1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (103 page)

In the heart of the park, a hundred miles from anything and accessible only by bush plane, the family-run Ultima Thule Lodge is all about the outdoors, plus niceties like a wood-fired sauna bathhouse, a dozen log cabins with balconies, and a dining hall serving local salmon and fresh-picked organic greens. All activities are included, with decisions about the day’s schedule made over breakfast. Options include bushplane flightseeing (landing on glaciers, mountaintops, and ocean beaches), hiking through untracked valleys and tundra, fishing, rafting, wildlife viewing, climbing, and incredible skiing. There’s even a 50-dog kennel, where guests can learn the ropes and take out a team. Unlike many of Alaska’s deep-country lodges, Ultima Thule is open year-round.

W
HERE
: park visitor center at Copper Center, 190 miles northeast of Anchorage. Tel 907-822-5234;
www.nps.gov/wrst
.
H
OW
: St. Elias Alpine Guides (tel 888-933-5427 or 907-554-4445,
www.steliasguides.com
) offers guided rafting trips and glacier trekking.
Cost:
from $890 per person for 3-day rafting trip; $699 per person for 4-day trek. For surfing in Yakutat, Icy Waves Surf Shop, tel 907-784-3226;
www.icywaves.com
.
U
LTIMA
T
HULE
: Chitina. Tel 907-688-1200;
www.ultimathulelodge.com
.
Cost:
$1,000 per person per night, all-inclusive.
W
HERE
E
LSE TO
S
TAY
: Kennicott Glacier Lodge, tel 800-582-5128 or 907-258-2350;
www.kennicottlodge.com
.
Cost:
from $189.
When:
mid-May–mid-Sept. Or the McCarthy Lodge and Ma Johnson’s Hotel, tel 907-554-4402;
www.mccarthylodge.com
.
Cost:
from $159.
When:
mid-May–Sept.
B
EST TIMES
: mid-Apr–mid-June and mid-Aug–early Oct for surfing; May–June for red salmon fishing on Copper River. The McCarthy Road is passable to most vehicles mid-May–mid-Sept, which are also best months for weather.

The Kennicott River flows through the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Birth of an Island

Big Island, Hawaii

Born of violent underwater eruptions and shaped by a million years of pounding waves, driving rain, and occasional earthquakes, Big Island is the youngest and largest of the 1,500-mile-long Hawaiian archipelago
(measuring 93 by 76 miles, it’s about the size of Connecticut). The island, a miracle of diversity, contains 11 of Earth’s 13 climate zones—from lush tropical rain forests to
desolate, black lava deserts to arctic tundra. Its beaches offer white, black, and even green shades of sand.

The island’s most prominent features are its five volcanoes; the largest, Mauna Kea, extends from sea level to 13,796 feet. View these primitive forces in the 330,000-acre Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a journey back into the creation of Earth, where deep, smoldering calderas hiss, smoky black pit craters belch out sulfur fumes, multihued cinder cones provide the backdrop for miles of charcoal-colored flows, and lava tubes cut their way through the jungle like prehistoric subway tunnels. Kilauea Volcano, the park’s biggest draw, has been spewing 2,000°F molten lava almost continuously since 1983. According to ancient legend, Pele, goddess of the volcano, searched the entire Hawaiian island chain before settling in Kilauea’s Halemaumau Crater, and today she continues to create land through daily eruptions.

Kilauea is the youngest volcano on the island and the most active volcano in the world.

From the visitor center on the north rim, follow Crater Rim Drive, an 11-mile loop that circles the summit, traverses a desert, and winds through a native rain forest. Sites along the way include Kilauea Caldera, a 2.5-mile-wide, 500-foot-deep pit; the Sulphur Banks and Steam Vents, where an active volcano emits trails of smoke and steam; and Pele’s home, Halemaumau Crater. Depending on volcanic activity, there may be opportunities for viewing active lava flows; check with rangers at the visitor center about where and how. At night the streaming lava glows like an incandescent ribbon on the flank of the mountain.

W
HERE
: 30 miles southwest of Hilo. Tel 808-985-6000;
www.nps.gov/havo
.
W
HERE TO STAY
: The rustic 1846 Volcano House (the only hotel within the park), tel 808-967-7321;
www.volcanohousehotel.com
.
Cost:
from $95.
B
EST TIMES
: Apr–May and Sept–mid-Dec, during the off-season; the week after Easter for the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo (see next page).

From Mangoes to Mangosteen, a Cornucopia of Exotic Food

Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii

The sun is just a bright orange line on the eastern horizon, and already more than 120 vendors have set up stands with red heart-shaped anthuriums, Hawaiian sweet corn, green seaweed, pale purple orchids, white
pineapples, fiery red lychees, and hundreds of other products at the Hilo Farmers Market, the best in the state. The alluring smell of just-baked bread wafts through the air, mixed with the aroma of traditional Hawaiian
lau lau
(pork, chicken, or fish steamed in ti leaves). This is the place for an epicurean adventure into the diverse culinary cultures of Hawaii.
The selection changes constantly, but it’s always fresh, appealing, and reasonably priced. You’ll also find seafood, including ahi,
opihi
(limpets), and dried fish, as well as crafts and clothing. The market is open Wednesday and Saturday with vendors selling their flowers, produce, and baked goods from sunrise to about 3
P.M
.—or as they say in casual Hawaiian fashion, from dawn ’til it’s gone.

