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"places to see before they disappear 1st Edition by Holly Hughes with Larry West Contents Chapter 1 Big Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 One-of-a-Kind Landscapes . . . 2 Islands . . . 20 Ecosystems in Transition . . . 35 10 Places to See the Last Healthy Coral Reefs . . . 38 Chapter 2 Sea & Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 At Water’s Edge . . . 66 10 Disappearing Beaches . . . 80 A River Runs Through It . . . 90 Denizens of the Deep . . . 102 Chapter 3 From the Mountains to the Prairies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116 Flowers . . . 117 Into the Woods . . . 131 10 Places to See North American Prairie . . . 142 Mountain Dwellers . . . 156 10 Places to Sight Big Game . . . 168 It’s a Jungle . . . 173 Run Wild, Run Free . . . 188 10 Places Where the Bighorns Still Climb . . . 192 Chapter 4 Big Skies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 Flying High . . . 201 10 Places Where the Sky’s Still Dark at Night . . . 206 10 Places to See Piping Plovers Nest . . . 230 Waterfowl . . . 233 Chapter 5 Going to Ruins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246 Ancient Mysteries . . . 247 10 Places to See Petroglyphs . . . 258 10 Prehistoric Mounds to Visit . . . 270 Crumbling Classics . . . 275 10 Magical Stone Circles . . . 290 Chapter 6 City & Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317 Cityscapes in Peril . . . 318 Neighborhoods in Transition . . . 335 10 Last-of-Their-Kind Towns . . . 338 Chapter 7 Where History Was Made . . . . . . . . .358 Historic Haunts . . . 359 Making America . . . 370 10 American Battlefields to Fight For . . . 374 Literary Landmarks . . . 385 Chapter 8 Tarnished Gems of Architecture . . . .392 Iconic Designs . . . 393 10 Ideas of a House . . . 404 Places of Worship . . . 409 10 All-American Lighthouses . . . 416 Chapter 9 Disposable Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .425 10 Classic Movie Palaces . . . 442 10 Signs That Go Blink in the Night . . . 448 Resource Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457 Geographical Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .460 Alphabetical Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .465 Published by: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 Copyright © 2009 Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978/750-8400, fax 978/ 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317/572-3447, fax 317/572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Wiley and the Wiley Publishing logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Frommer’s is a trademark or registered trademark of Arthur Frommer. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. ISBN 978-0-470-18986-3 Editor: William Travis Production Editor: Heather Wilcox Photo Editors: Richard Fox & William Travis (with special thanks to Julia Fuchs & Joanna Kata) Interior book design: Melissa Auciello-Brogan Production by Wiley Indianapolis Composition Services Front cover photo: Amboseli National Park, Kenya: Elephant family in foreground, Mount Kilimanjaro in distance. Back cover photo: Aphrodisias, Turkey: Medusa’s head; Holbrook, Arizona: Wigwam Motel; France: Camargue horse running; Kathmandu, Nepal: prayer flags wave in the breeze at Swayambhunath Temple For information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800/762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317/572-3993 or fax 317/572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. Manufactured in the United States of America 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Holly Hughes has traveled the globe as an editor and writer—she’s the former executive editor of Fodor’s Travel Publications, the series editor of Frommer’s Irreverent Guides, and author of Frommer’s New York City with Kids and 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up. She’s also written fiction for middle graders and edits the annual Best Food Writing anthology. New York City makes a convenient jumping-off place for her travels with her three children and husband. About the Consultant Larry West is a professional writer who covers environmental issues for About.com (http://environment.about.com), which is part of The New York Times Company and one of the world’s leading online sources of news and consumer information. During his previous career as a newspaper journalist, he was part of an investigative team whose work was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and received the Edward J. Meeman Award for environmental reporting from the Scripps-Howard Foundation. An avid and experienced traveler, he currently divides his time between Oregon and Panama. An Invitation to the Reader In researching