Intelligent Travel

Utah's Prehistoric Rock Art Threatened

Just a few miles from the town of Price in central Utah lies Nine Mile Canyon, home to the greatest concentration of rock art in the United States, according to the Bureau of Land Management. Though there are few facilities, adventurous visitors can drive the 78-mile Nine Mile Canyon Back Country Byway to see the roughly 10,000 petroglyphs and pictographs carved by the Ute and Fremont Indians.

But the images, created at least one thousand years ago, have been endangered in the last several years by dust kicked up by industrial traffic related to the development of natural gas nearby. Recently, a proposal to add 800 more natural gas wells to the project would increase the traffic fourfold and was met with concern by the National Trust, the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, and other groups. The area has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, and the trust created this YouTube video to spread the word about the rock art's plight:

While pursuing natural gas (the cleanest-burning fossil fuel) is a worthy cause, it shouldn't come at the expense of a priceless collection of rock art. Canyon advocates hope that an alternate route can be agreed upon so that the integrity of this beautiful natural monument will be maintained.

Have you visited Nine Mile Canyon? What do you think?

Promise and Peril: Baja, Mexico

In the Destination Watch column in our May/June issue, "Promise and Peril," Traveler's Geotourism editor Jonathan Tourtellot's tells us that travelers should put a value on authenticity, and make "intelligent choices" when you visit a place. "When you seek authenticity, and pay for it, you're not only sending a message, you're helping protect a local asset," he writes. He mentions IT editor Janelle Nanos's recent trip to Cabo San Lucas as an example of a place on the cusp of tourism overload. Nanos offers her full story here.

Yachts crowd the harbor in downtown Cabo San Lucas

Settling into my flight home from Cabo San Lucas, I struck up a conversation with my sunburnt seatmate. Our trips, we both agreed, were tremendous, but we quickly realized they were also very different. He'd spent much of his time sipping margaritas at his all-inclusive resort, and spoke of tallying up a $500 tab at the bars following an afternoon booze cruise. I too swilled a few margaritas, but I also wandered up to the artist community of Todos Santos, explored Pacific coast beaches, and stumbled upon a local semi-pro soccer game. He’d gone to relax and get away. I went to experience the place, but had to wander outside its tourist precincts to find a true sense of local culture.

It’s been a long time since Cabo San Lucas resembled the Baja of Steinbeck’s novels. Now it’s most commonly referred to as the “next Cancun.” Timeshare hucksters shill “beautiful” condos that have yet to be built, and driving the corridor from Cabo San Lucas to San Jose del Cabo is like watching time-lapse photography of construction.  Grabbing my ocean kayak from JT Water Sports, on the tip of Playa el Médano, I gawked at the eight-million-dollar Hacienda condos rising from the shoreline like monstrous sand castles. None of the hotels and bars that lined the beach were there 15 years ago.

Molokai Ranch Closes

We were disappointed when we received a letter from reader Cynthia Burdge of Kailua, Hawaii, shortly after our Stay List came out, informing us that one of our picks, the Lodge and Beach Village at Molokai Ranch, had closed. But we were even more frustrated to learn about the circumstances surrounding it.

On March 25th, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that the hotel, which consists of a restored plantation and tent village, shuttered its doors after it was denied permission to build a 200-lot luxury development on 500 acres at La'au Point. The hotel generated more than $9 million in revenue for the island each year, and over the past few weeks, the fallout has begun its ripple effect: over 120 employees are out of work, nearby businesses that the hotel ran to serve tourists have closed, and residents are worried that the hotel will not continue to maintain roads and other public utilities that they rely on. As Burdge writes, “[T]hey ‘gave back’ to the community by putting 120 people out of work on an island where the unemployment rate was already twice that of the rest of the state...This time, Aloha means goodbye.”