After exploring the market, visit some of the area’s museums. The Lyman Museum features exhibits focused on Hawaii’s natural history, while the 1839 Mission House next door, the oldest wood-frame house on the island, offers a glimpse of the lives of the New England Congregationalist missionaries who built it. The Mokupapapa Discovery Center for Hawaii’s Remote Coral Reefs allows visitors to experience a part of Hawaii they’re unlikely to see for themselves, the reef ecosystem of the state’s far northwest islands. The Pacific Tsunami Museum houses artifacts and exhibits of the devastating “walls of water” that struck Hilo in 1946 and 1960; survivors of those catastrophes are among the museum’s volunteers.

There’s also the 12-acre Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo, the only natural (outdoor) tropical rain forest zoo in the U.S. Gardens abound in Hilo—not surprising, given that the city gets nearly 130 inches of rain per year—and among them is the largest formal Japanese garden outside Tokyo, the 30-acre Liliuokalani Gardens on the waterfront. After you take in the sights, you can grab dinner at one of the city’s many and varied restaurants; two of the best are Restaurant Kaikodo and Hilo Bay Café, both of which serve adventurous Pacific Rim cuisine.

W
HERE
: Kamehameha Ave. at Mamo St. Tel 808-933-1000;
www.hilofarmersmarket.com
.
When:
Wed and Sat.
L
YMAN
M
USEUM
& M
ISSION
H
OUSE
: Tel 808-935-5021;
www.lymanmuseum.org
.
When:
closed Sun.
M
OKUPAPAPA
D
ISCOVERY
C
ENTER
: Tel 808-933-8198;
www.hawaiireef.noaa.gov
.
When:
closed Sun–Mon.
T
SUNAMI
M
USEUM
: Tel 808-935-0926;
www.tsunami.org
.
When:
closed Sun.
R
AINFOREST
Z
OO
: Tel 808-959-7224;
www.hilozoo.com
.
L
ILIUOKALANI
G
ARDENS
: Tel 808-522-7060.
R
ESTAURANT
K
AIKODO
: Tel 808-961-2558;
www.restaurantkaikodo.com
.
Cost:
dinner $35.
H
ILO
B
AY
C
AFÉ
: Tel 808-935-4939.
Cost:
dinner $25.
B
EST TIME
: sunrise on Sat for the best selection at the market.

The Olympics of Island Dance

Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii

Every year, starting on Easter Sunday for a week, the generally quiet town of Hilo fills with visitors, and hotels as far away as Volcano, 30 miles to the south, swell to capacity. The town’s festive mood is due to the annual
Merrie Monarch Festival, Hawaii’s largest and most prestigious hula competition. A gorgeous display of performance and pageantry, the fete features intense competitions among the best hula
halau
(schools) from the islands and the U.S. mainland, with hundreds of dancers and musicians participating. Festival highlights also include the Miss Aloha Hula solo competition and separate female and male halau competing in both
kahiko
(ancient) and
’auana
(modern) styles. There’s also a day-long
ho’olaule’a
(party) on Hilo’s Coconut Island, a small island park in Hilo Bay, and the entire week becomes a joyous celebration of Hawaiian culture, with music, food, and arts and crafts.

The “Merrie Monarch” of the festival’s name was Hawaii’s last king, David Kalakaua, an enthusiastic patron of the arts who led the revival of the hula and other cultural traditions during his reign from 1874 to 1991. The dance and its accompanying chants
(mele),
said to have semi-divine origins, communicated history, genealogy, and prayers through the generations before Protestant missionaries introduced a writing system in the 1820s. Those same missionaries regarded the hula as a heathen practice; abetted by Queen Ka’ahumanu, a Christian convert, they suppressed it for a half-century.

First held in 1964 to help Hilo’s slumping economy recover from a disastrous tsunami four years earlier, the Merrie Monarch Festival helped spark a revival of Hawaiian culture that began in the 1970s. For decades until 1987, it was illegal to teach Hawaiian as the primary language, but today there are 22 Hawaiian-language immersion programs in schools across the state, educating some 2,000 children. In Hilo itself, the state’s Hawaiian Language College is the only college in the U.S. offering a master of arts degree in an indigenous language.

W
HERE
: The main hula competitions are held at the Edith Kanaka’ole Stadium. Tel 808-935-9168;
www.merriemonarchfestival.org
.
C
OST
: $25 for 3 nights.
W
HEN
: the week beginning with Easter Sun (Mar or Apr).
W
HERE TO STAY
: Book a year in advance for the Shipman House B&B in Hilo. Tel 800-627-8447 or 808-934-8002;
www.hilohawaii.com
.
Cost:
from $210.
B
EST TIMES
: Thurs for the crowning of Miss Aloha Hula; Fri for the hula
kahiko
(ancient) competition; Sat for the hula
’auana
(modern) competition.

A Place of Refuge