Photo TR: Navitat Canopy Adventures

[BeemerBoy]

This past week, Shannon and I headed up to the mountains of backasswards North Carolina for a little ziplining awesomeness. After first learning about Navitat's California location last year on TPR, their Asheville location was something we just HAD to check out for ourselves. Afterall, it's been considered one of the best canopy tours in North America, so we felt it was our civic duty to put that claim to the test!

 

If you're ever in the Dollywood neighborhood, Navitat is just a two hour ride east through the mountains. As a bonus, Asheville, N.C. (if you can get past the countless dirty hippies) was just crowned "Beer City, USA."

 

Anyway, here's how the Navitat Canopy Tour stats look:

 

- 10 ziplines, ranging from 120 to 1100 feet in length

- 2 rappelling experiences, 2 suspended sky bridges, 3 short hikes

- Take in beautiful long-range views of the Blue Ridge Mountains from artfully crafted tree platforms

- Explore the forest from 2 feet to over 200 feet in the air!

- An approximately 3.5-hour tour on well over one mile of suspended cable

- 8 guests maximum per tour departure time accompanied by 2 professionally trained Canopy Guides

- An all-weather adventure, exhilarating rain or shine!

 

While 1100 feet probably doesn't threaten many records out there, that just might change a bit. Our guide informed me that they're currently in the process of building some much longer lines for next year in an attempt to "break some records." I believe he said 3000 feet long would be the shortest, but don't quote me on that.

 

As for the tour, we LOVED it. It was quality all around, from the excellent location to the friendly and efficient guides, this place rocks. Time to let the pictures help the words.

 

EDIT: Just realized that my batch re-sizer grabbed those "construction pics" and re-sized them wrong. Sorry.

Time to check in to our B&B.

Inside the B&B, angry cat was angry.

Okay, not really. However, it was blind....but still cute and friendly. You can't get this at your local Choice Hotel.

Time to check out Lexington Ave. Brewery, or "LAB," as they like to call it, for dinner and beer.

I suppose it does look sort of "lab-ish"?

A cool, odd touch...a great pianist playing all your favorite ragtime favorites!

The Grilled Chicken and Garlic Pizza was delicious. I don't believe that cutter was a Dexter P177a though, so point deduction on that.

Did I mention Asheville was voted "Beer City" by, um, someone or some organization out there? I'm a Guiness fan, but this stuff had it beat...just barely though.

And Shannon enthusiastically approves of their "Whitey" offering.

Navitat sits about 20 minutes outside of downtown Asheville.

It's a rather small, unassuming place up in the mountains.

A look at the course map.

A quick lesson on how the course was built....

All strapped in, and we're off!

Just a short ride followed by a short hike to the first line.

Shannon gets connected for her first zip.

And she's off! The first two lines were short so you could get the hang of it. Braking was accomplished by pressing down on the bottom line by the palm of your gloved hand. The guides just had to be sure you were born with a brain, and could handle this incredibly complex maneuver. Don't laugh, you and I both know at least 50% of the population would fail at this.

I'm feeling kinda "Devo-ish" here.

A look at one of the first two "starter" lines.

Yub nub,

eee chop yub nub.....

This dude was one of three others in our group who were actually from Fort Lauderdale. Small world.

Random look out into the woods. Pictures fail at capturing how awesome it felt to be this high up in the trees.

"Has Adam settled down from that Ewok reference yet?"

This was slightly unnerving at first.

Andy Samberg looks on.

Shan prepares for the longest line of the tour, about 200 feet above the forest floor.

A look back at it from the other side.

From this platform they had a photographer snapping pics which you could purchase at the conclusion of the tour.

Shan demonstrates proper braking technique.

The first of two "rope bridges."

This is looking back at the second longest line.

A younger girl in our group came up short on both of the two longest lines and had to stop and pull herself to the platform. Hi, Elissa.

Then it was time for our first rappelling experience. Truth be told, it was less frightening than it seemed.

Shan prepares for the "LADDER OF DEATH!!"

Thankfully, she survived.

Short hike.

This line had a great "tunnel" effect towards the end.

The final "sky bridge."

Not the scariest thing in the world, but....

...I suppose it could be if you weren't paying attention, and....

...it did provide a pretty nice view.

Here you had to get secured in order to climb up through the tiny steps in the center of that tree which led to the next platform.

And finally, looking back at the last line of the tour. This one had the best tree "tunnel."

