National Parks and National Emergencies

Visiting Death Valley During COVID-19

It was only a matter of time before I had to start addressing COVID-19 on here. As a travel blog that specializes in adventure travel, the world has felt a little weird lately. People can’t go outside, trails are closing, and only a few National Parks remain open. While certain small and high traffic parks have closed, such as Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, and White Sands, some do remain open with modifications.

I am currently living on the road full time. What this means is that I carry my house with me, like a snail, and have been isolated on public land for the past almost-week. While California does have a “shelter in place” order, it was stated that driving no more than an hour to spend time outside is okay, so since the public land I’m calling home was one hour from Death Valley National Park, I wanted to take the opportunity to go in, see the park for the first time, and address how the world has had to make modifications due to this global pandemic.

Golden Canyon Trail

Currently, all National Parks are free to enter. Please keep in mind that National Parks are different from National Forests, which are run by the USDA, rather than the NPS. Largely, National Parks are not staffed right now. Visitor Centers are closed nationwide and bathrooms, campgrounds, and other facilities like parking lots that need to be maintained are locked. While Death Valley remained open, it felt like a very different, almost eerie experience to visit during this time. With only one ranger sighting throughout the entire park, multiple road closures, and 40MPH wind gusts, visiting a National Park during a National Emergency was an adventure to remember.

Please note: it is inadvisable to travel to National Parks during the COVID outbreak. I live full time on the road, mostly on BLM land, where I am able to isolate. I did not travel to go on a vacation in the National Park. This is my lifestyle, and I am treating it no differently than if I was in a house driving an hour to hike a local trail.

Zabriskie Point

About Death Valley:

Death Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48, and spans across both California and Nevada. It is most commonly accessed through the west, and we entered through Lone Pine, CA, which is where we are camped. Death Valley is a bit of a mismatched park. It has a little bit of everything, from mountains to desert, and each of its main attractions don’t really feel like they should fit together. From sand dunes to the lowest elevation in the United States at the Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Death Valley is a unique park that should be added to your list for future trips.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Restrictions in the National Park:

While Death Valley remains open at the time of the publication of this piece, there were restrictions within the park. Most visitor centers nationwide are closed right now, as are all public restrooms, lodging/camping, and pay stations. In Death Valley specifically, we were surprised to see that Panamint Springs was open, meaning we could get gas on our way into and out of the park. All parking lots were barricaded, so street parking was our only option for the sites that were open. There were also unexpected road closures, which caused for some disappointment as we tried to access Artists Palette, Dante’s View, Natural Arch, and Devils Golfcourse.

Badwater Basin Salt Flats

What was accessible?

Despite the restrictions, quite a lot was still accessible, and due to the lack of visitors, it was completely possible to still be isolated while in the park. We did not come into contact with any other people, and as avid hikers and outdoorsy humans, we always leave no trace, and that includes the spread of COVID (hands were washed often and we were careful to only touch the natural features of the park).

We were able to access the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Golden Canyon trail, Ubehebe Crater, and Zabriskie Point, so we felt like we got a decent overview of the park, even though we had less than 12 hours there altogether.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

The thing is, this trip to a National Park was incredibly different from any other National Park trip I’ve taken in the past. While this was my 35th park, it didn’t feel quite the same without a trip to the visitor center, open roads, and maps to collect. But the thing is, although we visited out of convenience and a need to get outside during this self-isolation, the park isn’t going anywhere. I can always go back and experience it in full. It’s time to let mother Earth heal first, and then the adventure can continue.

-HWS

What It's Really Like to Volunteer Overseas

The Truth About Voluntourism

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of talk about voluntourism online, and the majority of it is, unfortunately, negative. There is a huge stigma being created by the western online community telling people not to volunteer overseas for a number of reasons, but the truth is, volunteering overseas is the most effective way to travel as a conscious consumer and practice true responsible tourism.

I recently had the chance to volunteer with GIVE Volunteers in the Southeast Asian countries of Thailand and Laos. In both countries, I worked on sustainability, permaculture, and English education projects with locals, and experienced what life in these countries is like. Through my work, I’ve gained global citizenship through bringing together people who never would’ve met in an effort to create a better and more connected world, and I’ve become so close to the cultures of these countries that the remote Lao village of Sop Chem started to feel like home.

