But most of those happen so fast you’re left with just the thrill of the moment - and possibly a really expensive picture of your screaming face.
Then there is adventure tourism where you can take your time, enjoy the scenery and actually learn something useful.
It has thrills (high-wire acrobatics on an elevated boardwalk), educational experiences (learning how to balance on said elevated boardwalk while trying to read a plaque describing the Larix occidentalis, more commonly known as the larch), and adventure (see all of the above and below).
A Walk in the Tree Tops is a nature walk on steroids.
It has the standard narrated tour pointing out fallen nurse logs, horse hair lichen, beargrass and huckleberry plants common to an alpine area in western Montana.
It has knowledgeable guides who point out the ecologically sustainable forestry practices of F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., above whose land the actual treetop walkway sits.
And it adds the scintillating feeling of danger that adrenaline junkies lust after.
A mile-long trolley ride from the main ski area takes you to a heavily forested area with old overgrown ski slopes.
Tour-goers once biked the first part of the tour, but too many people suffered an inability to actually ride a bicycle, prompting the resort to switch to a safer alternative.
Once at the staging area, guides manage to fit visitors with harnesses, careful not to add to the discomfort of having to walk around with the equivalent of a nuclear wedgie from seventh grade.
So suited, the crowd begins a half-mile walk through an old-growth forest resplendent (at least in spring) with wildflowers, the heavy perfume of nature in the early stages of rebirth after a heavy winter and warm diffused sunlight.
After unceremoniously acknowledging their debt to nature’s chaotic and effective function in their lives (while standing on a footbridge above Second Creek, one of Whitefish’s watershed streams), the group moves on to a wooden platform holding two wooden boards suspended on aircraft wires that seemingly disappear into an evergreen nothingness.
After discreetly readjusting from walking through the forest with an ever-advancing harness, tour-goers partner up and begin to latch themselves onto a wire suspended just overhead - or way overhead for the vertically challenged.
“Blue on,” one hiker says. “Blue on,” their partner repeats after watching the other person clip their harness onto the suspended wire. “Red on,” the first person says. “Red on,” the partner acknowledges.
Imagine Indiana Jones approaching a ravine and having the choice of swinging on large jungle vines or crossing on a creaking rope bridge, and you have the feeling a person with a fear of heights has when first stepping onto the boardwalk.
But it’s just a feeling.
The aircraft-grade wire and engineering of the Walk in the Tree Tops is top-notch, having been designed by a Canadian firm specializing in these arboreal elevated tours.
The guides are reassuring, and everything is checked for safety before and after each tour.
The first stretch of the Walk in the Tree Tops is only 30 to 40 feet above a gently sloping hillside.
Still, a small breeze or a heavy footed partner can make a sensitive person grasp for any handhold and sink to their knees before realizing they are attached to a wire above their head.
(Sinking to one’s knees while walking on the boardwalk tends to produce another type of wedgie most grade-schoolers may not be familiar with.)
As the boardwalk wends its way between giant spruce, larch, ponderosa and Douglas fir trees, visitors must unharness and reharness under the watchful eyes of their respective partners.
And while the intrepid ecological adventurer might tromp across the boards without fear or uncertainty, some tour-goers tend to enjoy a leisurely pace at which to enjoy placards describing the unique features of a forest canopy rarely visible to the casual observer - or anyone without wings for that matter.
Guides are available for closer inspection and descriptions of life in the forest canopy.
At the highest point of the tour, just about the time your heart is ready to give out every time you glance at the forest floor 70 feet below, two sturdy stands serve as break areas from which to view Whitefish to the south and Glacier National Park to the east.
Another shorter section of suspended walkway takes visitors back to solid, more predictable ground.
The three-hour tour offers a different perspective than most nature walks and is open to adventurers 10 and older who are 54 inches or taller.
The tour is open every day from mid-June to mid-September and costs $54 per person. For more information, call (406) 862-2900.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)