After taking a look at various zipline adventures in the Southeast, Callaway Gardens officials decided to add TreeTop Adventure, which incorporates five ziplines and 20 ropes courses, to the park.
“It’s a good addition,” said Tim Chason, the gardens’ executive vice president.
He calls the entire course a challenge. In the next few months, an educational component will be added to the course. Labels will be added to the course to identify trees, bushes and wildlife.
“It’s not just about going on a zipline,” Chason said.
To do the course, visitors need to allow at least one hour. Participants must be 54-inches tall and weigh no more than 260 pounds. Also, guests must wear closed-toe shoes on the course. There is no age limit. It’s open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily and costs $30 per person, which doesn't include Callaway Gardens admission which is generally $9-$18..
Tena Hargrove, 45, of Alpharetta, Ga., tried the course when it opened in June. “I’m loving it,” she said.
Her son Josh, 10, said doing the course gave him new respect for circus performers.
Jamie Stewart, 28, of Canton, Ga., said he and his wife, Desiree, 29, have done many outdoor sports -- rappelling, ropes courses, mountain climbing -- and he thinks this course is “challenging and extremely fun.”
“I want to end up in the (Mountain Creek) lake and swim to a floating dock,” said Hargrove, looking longingly at the lake.
It was a very hot and humid morning in June when he was on the course.
A team of 15 people work to keep the TreeTop Adventure area safe and enjoyable for guests. Every morning, the crew checks the ropes, cables and pulleys, Chason said.
Chason said this is Phase 1 of the course. Phase 2 will be even more challenging and it will include a zipline across the lake.
As many as 50 people can go on the course at a time.
In the Circus Dome
Twenty-six Florida State University Flying High Circus performers offer shows at Callaway Gardens during the summer months
Charley Mason, 26, is the associate director of the FSU. He performs on the teeter-board, the Russian bar, adagio and does some juggling.
Nicole Fearnbach, 22, has spent the last four years at Callaway. She’s a senior exercise science major, and will be spending her final summer in the circus this year.
“I love it,” she said of Callaway and the circus. Her father was in the circus in the early 1980s, and Fearnback hopes to follow is in his footsteps and join a circus after graduation.
Andrea Bress, 19, a junior communicative disorders major, is performing for the first time with this group. “It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “I like gymnastics, but this is more creative.”
At the beach
A portion of the Robin Lake beach is devoted to Aqua Island which features inflatables and Blaster Boats, where people aboard the boats try to shoot water cannons at other boats or people in the inflatables. Beach goers can also participate in a Light Striker Laser game, a laser tag game played outside with barricades made of natural materials like hay bales, logs, netting and earth mounds.