This is the truth about voluntourism, from someone who has actually done it, been to the countries, and seen the strife and kindness of their people firsthand.

Mueang Khong, Thailand

What is GIVE?

GIVE stands for Growth International Volunteer Excursions. I first learned about GIVE when a recruiter named John came into my Economics class during my senior year at my university. He handed out probably 500 flyers just to that one class, but when I showed up to the info session, only about 10 people sat in the room. Him and my now good friend, Jess told us about the program and its goals to “inspire growth, empower global citizens, and ignite sustainable change worldwide.” I had my heart already set on Thailand, but Jess convinced me to also do the Laos program, even though I hadn’t even heard of the country prior to receiving that flyer. Jess ended up being my guide in Laos, and the trip inspired me to continue creating change with my life. I realized that what I do matters, and can have a larger impact than what I was doing back at home, and because of that, I can genuinely say that GIVE changed my life, and I’ll get to how in the following sections.

(If you sign up for a GIVE trip, make sure you put me, Halle Homel, down as a reference!)

I decided that this trip was a good fit for me because, as a full time traveler, I’m always looking for ways to incorporate as much responsible tourism as I can, and volunteering overseas truly is real responsible tourism. Responsible tourism is more than just Leave No Trace, being a conscious consumer, and even working in your destination to create change. In my eyes, responsible tourism combines all of these things with cultural immersion, so that you as a traveler, have the education to truly understand the place you’re visiting through the eyes of its citizens, which will allow you to really be able to help in the way that they need. GIVE is incredibly good at communicating with the locals in the villages we worked in (Mueang Khong, Thailand and Sop Chem, Laos), and finding out exactly what they needed help with, which included everything from help composting the permaculture plots in Thailand to teaching the children of Sop Chem how to say “tomato” or ask for help in English.

Sop Chem, Laos

How sustainable is it, really?

We all know that flying isn’t the most sustainable form of travel, but giving back to the country you’re visiting is a great way to offset that carbon footprint. What I loved about this trip was that everything we did was based around sustainability, and every excursion wasn’t simply an excursion with a pretty view—each one had an educational purpose that would open our eyes to the culture a little bit more (for example, going caving where Sop Chem villagers hid during the Vietnam War, or trekking for elephants with their mahouts to learn about responsible elephant tourism). But on top of our excursions being beneficial to us and the country, we were working specifically on a lot of sustainability projects.

Permaculture stands for Permanent Culture and Permanent Agriculture, meaning the entire point behind permaculture is to create long lasting agriculture that can help a society move forward in its development through creating independence. On top of that though, our permaculture projects involved caring for plants (hello oxygen), and building a house out of earth bricks (made from mud, sand, and rice). These projects are so good for the planet, and will help move these communities further down the path to development as time goes on.

We also worked on projects with FORRU, a forest restoration group in Thailand, to make sure that new trees were able to grow, and Free the Bears, an animal sanctuary in Tat Kuang Si National Park in Laos. Free the Bears rehabilitates moon bears rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, often from malnutrition, and keeps them safe from hunters. Without both of these groups, our environment might be suffering quite a bit because moon bears are a keystone species, and, well, we know we need more trees.

One of our permaculture plots in Mueang Khong, Thailand

Traveling as a Local

I see a lot nowadays about traveling as a local, and when you volunteer overseas, you’ll have the chance to truly do so. Because your purpose for being in the country is to help out communities that need you, you’ll be living in those communities while you’re there, which will let you get acquainted with the locals on a more intimate level. In Sop Chem specifically, we spent an entire week off the grid, living in the local hostel and becoming fast friends with the locals. We learned how to weave and make rice wine from the people in the village, did a homestay for one night, taught the local children and women English so that they would have more job opportunities as adults, and hung out with the local puppy, a good girl named Bagel. We learned plenty of words in Lao too, and by the end, found it hard to break our habit of saying “Sabaidee!” instead of “hello.”

Local children in Sop Chem playing by the Nam Ou River

How much adventure is there in a volunteer trip?