this book, we discovered many wonderful places. We’re sure you’ll find others. Please tell us about them, so we can share the information with your fellow travelers in upcoming editions. If you were disappointed with a recommendation, we’d love to know that, too. Please write to: Frommer’s 500 Places to See Before They Disappear, 1st Edition Wiley Publishing, Inc. • 111 River St. • Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 An Additional Note Please be advised that travel information is subject to change at any time—and this is especially true of prices. We therefore suggest that you write or call ahead for confirmation when making your travel plans. The authors, editors, and publisher cannot be held responsible for the experiences of readers while traveling. Your safety is important to us, however, so we encourage you to stay alert and be aware of your surroundings. Keep a close eye on cameras, purses, and wallets, all favorite targets of thieves and pickpockets. Frommer’s Icons We use four feature icons to help you quickly find the information you’re looking for. At the end of each review, look for: Where to get more information ( 0 Nearest airport Nearest train station Recommended kid-friendly hotels L v A Letter from the Author Why These 500 Places? Nailing Jell-O to a wall—that’s what writing this book felt like at times. I have been haunted by that fact that, between the time this book was being written and the time it would appear in stores—let alone by the time you finally read it—any of these threatened destinations could have radically changed. That came with the territory, so to speak—you can’t call a book 500 Places to See Before They Disappear without assuming that the places you’re going to write about are on the brink of extinction. I became afraid to open the newspaper in the morning. The 2008 one-two punch of the cyclone in Myanmar and the Sichuan earthquake in China is a perfect example of how perilous the fate of our planet seems these days. If you’ve bought this book, you don’t need me to tell you that. Those of us concerned about earth’s survival already hear the warning alarms around us on a daily basis. But when all is said and done, this book is, above all, meant to be a travel guide, not a scientific treatise or an eco-sermon. What you’ll find in these pages is a carefully chosen list of destinations for travelers to enjoy. That verb “enjoy” is crucial—for in the process of cherishing these natural and cultural wonders, we renew our commitment to preserving them. Naturally, as travelers we don’t want to visit only ruins and devastation—so whenever possible, I’ve steered you to those spots where now-rare species are surviving, where special landscapes are still intact, where unique cultural artifacts have been preserved. (Who wants to devote a week’s precious vacation to dive at a dying coral reef, when there are still healthy ones to glory over?) And as you visit these places, hopefully my suggestions will help you do so with sustainable travel habits—choosing nonpolluting, fuel-efficient transportation, supporting local suppliers, and leaving as few traces as possible on the land. We Can Make a Difference Here’s the good news. At the outset, I feared that this project would be infinitely depressing. Yet over the months I spent researching and writing, I discovered more positive developments than I expected. Some of the destinations I’ve included in this book are already on the road to being saved, usually because they’ve been championed by preservationists with a will to make a difference. And even in cases where a site has been lost, or irrevocably damaged, it often has become a rallying point for activists, inspiring them to fight on so that the same mistakes aren’t made again. Many of the case studies in this book are reasons for hope, not despair, and the more support we can lend them, the better. The litany of environmental concerns is familiar to all of us by now—global warming, pollution, deforestation, desertification, melting ice caps and glaciers, rising oceans, acid rain, invasive species, loss of biodiversity. Though many situations were caused by human arrogance or ignorance, others are inevitable cyclical developments, and many others are reversible. Sometimes even small changes can arrest the decline of an ecosystem, something as simple as letting a river revert to its natural course or not suppressing beneficial forest fires. So many of the 500 case studies in this book prove that we can make a difference. vi Though this book was originally conceived as a handbook for eco-tourists, it soon became clear that we couldn’t separate natural and man-made attractions. After all, historical and cultural landmarks are part of the environment, too. The destruction