Niagara Falls is the latest natural wonder to add a zip line, offering honeymooners and everyone else the chance to take an adrenaline-pumping plunge toward churning mist at speeds topping 40 mph.<\/p>\n
The elevated cable rides have evolved from a novel way to explore jungle canopies to almost necessary additions to lure tourists in the 21st century to established destinations. It\u2019s a trend that\u2019s exposed a rift between those who approach nature like contemplative monks and others who require an extreme, Indiana Jones-style experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t make these into museums,\u201d argued Tom Benson, co-founder and chief experience officer at WildPlay Element Parks, which built the Niagara Falls zip line. \u201cHow do you take a teenager and get them away from a game console to something that is going to capture their imagination?\u201d<\/p>\n
The booming popularity of commercial zip lines over the past five years \u2014 there are at least 200 in the United States alone \u2014 means more people are experiencing nature in a way that would make Thoreau dizzy.<\/p>\n
They can ride above the tree line at New River Gorge in West Virginia, over California\u2019s Catalina Island, above lush Hawaiian landscapes and in view of Denali in Alaska.<\/p>\n
A zip line ride in Mexico\u2019s Copper Canyon runs more than 1 \u00bd miles, one in Nepal has a drop of 2,000 feet, and another in Sun City, South Africa, boasts top speeds of 100 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel all this air rushing past you, it\u2019s this great almost roller coaster-esque feeling,\u201d Quillan Brady said after riding on the new Eagle Flyer zip line at Lake George in New York\u2019s Adirondacks. \u201cBut really, what I think makes it is looking around and seeing all this natural New York beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niagara Falls-area resident James Bannister doesn\u2019t quite see it that way. To him, the new zip line there amounts to a \u201ccircus midway-style attraction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery once in a while somebody comes along and says, \u2018Boy, you could build another great attraction here!\u2019 As if the falls itself wasn\u2019t enough of an attraction,\u201d Bannister said.<\/p>\n
Zip line fans say it\u2019s still possible to marvel at nature while whizzing above it at highway speeds.<\/p>\n
At Niagara Falls, WildPlay\u2019s Benson said his four lines angling 2,200 feet along the Canadian side of the gorge were designed to be sensitive to the local environment.<\/p>\n
Catalina Island\u2019s zip line makes stops for presentations at designated \u201ceco-stations.\u201d And riders of the Lake George zip line who were questioned after their rides said they had a new perspective on the natural wonder.<\/p>\n
The owner of the Lake George line, Ralph Macchio Sr. (father of the \u201cKarate Kid\u201d actor with the same name), said he got the idea for his attraction by gazing out from atop the majestic Adirondack peaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018Gee, if you could look at it like you were flying like a bird and get that view, that would be an Adirondack experience,\u2019\u201d Macchio said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why I built the zip line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Niagara Falls is the latest natural wonder to add a zip line, offering honeymooners and everyone else the chance to take an adrenaline-pumping plunge toward churning mist at speeds topping 40 mph. The elevated cable rides have evolved from a novel way to explore jungle canopies to almost necessary additions to lure tourists in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[149],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17712"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}