I know many people travel for site seeing, not to work, or sleep in a local’s home, but the thing about GIVE is that you get a little bit of both. You’ll get that true cultural immersion, but you’ll also get plenty of opportunities for site seeing, as well as excursions you wouldn’t get as just a backpacker since you’ll already be in more remote places.

In Thailand, we got to experience the Buddhist temples, caving, waking up for sunrise, learning to make Pad Thai, weaving with the Karen Tribe, and basket making with the Lasu Tribe, all before building our own bamboo rafts to take down the river from the village of Ba Ko Lam to Pong Nyen, with an elephant trek in between.

In Laos, there was definitely more time to chill in the hammocks or walk down to the river, but we also went caving twice, hiking multiple times (once to the Power China dam being built in Sop Chem and once to Pha Deng Peak in Nong Kiaw), to Kuang Si Falls in Tat Kuang Si National Park, and learned local skills from the people of Sop Chem. We also participated in the morning Alms Ceremony and learned to meditate from a Buddhist monk (and friend of one of our guides).

Me and Mai Boon Si, one of our two elephant friends in Ba Kao Lam, Thailand. Stay tuned for a whole piece on elephant tourism coming soon.

What about the children?

Okay, if you’ve read literally anything about voluntourism prior to this, you’re probably yelling at me for volunteering with children at all overseas. Many people believe that it is cruel to give them our attention and then leave (I do plan on returning to Sop Chem though). But the truth is, these kids rely on us. We didn’t get to work much on the education projects in Thailand due to them being on winter break, so I’m going to talk mostly about Laos here. In Sop Chem, there is no English education program in the school, and yet a Lao person who speaks English is more likely to get a higher paying job as an adult. Sop Chem only has a primary school, and their teacher does not get paid. Their English classes are only taught by volunteers, and the classes are not mandatory, so the children choose to be there, to better their education. Without volunteers, they wouldn’t even have that choice. When the students show up enough, they earn points that GIVE keeps track of so that some children can earn scholarships for secondary education (high school), as they have to go to a neighboring village and live in the dorms to do so. The families of Sop Chem make far less than the national average (only about $1000 USD per year. You can support the women of Sop Chem HERE), so the opportunities of these children are minimal.

Volunteers help to make those dreams a reality, and for some children, like a girl named Noona who liked to hang out and play cards with me in the restaurant where we ate our meals, that education would allow them to become the person they dream of being. For Noona, she remembers every single volunteer by name from the past three years. She is about 7 years old, and speaks some of the best English in the village. If GIVE hadn’t given her that opportunity, she might never realize her potential, and might not have the chance to continue onto secondary school.

The mountains of Sop Chem, Laos. Good vibes to another beautiful day in paradise.

How can voluntourism change your life?

I said earlier in this piece that volunteering overseas changed my life, so before I finish up, I just want to touch on that a little. It’s so easy to only travel comfortably, but that’s never quite been my speed. I easily could’ve just booked a tour around Southeast Asia during this time, instead of spending the majority of my winter sweating in the dry-season humidity building earth bricks and carrying bags of corn husks. The thing is, in college, I had this huge need to feel like I was doing something purposeful with my life, and so I wanted to figure out a way to combine travel with sustainability. Once I actually got to Laos, though, after already having been through the entire Thailand trip, there was a larger feeling of purpose that came to me that was only perpetuated by the connections I made with the villagers.

When I sat learning how to weave from my new Lao friend named Phan, I realized how possible it is to simply be human through interacting without language. We knew exactly what each other meant and felt, without knowing more than a few words in each other’s tongue, and that moment kind of defines global citizenship to me. We are all on team human.

But overall, my trip to this country I’d never heard of opened my eyes to everything that is possible in our world. I saw myself providing education opportunities to more children in the future, helping Free the Bears provide better care for wildlife, and helping to expand the permaculture plot more in future years. There is so much impact you can make in your life—make sure some of it is to help others.

Pong Nyen, a remote village in Thailand, and the childhood home of two of our Thai guides

If you are interested in volunteering with GIVE and have any questions, feel free to email me or comment below. When you sign up, make sure you put me down as a reference!

More posts coming soon about elephant tourism, where we went in Luang Prabang province in Laos, and responsible tourism/global citizenship.