of an entire city like New Orleans is as much as a natural disaster as the destruction of an entire biosphere like the Amazonian rainforest; the same concerns affect the Acropolis as the giant redwoods. If changes in the natural environment have threatened the piping plover, the Tasmanian devil, and the mountain gorilla, so too have changes in our cultural environment threatened classic amusement parks, ballparks, and movie palaces. Our planet is the poorer every time we allow something beautiful to die. A Note on Hotels & Tours You’ll also find at the end of every write-up useful information about visitors bureaus, transportation options, tour operators, and hotel recommendations. I wish I’d had space to give you full-blown reviews, but you can rely on these choices being solid values with an eco-friendly dimension. (You don’t need my help in finding the poshest hotel in town—what’s hard to find is the small locally owned hotel with no advertising budget.) The three price ranges I note—$$$ (expensive), $$ (moderate), and $ (inexpensive)— are all relative to the local market. A $125-per-night motel room in South Dakota would seem expensive, but if you can find something clean and safe at that price in London, snap it up! Similarly, in more far-flung destinations I’ve listed local tour specialists who can package your visit for you, whenever possible choosing operators with a sustainable travel focus. For fuller descriptions (and other useful travel info), please consult the corresponding Frommer’s guides for these destinations. Note that any phone numbers listed are what you’d dial from outside the country—for local dialing in non-U.S. destinations, drop the country code and add a 0 before the first number. Five hundred disappearing destinations—that’s a lot. Inevitably, some of them won’t survive, or will only survive in a diminished, damaged version. If reading about any of these sights inspires you to experience them for yourself, don’t put it off—start booking your trip now. Acknowledgments I’d like to thank the devoted corps of Frommer’s writers who alerted me to looming crises on their various turfs. You’re the real experts in your various parts of the world, and I’m beholden to you. And a special thanks goes out to my husband and three children, who put up with all my lectures on recycling and energy saving and animal welfare while I was in the throes of writing this book. Hopefully they enjoyed our trips to the desert, the volcanoes, the rainforest, and the seashore anyway. And hopefully most of these 500 places will somehow survive, so that my children can take their children there someday, too. vii Frommers.com Now that you have this guidebook to help you plan a great trip, visit our website at www. frommers.com for additional travel information on more than 4,000 destinations. We update features regularly to give you instant access to the most current trip-planning information available. At Frommers.com, you’ll find scoops on the best airfares, lodging rates, and car rental bargains. You can even book your travel online through our reliable travel booking partners. Other popular features include: • • • • • • Online updates of our most popular guidebooks Vacation sweepstakes and contest giveaways Newsletters highlighting the hottest travel trends Podcasts, interactive maps, and up-to-the-minute events listings Opinionated blog entries by Arthur Frommer himself Online travel message boards with featured travel discussions 1 Big Pictures One-of-a-Kind Landscapes . . . 2 Islands . . . 20 Ecosystems in Transition . . . 35 Los Glaciares National Park. BIG PICTURES Los Glaciares National Park. One-of-a-Kind Landscapes 1 The Everglades Choking the River of Grass Southern Florida A THRIVING ECOSYSTEM FILLED WITH RARE SPECIES, THE EVERGLADES HAS LOST APPROXIMATELY 50% of its land due to agriculture and urban development. Dwindling water levels and pollution have severely compromised what remains. The number of bird species has fallen by 93%, and many of the fish that remain show high mercury levels. There’s nothing else like it on the planet: a vast marshy river that’s 40 miles (64km) wide but rarely more than knee deep. Endangered species such as manatees, hawksbill turtles, panthers, American crocodiles, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, great egrets, wood storks, snail kites, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, and the big black Anhinga bird thrive in its murky backwaters. It’s the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live side by side. An estimated half of the Everglades has already disappeared over the past century, as land is filled in for farms and residential developments for booming south Florida. The natural flow of water into the wetlands is diverted for drinking water, sewers, and irrigation, and what water does flow in is often contaminated. Though $8 billion was appropriated in 2000 to build new reservoirs, filter marshes, and dismantle disruptive canals, most of those engineering projects are stalled. The state has failed to enforce pollution limits; to date only half the acreage earmarked for preservation has been acquired. Swooping into the Everglades. 