Dismas Charities Security Monitor Health Care Carondelet Surgery Center Operating Room RN's Mechanical Pioneer Landscaping Diesel Fleet Mechanics General SOS Exterminating Termite Tech FT Administrative & Professional Oracle Controls Office Assistant Health Care Old Pueblo Practice Management Surgical/Medical Biller/Coder General Wasatch Property Management Maintenance Tech CalienteGrand Canyon Audio Ranger a great tool for visitorsArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.22.2008
Here's the predicament for many visitors at Grand Canyon National Park: So much to see and learn, so little time.
Something called the Grand Canyon Audio Ranger might help.
It's a new portable audio guide to park highlights available from the nonprofit Grand Canyon Association.
With 117 minutes of narration, comments from rangers and music, the recording corresponds with a walking tour along a stretch of the Canyon's South Rim.
"Only a very small percentage of visitors have an opportunity to interact with an interpretive ranger at Grand Canyon National Park," said Helen Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Grand Canyon Association. "This professionally produced audio tour is an effort to get information to visitors. It's not a moneymaker for the association, but anything we make would go to the park."
The Audio Ranger program may be downloaded from the association's Web site — www.grandcanyon.org — for $5.95. It's also available on a reloadable MP3 flash-drive player at association bookstores at the Canyon for $29.95.
Forty-five audio segments correspond with stops on the walking tour and focus on topics ranging from Canyon geology and animal life to cultural history and environmental impacts. Users can take the entire tour or select a limited number of stops.
Thompson said the audio program was produced in partnership with Arizona State University, with funding support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Content was provided by ASU and the Grand Canyon Association with production development by a company called Tour-Mate Systems.
"People can download the tour from our Web site onto any number of platforms such as MP3 players or laptops," Thompson said.
The program that's currently available is in English, but plans call for translating it into other languages to accommodate visitors from around the globe.
|
|