“National Parks Discovery Guides: Rocky Mountain Region” (Nat’l Parks & Conservation Assoc., $8.95)
Devils Tower was a star long before its appearance in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The core of the former volcano, which rises 867 feet from its base in the northeast corner of Wyoming, has been a national monument since 1906. You can pitch a tent or park an RV in either of two campgrounds. Among the purple coneflowers and western wheatgrass, you may spot yellow-rumped warblers or prairie dogs. And you shouldn’t feed either of them or disturb the prairie. This is the kind of picture you can put together based on the fact-filled items in this comprehensive guide. “Rocky Mountain Region” is one in a series of eight booklets, published by a non-profit citizen group, that cover 376 national park lands and historic sites. There’s nothing “new” in these guides. However, each one compiles practical information from several sources and presents it all in one, easy-to-read volume. Color maps, dining and lodging recommendations, festivals, flora and fauna, hiking trails, entrance fees, pet regulations, nearby sights and phone numbers are given. And with the 7-by-10-inch format, even the thickest guide, at 82 pages, fits easily in pack or glove compartment. Other titles cover Alaska, the Heartland, the Northeast, Pacific (California and Pacific islands) and Southeast (with the Virgin Islands). Titles on the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest will be available in March 1999. $8.95 each, plus shipping. (800-395-PARK)
“Autumn Rambles of New England” (Hunter Publishing, $14.95)
There’s a fine scenic drive you can take through Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, Michael and Mark Toughias tells us in their new book. The route they describe takes you through an area where the fall colors might last almost till November. There’s a vineyard on the route, a great stop for coffee and a farm that lets you pick pumpkins. For this and 14 other scenic routes, they’ve provided plenty of driving directions, details about the scenery and wildlife, advice on where to eat and where to sleep, and phone numbers for attractions and lodging. They could have stopped there, and they should have: The maps that accompany the drives were rendered free-hand. In places, the hand-lettering, particularly on the map for the hills of southwestern Rhode Island, is impossible to decipher; on the map for Coastal Maine, the hash of lines meant to indicate water creates a dizzying optical challenge; highway numbers are not always legible. Don’t let that keep you from buying what otherwise is useful information. Just be prepared to also buy your own maps. (800-255-0343)
VIDEO
China: The Dragon Awakes
The Great Wall of China once extended half a mile into the Pacific Ocean at Shanhaiguan, on the Gulf of Bo Hai. Now, the wall ends at the shore, where waves wash over the portion that once protected the area from a sea invasion. It’s a picture you don’t often see, this part of the wall, but it makes a good starting place for this video from Downers Grove filmmaker Frank M. Klicar, whose travel videos, like the Volga video below, take a “History Channel” approach to their subjects. The Forbidden City’s architecture and Shanghai’s harbor promenade are mentioned, but so, at length, are the camels and bazaars and homes of Kashgar, or Kashi, so far west that the lifestyle is more Turkish than Chinese. This video conveys China’s cultural variety through the people it encounters: accountants making calculations by abacus, shopkeepers setting out their wares, old men lighting firecrackers for their ancestors and everywhere people baking some form of bread. Few travelers will ever see this much of China. That makes this video a good vehicle for armchair visits. Those who are planning a China trip, even if to but one city, will find this easy homework. From Megamark Productions, $24.95 plus shipping. (630-960-1896)
The Mighty Volga: A Russian Riverboat Adventure
Some stories are timeless and deserve a slow telling. Such is that of the Volga River, so wide in places that you cannot see across it, so narrow in others that boats must go single file. Raphael and Jocelyn Green unfold their tale of the river from the deck of a cruise ship. It took the DeKalb filmmakers three trips to put it all on a video they completed two years ago. That doesn’t date this material; rather, it validates it. The people and the places and the river itself won’t have changed since then, says Raphael in a patient New England accent that sets the mood for wry observances. There’s time here to listen to the songs of schoolchildren, stop at a dairy farm, find out how much one of the river’s mighty locks weighs. At times, this video reveals Raphael’s years of diplomatic service abroad, so weighted with details it is. But that’s OK too. The Russian people know that “Mother Volga” can bear any burden placed upon her. From World Knowledge Films, $19.98 plus shipping. (815-758-4768)
INTERNET
Canberra
(www.canberratourism.com.au) When it’s noon in New York City, then it’s 2 a.m. the next day in the Australian capital of Canberra — unless it’s sometime between Oct. 27-March 30, in which case it’s 4 a.m. down there. You’ll find that and similar good-natured introductions — their smallest coin is 5 cents, tipping is appreciated but not expected, where to drink billy tea — rather than deep details, at this site. Links to national park sites are a little hard to follow. But there’s easy access to info on where to stay, rent in-line skates, go bobsledding or call for the bus schedule.
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Toni Stroud’s e-mail address is tstroud@tribune.com.
