A Zip Line Tour Over Alligators in St. Augustine
Cameron Reiss
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here is more to do than see historic sites and fun museums in St. Augustine, Florida. Just a short drive from the nation’s Oldest City you can visit a zoo full of reptiles and endangered animals. Then, you can sail on a zipline right over them.
During our trip to St. Augustine, we visited the Alligator Farm. We have been to the farm before, which is really a zoo. It has fun shows with snakes, lizards, birds and monkeys; Maximo, the farm’s largest crocodile, and exhibits of reptiles and tropical animals from around the world.
Alligator Farm
The Alligator Farm is one of the oldest attractions in the US, first established in 1893. It is also an educational destination; kids can learn about animals, about preserving them and about caring for our environment. The Alligator Farm is like being in a tropical rain forest, and you walk through the exhibits on a wide wooden path covered with lots of trees that shade the exhibits. Those trees are where there is a whole new land of adventure!
Crocodile Crossing Zip Line
The Alligator Farm’s zip line tour is a great way to see the animals– if you are not too scared! The Crocodile Crossing Zip Line is a high ropes course and zip line tour that goes right over the alligators and crocodiles. For us, this was an opportunity to test our fears (and our strength)!
There are 2 different routes for Crocodile Crossing. The short route, the Sepik course, goes a maximum of 20 feet high and takes about 45 minutes. The second route is the Nile route, and it goes a maximum of 60 feet high and takes about two hours.
The courses take you through the treetops and over exhibits including the Birds of Africa and the Land of Crocodiles. While it seems scary, you wear a harness and are connected to a safety line by two carabiners, or metal clips, that you attach to red safety lines at all times. You start off by climbing up a ladder to the first obstacle, which is a wood step bridge with wood steps hanging from ropes. You step across them to get to the next platform.
From there you continue on the rope crossings including a tight rope (with a net under you), loops you had to put your feet in and walk across, and platforms that swing from ropes. Once you complete the first nine obstacles and get to first of three zip lines (there about 25 rope bridges and three zip lines in the Sepik course). Once you get to the zip line, you put pulleys on the line, connect your carabiners, sit down, scoot off the platform and zip to the next platform. It is fun, but scary to be up high. Monkeys make it look easy!
Ticket prices are $25 for the Sepik course, which my mom thought was great deal, and $65 for the Nile Course –also a great deal. And while the guidelines said you should be in shape, you should be– the zipline was hard work! Despite this, the oldest person to complete the course was 86 years old, and my grandpa, who is 72, did the whole thing!