VISTING THE WATER BY WHEELCHAIR
By Steve Wright and Heidi Johnson-Wright
It draws throngs to its soothing waves every summer.
It carves fantastic canyons over the course of centuries.
It contains fascinating creatures large and small.
From its banks, cities rise magnificent and majestic.
Water is all these wonderful things, but it also can be challenging to wheelchair users. Sandy beaches are nearly impossible to negotiate in a standard wheelchair, canyon trails are rarely paved or level enough for wheelers, bridges were often built with steps instead of ramps and access on boats is never a certainty.
Heidi, who uses a wheelchair for her mobility because she has had severe rheumatoid arthritis for more than 30 years, is well-aware of the challenges that water presents.
In our travels, we have found barrier-free access to water on the coasts, in the swamps and on the rivers. We have even found a way of trudging over sandy beaches that wheelchair tires like to dig into and bottom out in. The City of Miami Beach has purchased beach wheelchairs for visitors.
The Beach Patrol Station, behind the Art Deco Welcome Center on fabled Ocean Drive, has beach chairs available free of charge. The patrol lends out chairs equipped with a safety belt, detachable umbrella and wide tires for negotiating sand both loose and packed down wet.
Empowered with the lightweight, manual beach chair, Steve has pushed Heidi for dozens of blocks of wave wading, beach bumming and people watching.
We wouldn’t want to wade into the gator-, snake-infested waters of the Florida Everglades, but we have always wanted to glide along the river of grass in an air boat.
Sawgrass Recreation Park, in Broward County, is the home of old fashioned air boat rides and a willingness to accommodate all guests.
The mom and pop operation doesn’t have perfect access -- a steep, but negotiable ramp provides wheelchair access from the parking lot, to the more gently-ramped gift shop where tickets are sold – but it is trying. Another steep, but manageable ramp leads down to the boat docks. The airboats themselves are not wheelchair-accessible, but the drivers are skilled at lifting wheelchair users safely into the front of the boats that hold a dozen-plus passengers. Ear protection is provided and strongly recommended for the noisy half hour ride.
Once the boatman shuts down the engine in a clearing in the sawgrass, it’s show time. Alligators, some of them rather huge, glide right up beside the boat. All sorts of birds, fish and amphibians native to the swamp are visible from the open-air craft.
In southwestern Utah, the Virgin River has flowed for millions of years, carving out canyons thousands of feet high in what now is Zion National Park. Nothing compares to the accessibility and “reach-out-and-touch-the-canyon-wall” charm of the Riverside Walk, a wondrous one-mile trail. The paved path has gentle inclines that hug the eastern wall of a great, towering sheet of rock on one side and the lovely Virgin River on the other.
Because the area serves as the drainage basin for a great many square miles, water is often trickling down the rocky wall on the eastern edge of the trail. That water feeds Zion’s hanging gardens -- great growths of wildflowers that literally hang from the canyon walls. When we visited in late May, the rocky, vertical greenhouse was in bloom with yellows, oranges, whites and other bursts of color.
Urban waterways are noisier and busier, but no less beautiful. We have viewed New York from two forms of accessible watercraft: the famed Circle Line and the classic Staten Island Ferry.
The Circle Line has a wheelchair-accessible gangway. Rather than actually circling all of Manhattan, we suggest the Harbor Lights cruise because it shows the city while night falls over the skyscrapers and landmarks. The sailing heads down the Hudson and up the East River, showcasing the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center, Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State and Chrysler buildings all bathed in beautiful twilight.
The Staten Island Ferry is aimed more at commuters than tourists, but we learned to be our own narrators for an awe-inspiring journey between boroughs. It’s well worth taking 25 minutes to sail over to Staten Island for the return trip -- a wheelchair-accessible, breath-taking ride across New York Harbor toward Manhattan.
We often take ferries as a means of cheap, accessible water travel. In San Francisco, the highlight of our visit was a ferry ride over to Sausalito and back. We boarded the Golden Gate Ferry via a ramp near the historic Port of San Francisco building.
The craft chugged away from the dock, cruising over the blue-green waves past Alcatraz Island, while wind whipped by and sunshine flickered off the water’s surface. We stayed on board for the return trip, but marveled at the charming cafes, shops and homes of hilly Sausalito. While the trip over was pleasant, the return journey was nothing short of magical.
Laid out before us was the magnificent San Francisco skyline at sunset. From the Bay Bridge to the Transamerica Pyramid to Coit Tower, the landmarks of this west coast jewel bedazzled our adoring eyes.
In Boston, the way to the water is via Boston Duck Tours in World War II amphibious vehicles. Made by Rosy the Riveter and company, these oversized metal monsters take guests on a rollicking road trip through the city, then convert magically into seaworthy watercraft and splash into the Charles River. The whole experience makes for an unforgettable -- and wheelchair accessible -- sightseeing tour of Boston.
As requested, we arrived 40 minutes before our tour. A staffer pointed to a hand-operated hydraulic wheelchair lift and said it would be no trouble making the old duck accessible. Up she went, gently lifted to the back of the Duck. Heidi was given the option to staying in her wheelchair, secured for the tour with tie downs, or to transfer to a bench near the back of the vehicle.
She chose to transfer and crew members politely asked people not to sit on the facing bench, so Heidi would have plenty of legroom. After riding around Boston’s historic streets, the duck readies for a swim. On the count of three, the craft flies down a ramp -- leading to a big splash into the Charles. The ride in the river is gentle and less harried than the bumpy first part of the tour through Boston street traffic.
IF YOU GO:
• The Miami Beach Patrol has beach wheelchairs at its station at Ocean Drive and 10th Street. Phone: 305 673-7714, website: www.miamibeachfl.gov
• Sawgrass Recreation Park, on Highway 27 two miles north of I-75, http://www.evergladestours.com
• Zion National Park, on Utah Rt. 9, www.nps.gov/zion
• The Circle Line, at Pier 83 at W. 42nd Street, www.circleline42.com
• The Staten Island Ferry, at Whitehall Terminal at Whitehall Street and South Street, www.siferry.com
• Boston Duck Tours depart daily from Prudential Center, 101 Huntington Ave. Phone: 617-267-DUCK to reserve space on a tour and to tell them you will need the wheelchair lift. Website: www.bostonducktours.com
Wright and Johnson-Wright are recipients of the Bronze Medal in the 14th Annual Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition by the Society of American Travel Writers.
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