I remember it well. I had been zip lining myself silly for quite some time in the gorgeous Snake River Gorge area around Whitesburg, Ga., a mere 45 miles southwest of Atlanta. Now I was lying flat, face down on a canvas, flying disconcertingly fast Superman style through the treetops on a zip line! It was one of the most extraordinary thrills I've ever experienced.
Making it even better was the fact that I was doing it at Historic Banning Mills, a place set up as a non-profit organization dedicated to "Preserving the Snake Creek Gorge through Adventure!" through its recreational resort, history center, educational programs and conservancy efforts. Mike and Donna Holder, founders of Historic Banning Mills, opened up the zip lines and other eco-experiences at the resort/education center in 2000.
"You've got great weather all year long, which means you've got the opportunity to zip line all year long and experience the changing seasons," said Donna, of zip lining in the South. "If you zip line in the spring you get, depending on where you are, mountain laurel and magnolia and other flowering trees. If you zip line in the winter, the leaves are all gone but you see the beautiful tree barks. So, every season offers something new, and you can't necessarily get that just anywhere."
Zip lines are never less than great fun but they aren't all created equal. Some are just flat-out more fun, more thrilling – zippier than others. And the South is lucky enough to have some of the zippiest zip lines in the nation. The five listed below are among the most unusual and very best of them.
Screaming Eagle Zip Line Tours at Historic Banning Mills
Nestled in a rugged ravine with 1,500 heavily wooded acres, Historic Banning Mills offers as extensive and thrilling a network of zip lines, canopy tours and sky bridges as you're likely to find anywhere. There are five levels of canopy tours, each longer and more exhilarating than the last. The Forest Tour and the Woodland Tour are designed with families in mind and kids as young as 8 may participate. Flight Pattern has you flying on a 1,000-foot-long zip line at 200 feet above the gorge. The real bad boy, though, is the half-mile-long high-speed Screaming Eagle Zip Line, officially proclaimed by Guinness World Records as the world's longest zip line canopy tour. Altogether, Historic Banning Mills has five half-mile-long zip lines, multiple sky bridges, two 65-foot towers, a 100-foot tower, a 150-foot tower, the tallest freestanding climbing wall in the world (140 feet high), an aerial adventure obstacle course, a breathtaking 100-foot-tall power-controlled free fall, and more. Banning Mills' state-of-the-art QuickTrekker Closed Belay System makes all this as safe as it gets.
Screaming Eagle Zip Line Tours at Historic Banning Mills, 205 Horseshoe Dam Road, Banning, Ga., (also known as Whitesburg, Ga.), 770-834-9149, www.historicbanningmills.com
Foxfire Mountain Adventure Park
Sitting in the forested midst of the foothills of the Smokies, Foxfire Mountain Adventure Park has The Goliath, the highest zip line in the Smokies (up to 475 feet); eight zip lines and two sky bridges; America's longest swinging bridge, the 335-foot Bridge to Prosperity that spans Foxfire Gorge; Whispering Winds Covered Bridge, with thousands of written wishes hung from the ceiling; and the Bear Crawler Adventure of the Smoky Mountains, an off-road ride in an eight-wheeled ATV! And it's all located in beautiful off-the-beaten-path acreage outside of Sevierville, Tenn.
Foxfire Mountain Adventure Park, 3757 Thomas Lane, Sevierville, Tenn., 865-446-5149, www.foxfiremountain.com
Navitat Asheville is actually on the outskirts of Barnardsville, about 20 miles north of N.C.'s bohemian capital of Asheville, making it a pretty, three-and-a-half-hour drive from Atlanta. Navitat's Blue Ridge Experience might be best for beginners, though that doesn't mean it's for the faint of heart. It includes a 3,600-foot zip line more than 350-feet high that takes you up to 65 mph! Blue Ridge Experience also offers another shorter zip line and side-by-side "racing style" zip lines, along with four hikes. The Moody Cove Adventure puts you on 10 zip lines, two bridges, two rappels from as high as 35 feet up, and three hikes. The Ultimate six-hour tour package combines both. Navitat also has an operation in Knoxville but that one is more about canopy "adventure trails" than zip lines.
Navitat Asheville, N.C., 242 Poverty Branch Road, Barnardsville, N.C., 855-628-4828, www.navitat.com/asheville-nc
TreeTops Canopy Tour at Adventures on the Gorge
Up in the rugged New River Gorge area of the Mountain State, TreeTops Canopy Tour at Adventures on the Gorge offers seven zip lines, four sky bridges and two hikes that traverse endangered hemlock forests. In addition to the thrill chill you'll get on TreeTops zip lines, you'll have the benefit of some warm fuzzies knowing that part of the fee is used to protect the forest against the dreaded Wooly Adelgid, an invasive bug that is killing hemlock trees throughout the East. You'd be hard pressed to find a more breathtakingly beautiful landscape than this around Lansing, W. Va., right in a region with not only mountains, the New River and the New River Gorge, but also three national parks. Just the thought of driving through this gorgeous territory and the extraordinary opportunity to zip line from above it and engage in all manner of outdoor thrill-seeking at Adventures on the Gorge should help make the seven-hour drive from Atlanta pure pleasure, too.
TreeTop Canopy Tour at Adventures on the Gorge, 219 Chestnutburg Road, Lansing, W. Va., 855-379-8738, www.adventuresonthegorge.com/adventures/zip-line-aerial-adventures/treetops-zip-line-canopy-tour
Louisville's entry in the Southern zip lining pantheon is truly unique. It isn't the biggest or the fastest but it has something none of the others have – darkness! And I'm here to testify that that makes a very distinct difference. Louisville Mega Cavern is in a 100-acre limestone cavern that sits about 100 feet under the Louisville Zoo some seven miles from the center of downtown Louisville. Donning miner-type head lamps is necessary to safely navigate the deep-down rocky terrain, though minimal lighting is provided in the cavern – just enough to be helpful without ruining the cave ambiance. Louisville Mega Cavern's zip courses include several of significant length, several "challenge bridges" that exercise your sense of balance, and the final zip, a side-by-side dual-line zip race. This unique zip line is a surprisingly short six hours away from Atlanta by car.
Louisville Mega Cavern, 1841 Taylor Ave., Louisville, Ky., 877-614-6342, www.louisvillemegacavern.com
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