There Truly IS No Place Like Home
By Robert E. Oliver
One positive side effect of our current economic difficulties is the number of groups and group leaders considering travel right here at home. We’ve encouraged international travel for many years with our own unique, fully-featured itineraries to Britain and Europe, but some of our most cherished travel traditions can be traced right back to the wonders of our western national parks.
Hawkeye Stages took its first group west nearly fifty years ago. The coach used for this tour was similar to the one pictured below.
A little later – in 1969 to be exact-I took a summer job in the Tour Department of Santa Fe Railway-making reservations and selling tour packages to travelers discovering the wonders of Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Sequoia National Parks; all served by famous Santa Fe streamliners with names such as The Chief, San Francisco Chief, Texas Chief, El Capitan, and the legendary Super Chief itself.
All these great trains were made up of the latest model chair cars, lounge cars, and Pullman sleepers. Dining cars served famously good Fred Harvey meals; usually considered the best dining car service on any railroad in America. We sold and operated hundreds of group tours each summer and were one of the last railroads in the country to actively solicit and promote passenger traffic. Our own fleet of buses and “Harvey cars” met the trains and provided lively, interesting guided, narrated tours of the principal sights in each of the parks.
Santa Fe’s legendary trains and service live on today in the spirit of Amtrak’s double decker Superliner cars, which were directly modeled on Santa Fe’s hugely successful high-level El Capitan chair car streamliner of the mid 1950s. Despite the recession and poor maintenance and time-keeping on some routes, ridership on Amtrak’s long-distance western trains continues to set records every summer. Travelers like train travel and that’s why we still offer it on many of our new National Parks tours.
The ingredients that make up a successful national park tour are unchanged from those wonderful days of the past. Start with the majestic landscape of our western parks, add a stay at a national park lodge, chalet or motel, enjoy meals in the cavernous log dining rooms and lounges, guided tours by expert local guides, some horseback riding, chuck wagon dinners or relaxing around a campfire and a well planned itinerary to ensure it all fits into an affordable package. Tours like this have been offered to Americans since those first Santa Fe – Fred Harvey tours dating back to about 1910.
It’s never easy improving a classic, but we may have done just that with our latest generation of motor coaches. These magnificent touring machines offer safety, comfort and style undreamed of just 20 years ago. They feature a high-level seating deck; putting your seat well above traffic for the smoothest ride possible. Wide, panoramic windows on both sides and up front ensure you won’t miss a single snow-capped peak, bear or eagle sighting. Spacious overhead compartments for carry on luggage and capacious under-coach bays for checked luggage ensure everything you need or want is instantly available. A restroom at the back of the coach allows us to take the comforts of home deep into the forest or canyonlands on our sightseeing expeditions. Finally, a competent, courteous Hawkeye Stages driver looks after your safety and comfort; ensuring care-free, car-free travel.
The great new Ken Burns series now running on PBS ensures your travelers will be asking you for a national parks tour in 2010. Give me a call today to discuss the right tour for your group’s interest, time and budget.
For a sample of the grand national park tour itineraries we have put together, please select from the links below -
National Parks of the Northern Rockies
National Parks of America's Great Southwest
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