Impressive Less Traveled Parks and Small Towns

If planning an affordable trip by carefully reviewing your cheap traveloptions, including cheapfares, cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, cheap auto rentals, and cheap vacation packages isimportant to you, then you should consider selecting a destination less welltraveled (i.e., one with fewer crowds).

The following are some of Americas most amazing parklandsand unique small towns that are highly recommended by Budget Travel:

• Valleyof Fire State Park in Nevada is about an hours drive northeast from Las Vegasand home to 150 million year old sandstone formations and 3,000 year oldpetroglyphs (images carved in rock). There you can visit Arch Rock, Elephant Rock, and Beehives, all of whichare essentially solid stone versions of their names.

• BeaufortNorth Carolina is where you will find clean water, great fishing, and friendlypeople. The town has an air of Southerngentility about it, with restored 17^th and 19^th centurybuildings that flank the local historical society. Beaufort has a wild side, starting with undomesticatedhorses you will see roaming just across Taylors Creek. Blackbeards spirit can be explored at theNorth Carolina Maritime Museum.

• LudingtonState Park in Michigan is snug between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake. The park comprises almost 5,300 acres andincludes seven miles of sandy, dune strewn beaches, a historic lighthouse thatcan be climbed, over 20 miles of hiking trails, as well as paths for biking andcross country skiing, and the shallow, clear Big Sable River, ideal fordrifting down in inner tubes.

• HammondsportNew York is home to vintage seaplanes that have been restored and are availableto view at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum. Hammondsports passion for the past derives largely from wine. ThePleasant Valley Wine Company opened there in 1860. In 1962 a Ukrainian viticulturist transformedthe local wine industry by successfully planting European grapes in the colderNew York climate. Today wineries are themainstays of the landscape. Many of thebest things in Hammondsport are free including select wine tastings, sunbathingon condo-less Keuka Lake, relaxing on the town square and taking in outdoorsummer concerts on Thursday nights, and jam sessions in the basement of theUnion Block Italian Bistro.

• CacheRiver State Natural Area in Illinois is one of the northernmost examples of atrue Southern swamp. The park getsabout 200,000 annual visitors which works out to be less than one visitor peracre per month. The parks wetlands,floodplains, forests, and limestone barrens harbor over 100 threatened orendangered species. It is best explored by canoe. There are also 20 miles of foot trails and afloating boardwalk that leads to the center of Heron Pond.

• WeavervilleCalifornia is where you will find trappings typical of any Gold Rush townincluding a saloon, a main street and a hitching post. You will also find a 138 year old workingChinese temple and the Joss House State Historic Park which is a testament tothe towns unsung history of tolerance. Chinese immigrants, facing discrimination in ports such as SanFrancisco, were welcomed here and often settled, accounting for up to 25percent of its rush era population.

• BlackwaterFalls State Park in West Virginia is equally eye catching whether dressed inits bright greens of spring, the Crayola box colors of fall, or silvery winter,when parts of the falls freeze into man size icicles. The falls water looks more brown than blackand get its unique hue from tannic acid that leaches into the river fromhemlock and red spruce needles upstream.

• DamascusVirginia is a hiking and cycling heaven, where seven major trails intersect,including the undulating Virginia Creeper and the 2,180 mile AppalachianTrail.

• KatyTrail State Park in Missouri is the largest rails-to-trails conversion in thecountry. The mostly flat path is open tohikers and cyclists, as well as in some sections to horseback riders. This path traverses historic railroad bridges,tunnels, forests, valleys, and open fields, as well as miles of nature preserves,vineyards, and river views.

• OhiopyleState Park in Pennsylvania is an all-purpose park that sports four waterfalls,79 miles of trails, 27 miles for cyclists, 11 for horseback rides, and almost40 for cross country skiers, as well as a couple of natural water slides. The lifeblood of the 20,000 acre park is theYoughiogheny River Gorge with Class I, II, and IV whitewater rapids for raftersand kayakers.