Fun at TreeHoppers:

Is there a better way to finally welcome cooler weather (aka 80s and low humidity) to Florida than pretending to be monkeys in trees? I certainly can’t think of any. So, off we went for an afternoon at TreeHoppers Aerial Adventure Park in Dade City (north of Tampa). I want to explain right away that this is NOT just a zip line park. There are indeed zip lines, but there is so much more. There are 5 different levels of difficulty (yellow, green, blue, black, and double black), and each level has 2 courses, with the exception of the double black diamond (the hardest). That only has one course. Each course has several “elements” including zip lining, climbing through barrels suspended in the air, walking across thin cables, etc. It’s amazing!

Getting to TreeHoppers

You don’t need a reservation unless you have a large party. Just show up. While driving there, you might start to question your GPS. Ours guided us to the correct spot though. Don’t freak when you think you are driving into the middle of nowhere. You will pass by a lot of farms. And then suddenly you will see a sign pointing to TreeHoppers.

Registrations and Fees

The first step is registration. Here you will pay ($49 for 3 hours + training) and give away all your rights to sue if you are injured. Then, you are given a harness and one of the team members will fit it to you and make sure all the straps are tightened. Finally, you will be given a training session. They take in you in groups to a practice area where they explain all the rules, show you how to clip on to the cables, and demonstrate how to zip line. Then, at last, you are free to explore TreeHoppers on your own!

The Fun Stuff

In the middle of TreeHoppers is a large central platform. This is where all the courses start, and there are staff members present to help you begin, answer questions, and guide you on which course to try next. Unfortunately when we were there (or maybe they always do this), they were being pretty picky about making sure you work your way up from easiest to hardest without skipping over any levels. So, we started with a yellow and then proceeded to a green and then blue.

Side note. We were only there for 2 hours because of a special event and were only able to complete 3 courses due to the blue course have a very long line. I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t expect to have time to go on double black if it is your first time there. 

Yellow (Easy Course)

Anyways, up first was the yellow course. Although it was super fun, it wasn’t very challenging. It did give a good introduction on what to expect though, and it gave us a chance to practice locking and unlocking our clips to the different cables. (You see, they have a 2 clip system where 1 clip is ALWAYS locked on to a cable. So you are constantly unlocking and locking your 2 clips. It’s really easy to figure out, and after this course we were pros at switching our clips around.) The elements were very easy to cross, and they didn’t take much balance or strength. They included crawling through barrels, walking on suspended wood planks, and short zip lines. All the elements were also fairly low to the ground.

Green (Medium/Easy Course)

The green course was next, and it was probably my favorite. It was still easy, but the elements were higher off the ground, they were slightly more challenging, and the zip lines were a little bit longer. Because it was easy, it also meant lines didn’t build up at the various elements (you’ll see what I’m talking about on the Blue Course below). So, we were able to go at our own pace and enjoy ourselves.

Blue (Medium Course)

Blue was next, and although I loved the challenge it provided, the lines were kind of annoying. And they started right away from the central platform. When we went on the green course, 2 of our friends had somehow slipped past the staff members and proceeded straight from yellow to blue. When we finished the green course and had returned to the central platform to start to the blue course, those 2 friends were only on their 3rd element. That being said, there was a hurricane that hit the state a couple days earlier, so a bunch of birthday parties had been moved to the particular day we were there. That meant TreeHoppers was extra busy, and most of the groups there (besides us) were 13 year olds.  So, hopefully, the lines aren’t usually this long. If it wasn’t for the lines, this would have been my favorite course of the day by far.

My favorite part of this course was the zip lines. They were much longer and higher than the ones on the green course! So fun to fly through the trees. And, to top it off, there was a little lake at the far end of the course with great views! It made you forget that you were in a park with tons of other people. Besides the zip lines, the elements in this course were a lot more challenging and required a lot more strength. For example, one of the elements required you to cling onto and somehow cross suspended telephone poles.  At the end of the course, the only way down was to attach yourself to an autobelay and jump!

In Summary

I highly recommend checking out TreeHoppers. It was such a fun filled afternoon, and it was also a great workout. Even if you aren’t that strong, you should still be able to easily complete the yellow through blue courses. And, if you ever get stuck or scared, a staff member will come rescue you.