Zip Line Canopy Tours in the Nantahala Gorge

I went zip lining in North Carolina last week in the Nantahala Gorge courtesy of Adventure America Zip Line Canopy Tours. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, tour guides, or group to be a part of my first time zip lining.

Adventure America Zip Canopy Tour’s sister company, Wildwater LTD, has been in the area since 1971 doing white water river rafting tours. Family members of Wildwater started the zip line tours last year and now they have four locations in: Chattooga Ridge, Pigeon River, Plumtree, and Nantahala Gorge where I visited.

This was my first stop on a cross-country drive to Los Angeles CA. I will be spending the winter on the west coast this year.

My friend Kenneth joined me for the day. Since I was heading farther west after the tour, Kenneth followed me out there from Asheville–just about an hour drive.

The drive from Asheville to Bryson City was beautiful. One of the first things I said to Kenneth when we parked was, “Could we have asked for a more perfect day?”

The sun was shining, there were barely any clouds in the sky, and a brisk wind kept us cool all day even with all the equipment we had on.

The first thing I’ll say about zip lining is–it’s not a roller coaster. Although at times I zip lined about 15 miles per hour, it’s not AHHHHHHHHHH!  The exciting part is being so high off the ground with so few things keeping you up there.

I had built it up in my head before I got there to be a lot faster. I had never been zip lining before anywhere.

See, I have this mission in my life–which is to fly through the air as fast as I can. I have never been on a fast enough roller coaster so I will have to find the quickest one and ride it. I also want to fly through the air in a squirrel suit.

I’d describe zip lining in Nantahala Gorge as a better version of a guided hike–better of course because you don’t have to hike most of it–you get to zip. Our tour guides, Zach and Jerry, taught the group about the history of the area, different types of vegetation, and how the course was built.

The tour lasted three hours which is just the right amount of time. The group and I started to slow down towards the last couple zip lines (which is about the time we took the video you watched).

Here are a few shots of people from our group. I posted more on Facebook–just click any picture to view the album.

Some of the zip lines were short, others were long. Kenneth and I raced on a few but I beat him every time because I’m awesome.

This was the first swinging bridge–it had a big railing on one side and nothing on the other.

One lady got stuck in the middle, but Zach rescued her quickly. I wish I had gotten stuck in the middle so that I could have seen the view from 100 feet suspended in the trees. It’s easy to pull yourself to either side if you lose momentum and get stuck in the middle, but Zach went to help her to make things easier.

This is the bridge of death–only the noble survived.

That’s Kenneth (above) posing and that’s me (below) putting my gloves back on.

Thanks everyone in the group for exchanging e-mail addresses and sharing pictures. Throughout the day, we tried to get a lot of photos of each other instead of trading cameras each time. It’s so easy to share files with DropBox now.

The review I wrote for Trip Advisor summed up my experience:

Today I tried my first line of zip and now I’m addicted. It’s true what they say, it only takes one time to be hooked.

I couldn’t have asked for a better group or weather. The tour rangers, Zach and Jerry, made the whole experience even better. Thanks everyone.

I’d recommend Nantahala Gorge Canopy Tours to a friend. In fact, I’m going to do it again with a green thumbs up directly below this comment.

I enjoyed the whole day and the entire zip line experience. I plan to visit many more zip line places in the future. Thanks Zach, Kenneth, the rest of the group, and thank you Adventure America Zip Line Canopy Tours.

If you’ve been to the Nantahala Gorge Zipe Line Tours, I’d love to hear what you have to say about your experience. Leave a comment down below.

Sincerely,

Adventure Paul