The Brevard Zoo Treetop Trek

We’ve spent the past several weeks in the Melbourne, FL area (which is where I lived before I hit the road full time with Chris).  Obviously our main purpose in being here has been to be with my folks during my dad’s treatments.

But we have been making time to get out and explore some of the attractions in the area. Thought we’d share some of what we’ve been up to.

The topic of today’s post – a visit to the Brevard Zoo’s newest attraction, the Treetop Trek.

Treetop Trek

I’ve always loved the Brevard Zoo – for a local community zoo, it’s really well run and the habitats amazingly natural and spacious.  Recently however they took the bar up a notch and into the tree tops by installing a zip line and aerial challenge course. This combination is one-of-a-kind experience.

On my brother’s recent visit to the area, he and his girlfriend joined Chris in checking it out.  And they had an excellent time.

They opted for the full on Treetop Challenge Course – which was 3 hours of a combination of zip lines and obstacle “games”.

 

It starts out easy through the ‘Canopy Walk’ course that puts you over many of the animal enclosures.  There are even signs describing the animals below – a great way to experience the zoo!

Aerial challengers have to agree to not taunt the animals or zoo patrons below them – but this rule definitely does not apply in the reverse *grin*.

Then challengers get zipped onto an island of escalating in difficulty (and height) challenges.

Followed by dozens of interconnected zip lines returning you back to the zoo area, with an extra long one taking you right over a pit of alligators and zoo patrons (not sure which is scarier).

Here’s some video clips from two differing perspectives:

Quick video clip of Chris zipping over a pit of alligators. 

Quick video clip of my bro zipping over alligators – from the platform perspective. 

 

The entire course is unguided, making the Treetop Trek a somewhat unique find as you go at your own pace and have to figure out the challenges. My brother, an adventure junkie (his hobbies include pilot, skydiving instructor, BASE jumper, wing suit flyer and rock climber), was thoroughly impressed by the experience.

The whole crew said the $48 admission price was more than worth it.  They also took GoPro video of the entire experience from two different cameras.  If they ever find the time to edit them into a produced video, we’ll update this post.

Meanwhile, on the ground – my mom and I were no safer as we wandered through the zoo’s Dinosaurs: Dead or Alive exhibit. (These are actual REAL fake dinosaurs… they growled and spit on us!)