2 THE GRAND CANYON In this unique ecosystem, even a slight water-level drop in the winter dry season radically alters the topography of this shallow plain, affecting nesting areas and food supply. Cattails aggressively root in the marshlands, clogging waterways when the rains return; the balance between saltwater and freshwater in the park’s southern estuaries gets out of whack, killing the seagrass that shelters so many marine species. Still, though, you can explore this delicate ecosystem in a variety of ways. Hikers and bird-watchers strike out on boardwalk trails from the Flamingo Visitor Center, which lead through mangrove swamps, coastal prairies shaded by buttonwood trees, and around freshwater ponds. Trails from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center explore saw-grass marsh, forests of pines and palmettos, and hammocks of tropical hardwood trees such as mahogany and gumbo-limbo. From the Shark Valley Visitor Center, there’s excellent cycling through the saw-grass prairie, as well as tram tours. But to my mind, the best way to experience the Everglades is on the water—and no, not on one of those heavily promoted Everglades tours on noisy powered airboats that operate outside the park limits. The national park’s longest “trails” are designed for canoe travel, where you can really feel the gentle surging of the park’s waters. You can rent canoes at the Gulf Coast Visitor Center in Everglades City or the Flamingo Lodge by the Flamingo Visitor Center. Better yet, book a guided canoe tour; contact Everglades National Park Boat Tours (& 800/445-7724) at the Parks Docks on Chokoloskee Causeway (Hwy. 29) in Everglades City, or North American Canoe Tours at the Ivey House (see “Lodging,” below). With a guide in the prow of your canoe, you’ll know just where to look to uncover the secrets of this amazing terrain. Everglades National Park (& 305/ 242-7700; www.nps.gov/ever). Visitor centers: Ernest Coe, 40001 State Rd., Homestead. Flamingo, Hwy. 9336, west of Florida City. Gulf Coast, Hwy. 29, Everglades City. Shark Valley, 36000 SW 8th St., Miami. ( Miami International Airport $$ Best Western Gateway to the Keys, 411 S. Krome Ave. (U.S. 1), Florida City (& 305/246-5100; www.bestwestern. com). $$ Ivey House B&B, 107 Camellia St., Everglades City (& 239/695-3299; www.iveyhouse.com). L 2 One-of-a-Kind Landscapes The Grand Canyon Where the Earth Splits Open Tusayan, Arizona RISING METAL AND MINERAL PRICES WORLDWIDE HAVE SPARKED A NEW WAVE OF PROSPECTING in the Old West. The number of mining claims near the Grand Canyon increased from 10 in 2003 to more than 1,100 in 2008, bringing with them the risk of stream and groundwater contamination from cyanide and other chemicals. Postcards just don’t do justice to this classic American panorama, a majestic 277-milelong (446km) canyon of the Colorado River, a primeval, titanic gash in the earth’s crust. Gaze down into its depth from the rim and you’ll see striated bands of 3 BIG PICTURES The Grand Canyon. multicolored rock, a living history of geologic periods unfolding at your feet. Descend into it, on foot or mule back, and you’ll pass through no less than four distinct climate zones, as if you began your day in Mexico and ended it in Alaska. Ride those raging whitewaters on a raft and you’ll experience how one river could carve such a monumental chasm out of the sandstone desert. On such an iconic stage, environmental battles are fiercely waged. The increase of mining claims and its potential threat are ongoing concerns, but the outcome is still up in the air. Nearly half of the river’s endemic fish species have disappeared in recent years, but careful wildlife management appears to have turned the tide for the endangered humpback chub. But as part of the greater Colorado River system, the Grand Canyon’s fate hinges on so many factors beyond the park boundaries. The Glen Canyon Dam, constructed upriver in 1964 to manage the canyon’s flood levels and trap sediments, recently adjusted its seasonal waterlevel variations, a useful strategy to mimic natural flood cycles. But as sediments build behind the dam, Lake Powell—a popular recreational area created by the dam—could silt up. Even worse, the Glen Canyon Dam could burst, releasing a catastrophic flood to pummel the canyon and crest o..."

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