Traveler wrote about the resort in our September 2004 issue, describing the hotel as family-friendly enclave and noting that "Molokai has managed to avoid the tourist crush of Oahu and Maui—and likes it that way." Molokai's uniquely authentic character was further demonstrated in our Places Rated: Islands issue (November/December 2007), where Molokai ranked highest of all of the Pacific islands. One of our panelists reported that:

"More than 60 percent of the population are native Hawaiians interested in preserving their heritage, homesteads, and family values. Many prefer to live on a subsistence level. Under these circumstances, they are resentful of and oppose tourist developments. Better to just leave the island alone."

Cambodia's "Unsettling" Developments

[UPDATE: The AP has a story that looks not only at the issues facing the temples at Angkor Wat, but the monks who reside in the area as well. The author quotes a local prince about the influx of tourists: "For many tourists, coming to Luang Prabang is like going on safari, but our monks are not monkeys or buffaloes."]

Renovation workers warn that water table damage in Angkor Wat could enable the temples to slowly sink

After long years of internal strife at the hands of the militant group the Khmer Rouge, tourism to Cambodia is now booming, with over 2 million visitors arriving last year. But, as we have noted before, a sudden influx of tourists can been a mixed blessing, especially when the necessary oversight is not in place to help stem the surge.

So a recent piece in the Independent did little to assuage our fears for the region. Writer Rob Sharp described the slew of problems facing Angkor Wat, the massive, intricately-carved sandstone temples which are a World Heritage Site, and are now on every tourists' must-see list. Sharp writes:

According to heritage experts carrying out restoration work at the temple, which is one of the biggest sets of religious ruins in the world, a plethora of new hotels, cashing in on the country's near-exponential rise in tourist numbers, is sapping gallons of water from beneath nearby urban areas. They say this could upset the delicate foundations on which Angkor Wat sits and could lead to parts of it—including its famous celestial apsara, or carved nymphs—taking an unheavenly tumble to earth.

Frolicking with Fruit

Friend of IT Roger Hamilton isn't afraid to dribble fruit juice down his chin in the name of research...

OK, it’s not one of tourism’s top ten. Still, Honduras’ Bay of Tela looked great in the aerial shot, a crescent-shaped tropical paradise anchored at both ends by national parks. But on the ground, I quickly tired of seeing dead and diseased coconut palms and hearing the roar of bulldozers carving out a sprawling golf and condo community. Land prices were soaring and squatters were laying claim to beach frontage even as the native Garinagu were happily selling their quaint communities out from under their feet.

So I turned my back on the beach, and a short taxi ride later, joined four workers and scientists eating dusky red passion fruit and spitting the seeds in a plastic pot.

Seed collecting not your taste? There’s more to the Lancetilla Botanical Garden than wiping passion-fruit juice off your chin. It’s the second largest collection of tropical plants in the world, with some 1,200 species. A botanist with the United Fruit Company started it in the 1920s with a collection of banana plants. From that humble start, the garden grew and grew, along with United's success in creating banana republics. Governments rose and fell, banana workers struck and rioted, but through all the commotion, the garden kept on photosynthesizing.

Neighborhood Watch: A Sign of Change in Hollywood?

One of Hollywood’s most photographed stars could be on its way to becoming just another real estate selling point if a Chicago-based investment firm has its way.

Cahuenga Peak’s 138 acres of unspoiled mountains, which stretch behind the postcard-ready Hollywood sign, hit the real estate market earlier this month for a cool $22 million—much to the chagrin of Los Angeles city officials, who reportedly have been trying to raise funds over the past several years to purchase the property. The city hoped to preserve the mountaintop and join it with Griffith Park, where the sign sits.

According to the L.A. Times, city leaders have so far accumulated about $5 million and had intended to ask the nonprofit Trust for Public Land to help negotiate a selling price with Fox River Financial Resources. A recent appraisal estimated the ridge was worth about $6 million, resulting in all-out sticker shock from Fox River’s lofty asking price.

