Florida Zip-Lining

Have I mentioned I LOVE zip-lining? Have I mentioned I have zip-lined in (1) Florida – 3 times (2) Iceland (3) Phuket, Thailand and (4) Niagara Fall, Canada? I could go zip-lining every weekend if I had the chance. – just saying. Eric, not so much. He did it once with me and after that, he stays on the ground.

This Zip-line experience was fairly close to us, we didn’t have to leave the state or country-just travel a bit to the next county east to Gatorland.

A few fun facts about Gatorland:

~110 acre theme park and wildlife preserve, founded in 1949.

~Site was former cattle land and it is still privately owned by the Godwin family, who founded the park.

~Originally called Florida Wildlife Institute, then changes to Snake Village and Alligator Farm and ultimately in 1954 becomes Gatorland.

Before we even get to the REAL reason we were there, let’s see what else Gatorland had to offer. Birds:

This bird, apparently had lost his fear of gators or was somehow hoping for a free meal or leftovers.

Let’s show you more gators. This guy (girl?) was fat and sassy. Probably about 10′ long.

This crocodile was getting a ‘spa treatment’. Can you see the little fishies swimming around him?

Another bird that seems to have lost their fear of these reptiles OR knows they can fly away pretty darn fast.

These gators were a bit friendly, laying on top of each other. Why? No one was moving, just hanging out.

This park has a number of signs that made you chuckle, but still got their message across.

But let’s get to the REAL reason we were visiting………..

Here are a few of the zips.

No lie, I did NOT like this bridge that was part of the adventure course.

While we didn’t buy their photo package deal, we got one photo at the very end of the experience.

Before leaving Gatorland, we visited one more piece of their park: their nature swamp boardwalk.

Walking through the boardwalk, it was hard to believe that a major highway was a short distance away. The cypress trees really block out the noise.

There were a few flowers gamely trying to reach the sunlight.

It was just starting to get muggy and hot. Go figure – Florida in the late spring. Ha!

I’ve found a few more ziplines in the Central Florida area. We discovered last year that a zipline in the summer is no fun – too sweaty. We’ll be making plan for this Fall to go more zipline exploring.

One last photo to commemorate our experience. This was part of the original entrance when the park opened in 1949.