Photo courtesy Kitty Hawk Kites
Hang Gliding at Jockey’s Ridge State Park
Nags Head, N.C.
You can learn to fly without Peter Pan’s help on the rolling sand dunes at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in the Outer Banks. Kitty Hawk Kites offers beginner, tandem and advanced instruction for hang gliding at the largest living sand dunes on the East Coast.
The site has a historic connection with flight, since the Wright Brothers used the same dunes and were subject to the same winds when they pioneered motorized flight in the Outer Banks area in the early 1900s.
Hang-gliding beginners first learn the basics: how to steer, how to stay in control and how to do everything safely. After this instruction, the students are ready for flight.
“It’s the closest you are going to get to flying like a bird,” said Marc Maready, director of marketing for Kitty Hawk Kites. “There is a oneness with the wind.”
Participants can enjoy picturesque scenery while waiting to go airborne. The hike across the dunes reveals the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the sandy dunes on the other and Roanoke Island in the distance.
When ready, instructors work with guests one on one to help them run and catch the wind for each of their five hang-gliding rides off the dunes. Typically reaching heights of no more than 15 to 20 feet, there is little danger involved in the activity. The company trains people in various stages of fitness and of various ages, which have ranged from 4 to 92.
“It is a safe activity and one for people who may not be usually willing to be exposed to high places,” said Maready. “It gives the spirit of adventure to those who might not be able to jump out of a plane or something like that.
“It is very accessible for the person who wants to try something new but doesn’t want to take a huge risk.”
Zorb Smoky Mountains
Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
A gate swings open, and you and two other people slosh around inside a 12-foot inflatable ball rolling down a giant hillside. This unusual Zydro water ride at Zorb Smoky Mountains regularly encourages guests to laugh their heads off while enjoying the pure fun of riding inside a bouncy ball.
“Most groups choose the Zydro ride because it is our water ride that more people can be in at one time,” said Marceline Dyer, sales manager for Zorb Smoky Mountains. “It’s my favorite. When it gets colder, we fill the ball up with warm water, so it’s more like a rolling hot tub.”
Pigeon Forge is the only place in America to enjoy the bizarre activity of “zorbing,” which was originally thought up in New Zealand. It comes in two other versions besides the Zydro ride.
For those wanting a little more excitement, the Zig-Zag Zydro sends guests down alone on a track with more twists, turns and bumps in the road. Participants can also choose the Zorbit ride, which straps riders in a harness so they can travel round and round with the ball in roller coaster style.
After registering an arriving group, the staff shuttles people to the top of the ride’s hill and then launches them back down. Groups can also buy photos taken by staff to capture the look on participants’ faces as they exit the giant Zorb globes.
“Everyone’s been to the theme parks,” said Dyer. “Everybody’s been to the science museums. This is a unique experience. Some people say it’s a cross between a water slide and a slip-and-slide.”
War Eagle Cavern Spelunker tours
Rogers, Ark.
Prepare to embrace mud, darkness and small spaces if you accept the challenge of War Eagle Cavern’s Spelunker Tour. The mildly strenuous tour takes up to 10 people on a two-hour guided trip through the unpaved areas of the cave.
Guests can choose whether they would like to attempt the more exploratory tour or the easily accessible main tour that stays in huge rooms on well-lit pathways.
Along the main one-hour tour, guides relate information about the geologic and human history of the caves, including its connection to Native Americans, outlaws and explorers.
The path follows the stream that carved the voluminous passages about 250 million years ago past rock formations and fossils until reaching the climactic end at a waterfall cascading down a flowstone wall.
For those who elect to take the path less traveled, the wild tours continue beyond the waterfall through a three-foot-high, 85-foot-long tunnel. Participants are encouraged to equip themselves with a helmet, a sturdy flashlight and a change of clothes, since clothes worn during caving are sure to pack on some mud.
In return, groups can witness incredible stalactites, stalagmites and other formations seen by very few people. Spelunkers are also encouraged to try to catch a glimpse of some of the cave’s year-round colony of 75,000 bats.
Both tours enter the Ozark Mountain cave at the dramatic entrance inside a boxed canyon.
Visitors can also enjoy attractions aboveground, including the Trading Post gift shop, the gem-panning station and forested paths that run alongside limestone bluffs, sinkholes and Beaver Lake.