Ironically, the glitzy relic-turned-Kodak-moment dates back to 1923, when the Hollywoodland Real Estate Group spent $21,000 on the sign as an advertisement to promote a new residential subdivision. The sign’s 13 letters (it read “Hollywoodland” until 1949) each measured 30 feet wide by 50 feet tall and were only intended to be a temporary addition to the landscape. Four thousand 20-watt bulbs glittered through the Hollywood night, visible from 25 miles away, and soon the sign became a symbol of the city's glamour. But after several years the icon fell into disrepair and was replaced with the debut of a new 45-foot-tall sign in 1978.

Dominica Changes Course

We were glad to hear the news that Dominica's government has decided to put a temporary halt to their plans to construct an oil refinery on the island. The slated $80-million development, funded by Venezuela, had been met with opposition from the Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association, who argued that the refinery would dissuade visitors and hurt the reputation of Dominica as the "Nature Isle" of the Caribbean.  Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit deferred to the DHTA, saying on a local radio station that he believed "fundamentally that the concerns raised by the DHTA cannot be overlooked" and that an environmental assessment would follow.

Dominica's score of 77 placed it among the "Best Rated" destinations on our Destinations Rated: Islands survey (Nov/Dec 2007). One of our expert panelists said at the time:

The Nature Isle is aptly named—awesome power and incredible beauty of nature unspoiled. Its lush mountains, indigenous population, art, craft, agro-based products, and small-scale accommodation facilities all add to the opportunity for sustainable tourism development.

But another noted that the state of projects, like the oil refinery, keep the fate of the island hanging in the balance:

A serious dichotomy [exists] between lip service to preserving and protecting its wilderness, which is the major product, and the soliciting of more cruise ships, the proposed oil refinery, and support for Japan on the whaling issue.

"If this decision sticks, it will help Dominica retain its excellent but insecure score on the Destination Stewardship Index," says Jonathan Tourtellot, director of National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations, which conducts the survey for Traveler. Dominica tied with the Grenadines as the two most unspoiled places in the Caribbean. "Given the island's eco-oriented visitors and active geology," Tourtellot speculates, "a geothermal-energy plant might suit the 'Nature Isle' image a lot better than oil."

Here's hoping that this helps tip the scales toward more sustainable practices in the future from Dominica.

Photo: Jeff Clow via Flickr

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Gaga for the Grenadines

It's cold as anything here in the nation's capital and we're dreaming of unspoiled Caribbean beaches, so we'd like to give a shout out to the Grenadines. While some sustainable-tourism panelists argued that cruise culture is taking its toll on the island chain, the Grenadines scored a decent 77 on our Destinations Rated: Islands survey, putting it in the top 20 best islands and tied with Dominica for the top Caribbean island.

So where are they and how soon can we get there?

The Grenadine chain includes 600 islands (many uninhabited) covering about 60 miles in the West Indies, namely St. Vincent, Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, and Union Island. In the north, the islands are part of the nation known as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while southern islands such as Carriacou are incorporated into Grenada.

And now for the goods. Our sustainable tourism experts said:

Beautiful destination for yachting and high-end tourists. Water is scarce so resources must be carefully managed. Good environmental awareness among the local population, who guard their islands zealously. Yachting discharge into the ocean is a problem. Given their fragility, there is need for strict development controls. Otherwise, attractive, friendly people, and good quality of life.

Another panelist bemoaned the behavior exhibited by visitors, especially cruisers:

Visitors are not sensitive to their impact on the environment, especially marine. Many yachties do not see themselves as being 'on' the destination, and is even truer of cruise ships, which boost arrival numbers while doing little for the islands' economies.

Ouch! But, to end on a happier note, another expert added:

One of the last, best hopes of the Caribbean. Bequia is a gem and the Tobago Cays, though overrun with boats, remain the best place to snorkel in the region. The only inauthentic place is Mustique and the two private resort islands.

Ever been? What's your take?

Photo: junksnowgirl via Flickr