Take an 'eHike'

by DAVE REESE
| February 1, 2007 1:00 AM

Glacier Park Web site lets viewers take trip and never leave their computers

Special to the Inter Lake

David Restivo remembers all too well suffering through those long days at work in New York.

He would arrive at his office in Rochester and, longing for Montana, would fire up his Web browser, turning immediately to the Glacier National Park Web site.

"I lived vicariously through the Web site," he said Wednesday, remembering how the glare of a computer screen was his only connection to Glacier - a place he had visited and admittedly "fell in love with" in 1999.

Several years later, it's Restivo who is helping connect Glacier National Park to thousands of people around the world each month.

Restivo concocted, created and implemented the interactive "eHike and eTour" portions of the park's Web site.

The eHike pages allow computer viewers to view photos and video of hikes and listen to the sounds of rushing water or birds singing - all via their computer.

Online visitors can view two hikes: the Trail of the Cedars and Avalanche Lake (a day hike) and a backpacking trip to Dawson Pass.

"Everyone realizes it's not a substitute for doing the real thing, but it keeps visitors connected when they're at home, and it gives them a great trip-planning tool," Restivo said.

Restivo works on an annual contract basis for the park, doing graphic design and creating interpretive materials.

When he was hired by interpretive specialist Bill Hayden in 2003, he brought up the idea of an interactive Web site for Glacier. Hayden let Restivo run with it, building on the popular electronic field trips that Hayden had once produced for more than 100 schools around the country.

Restivo's eHike Web site design - created in Flash and HTML - has become the envy of other national parks around the country. Restivo won first place for his design recently in a national competition among interpretive specialists.

Now other national parks that want to provide a similar experience will be able to use his templates and, in the long run, be able to save the National Park Service thousands of dollars. "Nobody else has to go out and develop this," Restivo said. "Why reinvent the wheel?"

Restivo had to work within the bureaucracy of the national park system, but he said he was never held back from pursuing his dream of creating an interactive online site for Glacier Park.

The higher-ups in Washington "thought it was cool, and told me to keep developing it," he said.

Restivo now is working on a portion of the park's eTour Web site that will be an interactive tour of modern-day Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Hayden has been with Glacier National Park for 17 years. He has seen how information being brought to the masses has changed, from merely distributing brochures, to live video via the Web.

"It's fun exploring new ways of presenting Glacier to people," he said.

Perhaps what is most satisfying to Restivo is that he is able to create something people can use to connect with Glacier National Park. He has had hundreds of positive responses to the Web site, including letters from people who did the featured hikes 30 or 40 years ago.

A soldier in Iraq was "thrilled to be able to have a little bit of Montana with him while he was in Iraq," Restivo said. "I get a lot of satisfaction from that."

By this spring, visitors to Glacier also will be able to download some of the information as podcasts to their MP3 players. One day people will be able to download the elevation profiles from the hikes on the Web site to their treadmills and be able to actually "hike" the trails, listening to the sounds of Avalanche Creek as you cross the familiar wooden bridge.

"We need to take advantage of this technology to reach Generation Y," Restivo said. "They're the future stewards of this park, and you have to reach them on their level."

Part of reaching this generation means providing a well-rounded Internet experience. That means good music, and the Dawson Pass eHike provides a good "house beat" that will surely appeal to the younger crowd.

Restivo works from a small cubicle in the basement of park headquarters in West Glacier. On his days off, Restivo likes to hike and photograph what could become future "eHikes" in Glacier National Park, all as part of his goal to keep people connected to Glacier National Park. "I remember what it was like to be a visitor," he said.

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