The 100 Best Affordable Vacations (31 page)

 
Costanoa, California
. Located an hour south of San Francisco, this eco-adventure resort overlooks the rugged seaside bluffs of California’s Highway 1 adjacent to four state parks. While the cabins, lodge, and tented bungalows tend to be pricey, starting at $89, guests can bring their own tents and stay in the KOA campground (650-879-7302,
www.koa.com
). Bare tent sites from $22.50; sites with electricity also available.
Costanoa, 877-262-7848,
www.costanoa.com
.

 
Edisto Beach State Park, South Carolina
. An hour from Charleston, Edisto Beach State Park (one of the settings used in the book and film
Prince of Tides
) features an oceanfront campground on a beach famed for its shells and palmetto trees. Entry to the 1,200-acre park costs $4 for adults; campsites cost $17–$26, depending on facilities; some cabins are also available.
Edisto Beach State Park, 843-869-2756,
www.southcarolinaparks.com
.

 
Grayland Beach State Park, Washington
. Thanks to a Pacific beach stretching almost 1.5 miles long, this 412-acre park in southern Washington south of Aberdeen is a hit with kite flyers, saltwater anglers and crabbers, and bird-watchers. Along with primitive sites ($14) and those with hookups ($28), the park offers 16 yurts that sleep five (from $60).
Grayland Beach State Park, 888-226-7688,
www.parks.wa.gov
.

 
Mossy’s Alaska Seaside Farm, Alaska
. In Homer, Alaska, this location offers cabins (from $55), hostel bunks (from $20), and tent sites (from $10) on a working organic farm with views over Kachemak Bay.
Mossy’s Alaska Seaside Farm, 907-235-7850,
www.xyz.net/~seaside
.

 
Wild Duck Campground, Maine
. Thanks to its meandering coast, Maine is home to many appealing campgrounds with water views. The Wild Duck Campground in Scarborough, south of Portland, sits on 3,000 acres overlooking a salt marsh. No children are allowed; campsites from $27.
Wild Duck Campground, 207-883-4432,
www.wildduckcampground.com
.

Florida Keys Tourism,
800-352-5397,
www.fla-keys.com
.

St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Thanks to philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller, 7,000 acres of the Caribbean island of St. John is a U.S. national park (340-776-6201,
www.nps.gov/viis
), complete with campsites and permanent tent camps. Reached only by a ferry from St. Thomas or Tortola or by private boat, St. John is one of the trio of U.S. Virgin Islands, a laid-back island of forests, curvy beaches and snorkeling easily reached from shore. Still, the capital Cruz Bay is home to chic shops and restaurants—a beacon for day-trippers and an antidote for city dwellers in need of a shot of retail therapy. From the St. John ferry landing in the cozy town of Cruz Bay, inexpensive open-air group taxis run frequently to the park’s beaches and wooded hiking trails.

One of the least expensive camping options is at
Cinnamon Bay
(800-539-9998,
www.cinnamonbay.com
), which features permanent tents, cottages, and bare campsites—many just feet from the beach. All use shared bathhouses—and all book up quickly. Bare sites are priced from $30, tents from $65, cottages from $77.

Maho Bay Camps
(800-392-9004,
www.maho.org
) runs two eco-camping resorts set against white-sand beaches. The well-known
Maho Bay
has 114 permanent tented huts nestled among the trees; all have cooking facilities and guests use shared bathhouses. The camp is a 30-minute ride from Cruz Bay, so a car is handy, but the resort offers enough activities and facilities that, on a short trip, you can do without. It books up well in advance; prices start at $80 for a double. Maho Bay’s second resort,
Estate Concordia Preserve,
is a bit farther from town yet, and without a car you may feel cut off. Permanent eco-tents from $105.

U.S. Virgin Islands Travel and Tourism,
800-732-8784 or 305-442-7200,
www.usvitourism.vi
.

search for the kirtland’s warbler

NORTHERN MICHIGAN

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

—
LOU HOLTZ (B. 1937), COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH AND COMMENTATOR

36 |
The world’s rarest warbler is a picky customer. It nests on the ground, but only in forests of jack pines, and the trees must be between 5 and 15 years old. Only a few places meet these exacting requirements, most notably sparsely populated northern Michigan.

By all accounts, the Kirtland’s warbler, a half-ounce, yellow-breasted songbird, should be extinct. In the 1970s just a few hundred pairs existed. Now the number has reached more than 1,800. And a few pairs have started showing up in Wisconsin and southern Ontario.

“It’s a great comeback story,” says Jim Enger, chairman of the Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Festival, which is held every May in Roscommon, Michigan, the center of warblerdom. “There’s only going to be one place that you can see this bird. You’ve got to come to a few counties in northern Michigan. That’s it.”

Named for the Ohio doctor who discovered the species, the bird is a looker. The male has a bright yellow breast with a few black spots on each side and a gray-blue back. The female isn’t quite as flashy, but both sexes have striking white open rings around the eyes. The birds began to die off when settlers came to the Midwest and cleared forests, destroying much of the bird’s habitat. Then when humans started to suppress forest fires, the warbler’s fate became even more precarious since jack pine cones release seeds after the heat of fire.

But in the mid-1980s, state and federal officials thought the bird could be saved and forged a plan to systematically create the proper habitat. They set aside more than 150,000 acres of national forest to be used for Kirtland’s warbler habitat. The Huron-Manistee National Forest and surrounding lands are managed so that at a minimum, 50,000 acres of jack pine are left in conditions perfect for the bird.

In addition, the warbler has to contend with the sneaky cowbird, which moved into the region when fields were cleared. The parasitic bird lays its eggs in warbler nests, leaving unaware foster parent warblers to raise the interlopers’ young instead of their own. Scientists have battled this problem by trapping cowbirds in the warbler habitat.

All this effort makes the warblers’ renaissance something to celebrate. The one-day, annual Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Festival (989-275-5000,
http://warbler.kirtland.edu
) costs $5; attracts about 2,000 visitors; and includes tours, presentations, and demonstrations.

Even if you miss the festivities, a couple different tours are available during nesting season, mid-May through early July. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Michigan Audubon Society conduct free trips to the habitat every day at 7 and 11 a.m. from mid-May through July 4; the tours leave from the Ramada Inn in Grayling (2650 I-75S Business Loop, Grayling); see
www.fws.gov/midwest/eastlansing/tour.html
for more information. The U.S. Forest Service also offers daily tours from May 15 through July 2 at 7 a.m. They cost $10 and leave from the
Mio Ranger District office
(401 Court St., Mio, 989-826-3252,
www.fs.fed.us/r9/hmnf/pages/warbindex.htm
). Both tours may require you to convoy in your own vehicle to the nesting area.

Guests usually see the tiny bird, and almost inevitably they’ll hear it. “When males arrive in early May, they sit atop old dead trees and sing like crazy,” says Enger. The song can be heard up to a half mile away. Not bad for a little guy that weighs just a few grams.

There’s also a self-guided auto tour starting outside Mio covering more than 40 miles of largely dirt roads through bird habitat, taking in areas that are home to ospreys, eagles, loons, and songbirds. “If you’re a birder you can easily spend half a day,” says Enger. Information is available from the Mio Ranger District.

Visitors should stop by
Hartwick Pines State Park
(4216 Ranger Rd., Grayling, 989-348-7068,
www.michigan.gov/hartwickpines
), which has a stand of the state’s oldest and tallest red and white pines. The forest is home to a dozen warbler species, which the park’s nature center can help you identify. The area is also laced with rivers that are perfect for canoeing, kayaking, and tubing.