importantly, never carry food around with you — a bear can smell food a mile away in the right conditions.

Besides bear watching, theres salmon fishing. With thousands of salmon swarming around the lake, its fairly easy to catch one. All you have to do is roll up to the shore and cast your line in. You can rent fishing equipment.

Brooks Lodge has a dining room and gift shop and one accessible cabin for rent. This cabin has four bunk beds and a bathroom large enough to drive my scooter into. The meals are simple and served buffet style, but theres plenty of willing staff around to help.

For information, call (800) 544-0551. For those who dont want to stay in the camp, the Quinnat Landing Hotel in King Salmon, (800) 770-3474 or quinnat@bristolbay.com, is also accessible.

Of Special Interest to Cruise Fans

The new 14th edition of Ethel Blums book, The Total Traveler Guide to Worldwide Cruising from Travel Publications, is absolutely the best guidebook for people with disabilities interested in cruising. Blum is a living legend in the cruise industry, and in her new edition she covers everything from how to choose and book a cruise to ports of embarkation and ports of call.

In addition she rates all of the cruise companies and their individual ships by awarding one to five anchors for food, entertainment and, most especially, cabins and other facilities for disabled travelers.

Get it at any bookstore.

To send feedback or questions about "To Boldly Go," write to Andy Vladimir in care of Quest or at andyvlad@bellsouth.net.