Profile_gpp

Globe Pequot Press (GPP)

Providing expert travel advice for families

With over 600 new books published each year, Globe Pequot Press (GPP) is the largest publisher of regional travel in the United States. Their imprints include the Footprint Guides, The Lyons Press, FalconGuides®, and the Insiders’ Guides®.

GPP has partnered with Trekaroo to provide their Fun with the Family™ series to parents through the Web for the first time. The Fun with the Family series is an opinionated, personal, easy-to-use set of state guides. Each book is packed with hundreds of great ideas for keeping kids age’s two to twelve entertained for an hour, a day, or a weekend. From historical attractions and children’s museums to wildlife habitats, festivals, and parks, each guide includes hundreds of fun—and many free—things families can see or do. Each book also provides comprehensive listings of family-friendly places to stay. Now through Trekaroo, parents can get all this great information for free online.

"Bound to lead you and your kids to fun-filled days . . .
that help compose the memories of childhood."
—Family Travel Times

+ Other imprints from the GPP collection.



GPP_SoCal's Passport
 

Fwf_socal_thumb

Member since:
09 January 2009


Icon_pictureBeen to 0 Attractions
Icon_star441 Reviews
Icon_star1339 First to Review
Icon_camera21 Photo
Icon_thumbsup29 Helpful Votes

Reviews & Photos

441 Reviews


May 16 2009
0 families found this helpful
Joshua Tree National Park | kids travel, kids activities
Joshua Tree National Park
74485 National Park Dr,
Twentynine Palms,
California 92277
"Fun with the Family"
Even if your kids have never been to Joshua Tree National Park before, they will probably recognize the short, bristly, and oddly contorted trees that thrive here from the cover of the popular U2 album The Joshua Tree. It was actually Mormon settlers who named the trees. They thought their thick branches, which protrude toward the sky, resembled the biblical Joshua praying.
Try to schedule your visit to Joshua Tree around a sunset. The photographic opportunities here are unparalleled, especially when the shadows dance on the colossal rock formations and the cholla cacti and Joshuas seem to glow in the fading sunlight. The whole place has the feel of a rather eerie lunar landscape, a boundless place in which to take time out and wonder. It’s not a geographical experience anyone in your family will soon forget.
Visitor centers and wayside exhibits, providing opportunities to acquaint you with park resources, are located along main roads leading into and through the park. Park rangers are here to help you have an enjoyable, safe visit. Detailed information on weather, road conditions, backcountry use, campgrounds, and regulations may be obtained at visitor centers and entrance stations. Walks, hikes, and campfire talks are conducted chiefly in the spring and fall; information is posted on campground bulletin boards, at ranger stations, and at visitor centers. Ranger-conducted activities can increase your enjoyment and understanding of the park.
There are nine campgrounds with tables, fireplaces, and toilets. You must bring your own water and firewood. Several picnic areas for day use are available. Ask about the Junior Ranger Program.
Less than an hour’s drive north of the Coachella Valley, and worth at least a halfday detour, Joshua Tree is where the southern Colorado Desert (elevation less than 3,000 feet) meets the vast expanse of the Mojave (high desert). The park, formerly a national monument, covers 794,000 acres and in some places affords unobstructed views of more than 50 miles. The highlight for many kids will be  scrambling about the lower portions of giant quartz-monzonite boulders and monoliths in the Mojave Desert portion of the park. Be sure to check out the inspiring Junior Ranger program here.
 
 
May 16 2009
0 families found this helpful
Mojave National Preserve | kids travel, kids activities
Mojave National Preserve
Kelbaker Road,
Kelso,
California 92311
"Fun with the Family"
The Mojave National Preserve is open-year round. The preserve is easily reached via Interstate 15 or Interstate 40 east of Barstow and west of Needles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Six freeway exits provide visitor access. Road conditions vary from paved, two-lane highways to rugged four-wheel-drive roads; see a map for major routes. Maps showing all dirt roads are available at park information centers.
Many visitors to Southern California are surprised to learn how extensive the state’s desert lands really are. Some of the most prominent natural features in the preserve are the Kelso Dunes, situated in the southern section. Rising to 600 feet, the dunes are the third highest in the United States. Shifting sands on the steep side of the dunes create a unique rumbling sound that has given these mobile mounds the alias “the singing dunes.” The dunes are ringed by high mountain ranges, and the overall effect is one of a great, stark beauty. A red-tailed hawk soaring above may be the only reminder that this is Southern California, not Mars.
The Baker Desert Information Center (72157 Baker Boulevard, P.O. Box 241, Baker 92309; 760–733–4040) is open from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. daily. Hole-in-the-Wall Ranger Station (760–928–2572) is open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. The Office of the Superintendent, Mojave National Preserve, is located at 222 East Main Street, Suite 202, Barstow; (headquarters 760–255–8800; www.nps.gov/moja/).
 
 
May 16 2009
0 families found this helpful
Rainbow Basin and Owl Canyon | kids travel, kids activities
Rainbow Basin and Owl Canyon
Fossil Bed Road,
Barstow,
California
"Out of this world"
Once you’ve filled your gas tank (and your tummy tank), it’s time to leave civilization behind again. You won’t miss the sounds of the city one bit as you head north on Irwin Road, out of Barstow, and enter the realm of Rainbow Basin, a national natural landmark, where the colors of the rainbow decorate gorge walls housing an inestimable quantity of fossilized remains that are ten to thirty million years old.

And may the force be with you as you drive through the rock-strewn, other worldly landscape of Owl Canyon, where the movie Star Wars was filmed. If your kids don’t know R2D2 from C3PO, this would be the place to fill them in.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office in Barstow (760–252–6091) administers Owl Canyon; general location: 8 miles north of downtown Barstow, off Irwin Road. The canyon is open year-round and free, although there is a $6.00 fee for primitive camping sites. Activities to enjoy include bird-watching, camping, hiking or backpacking, picnicking, rockhounding or gold panning, scenic driving, and wildlife and wildflower viewing.
 
 
May 16 2009
0 families found this helpful
The Borax Visitor Center
14486 Borax Road,
Boron,
California 93516
"Finding treasure"
Everyone who finds his or her way to this center gets a sample of “TV rock.” After watching the seventeen-minute video on the worldwide uses of Borax, the kids will understand why there really is a treasure in “them thar hills.” And it’s Borax!
 
 
May 16 2009
0 families found this helpful
Kelso Dunes - Mojave National Preserve | kids travel, kids activities
Kelso Dunes - Mojave National Preserve
Kelbaker Road,
Kelso,
California
"Fun with the Family"
Located in the Mojave National Preserve, the Kelso Dunes are the third highest in the United States rising to about 600 feet. Shifting sands on the steep side of the dunes create a unique rumbling sound that has given these mobile mounds the alias “the singing dunes.” The dunes are ringed by high mountain ranges, and the overall effect is one of a great, stark beauty. A red-tailed hawk soaring above may be the only reminder that this is Southern California, not Mars.