Monday 22 February 2016

Explore US national parks through GPS-guided smartphone audio tours

Just Ahead, synonymous with award-winning smartphone apps for road tripping through National Parks and recently voted a top five New Travel App by USA Today readers, announces its 15th national park release, Petrified Forest National Park.

This is Just Ahead’s first release in 2016, its second year of producing distinctive GPS-guided smartphone audio tours of this country’s most dramatic landscapes and roadways.

Just Ahead’s road tour of the frozen-in-time wonders that comprise Petrified Forest National Park is a richly narrated guide to this often-overlooked park. The park is a showcase of astounding geological beauty and one of the world’s greatest concentrations of petrified wood. Just Ahead’s narrated tour explains how trees become petrified and where to see the most stunning examples of petrified wood. It also guides visitors to such archeological treasures as Agate House, a building nearly 1,000 years old made entirely of petrified wood, and odd stone formations that look like giant teepees.

Geology comes to life in the Painted Desert and the stunning rock layers on display in the park. Prehistory comes to life, too, as visitors learn about the world-class trove of fossils in the park. To wit: 20-foot-long land alligators with oversized heads, and claws like knives!

Because it’s natural to be curious while on a road trip, this app anticipates then answers questions that come up such as: What’s the difference between a butte and a mesa? Why is the Painted Desert so colorful? Who carved the petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock? What happens on the summer solstice at Puerco Pueblo? Where can you legally buy petrified wood? How did the stone teepees get their strange shape?

This tour includes every mile of the main park road and the park’s major side trips, trailheads, and scenic highlights as Rainbow Forest, Crystal Forest, and Jasper Forest; Agate House and Bridge; historic Route 66; and the Painted Desert and Painted Desert Inn, among many others.

Both living and extinct wild creatures are part of the narrated tour. Think pronghorn, coyotes, bobcats, and tarantulas, and imagine such prehistoric charmers as metoposaurs, rauisuchians, aetosaurs, and coelophysis. Nature gets her due as the app considers fossils, especially of fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic period of the Mesozoic era, about 225 million years ago. All of this is vividly brought to life by an award-winning writer and Just Ahead’s compelling narration.

Travelers also learn how to access the best backcountry hikes and where to dine and rest up. Because the park is located in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona, lore of these tribes also adds to the mix. The most significant of more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs, are also pointed out.

This tour extends west as far as Flagstaff, and much of the approach traces historic Route 66, visiting, among others, historic trading posts and landmark motels, Walnut Canyon National Monument, San Francisco Volcanic Field, and Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Shop. This tour release is a perfect companion to Just Ahead’s Grand Canyon tour. Where that tour leaves off in Flagstaff, this tour begins, following the course of historic Route 66 and stopping in at great roadside attractions such as Wigwam Village Motel, Jack Rabbit Trading Post, and Meteor Crater.

Recently named Best Travel App by the North American Travel Journalists Association and Best App by the editors of Sunset magazine, the Just Ahead mobile app turns a smartphone into a hands-free audio guide to America’s national parks and connecting highways by delivering professionally written and narrated audio tours to vacationers who want an informed travel experience as they drive.

Just Ahead utilizes GPS technology to know exactly where drivers are on the road, and delivers stories and maps relevant to their exact location. The groundbreaking app points out not-to-miss features while also helping drivers avoid getting lost. It suggests directions and tells drivers why they should turn or not, what they should do after a turn, and the best direction to take if there are multiple route options.

The Just Ahead app is a free download available either through the Apple App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android), and each destination guide is available as an in-app purchase. Guides range from $7.99 to $9.99 and include a free trial and free guide updates.

Just Ahead

Just Ahead’s award-winning audio guides work without an Internet connection or phone service and use a smartphone’s GPS to deliver hands-free, customized audio tours based on a vehicle’s location. The guides and built-in maps also provide helpful suggested directions, and offer more points of interest and stories than any other GPS audio travel app. Ideal for families, Just Ahead’s audio guides help create shared experiences, conversations, and memories that will last a lifetime. The Just Ahead app is a free download, and each destination guide is available as an in-app purchase that includes free guide updates.

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