One last rappel and we were done.

These two were shots that Navitat took...

But you didn't think we'd end on that note did you? When there's great food involved, the answer is "hell no." This would be "12 Bones," in the Art District of Asheville. A local recommended it, and we got there just before the lunchtime rush.....as you'll see.

This places once again proves the theory that the smaller and less impressive the BBQ joint looks, the better the food is.

First of all, someone obviously loves ass, and secondly, "Why am I Mr. Sparkle?"

The pulled pork sandwich was all sorts of awesome, but it was the potato salad that blew us both away! SO frickin' good!!

Shan fully approves of 12 Bones.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some Joey Ray-like damage to do.

When the lunch line starts to reach deeper into your parking lot, you know you're doing something right!

Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed our look at Navitat! All questions, comments, and complaints are welcomed.

Edited May 31, 2012 by BeemerBoy

[larrygator]

Awesome, I'll try to stop by the area next time I go to Dollywood and have sapre time.

[Hilltopper39]

Great Report Scott, that canopy tour looks awesome. I did my first canopy tour in Jamaica at Mystic Mountain (the same place that has the mountain coaster) and wasn't all that impressed with it. It was fun, but I don't think I would do that particular tour again if I am ever back there. This canopy tour however, looks great! Looks at lot longer with more zip lines.

 

Is this place open in the winter? Probably not, but that kinda of tour through snow would be beautiful.

[SharkTums]

Only cool people stop short on zip lines!

[BeemerBoy]

^ What's funny is that after she did that, I got to thinking how cool it would be to hang out over the middle of the valley. The thought of a 500ft. pull had my arms disagreeing with me though.

 

^^Thanks, man.

 

Navitat's 2012 Season begins March 31 and runs through November 30.

I'm with you.....a tour in the snow would be great! They also offer it at night, which is what we vowed to do when we return next year. We'll be doing that plus whatever "record breakers" they offer. In trying to jog my memory, it seemed as though our guide may have even hinted at a 5000ft+ line...which sounds insanely awesome!

[jray21]

Looks like it was a ton of fun. Wish they had those where we live. The pizza looked amazing, but I also agree that you have to deduct a point for not having the Dexter P177a.

[Jew]

As someone who is afraid of heights, this tour looks both terrifying and awesome at the same time.

[Moose]

I'm not exactly afraid of heights but some of your pictures did induce a bit of vertigo. Looks like an awesome experience!

[Meteornotes]

Awesome report. And now I'm wondering what Blueberry Chipolte ribs taste like...

 

dt

[Ginny]

Looks like an awesome time.

[gisco]

Doing the zip line at night with a full moon sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

[Brandy524]

Beautiful scenery! Although I am afraid of heights, so I'm not quite sure I could do it.

[JimmyBo]

Awesome report. I've always wanted to do another zip-line experience since I did one in Puerto Vallarta a couple years ago. It's great to see that the states has some amazing zip-line experiences that are more than just one long zip-line across a river or down a hill (those bore the crap outta me). I like to experience at a couple hours of walking through the woods and up in the trees doing multiple zip-lines.

 

Next time I'm in the area (and maybe by then the kid will be old enough) we will check this out. It truly looks like awesome scenery.

 

Jimmy "I love braking with my hand" Bo

[BeemerBoy]

^ Totally agree with you. It's funny that I paid the same for this 3.5 hour tour with 10 lines as I did for the one huge line at Labadee, Haiti during the TPR cruise. I realize the reasoning for how they're both priced, but it's just kind of interesting. It really is a great value!

 

And now I'm wondering what Blueberry Chipolte ribs taste like...

I hadn't even noticed that until you mentioned it. That's definitely, um, different.

 

Thanks, guys!

 

Bob - Yeah, our guide was telling us about the night tours. He said when the full moon is out, they can just turn off their helmet lights and do the entire tour by moonlight! Also, there's a certain time of the summer (week, month?) where the lightning bugs are insane. He said you could look out at the mountains and they look like they're covered with Christmas lights.

 

Brandy - You can do it! If anything, the use of a dual-line system should put your mind at ease a bit more. I don't think it would've mattered much to me, but it was nice knowing that if one line fails, there's always a backup.

 

Jimmy and Bob, you guys should try out their location in Wrightwood, CA, just east of L.A. And for the northeastern folks, I just remembered that our guide also mentioned that the company is currently working on opening a location in the Poconos soon!