Wild Walk at the Wild Center
Located on an 81-acre site in Tupper Lake, the Wild Center is dedicated to understanding the Adirondack Park and helping people explore this rare place. As a science-based institution, the Wild Center’s exhibits and activities are designed to open visitor’s eyes to mankind’s relationship with nature. Their mission: ignite an enduring passion for the Adirondacks where people and nature can thrive together and set an example for the world.
A new and exciting adventure awaits visitors to the Wild Center this summer. On July 4th, the Wild Center will open the Wild Walk to the public – offering visitors the chance to stroll above the tree line and get up close and personal with the unique ecosystems that are found in the Adirondack Park.
The addition of the Wild Walk enhances the center’s already one-of-a-kind approach to the typical museum, integrating education, science, and nature in an interactive experience. From a four-story twig tree house to a giant spider web, the winding trail of bridges and platforms that make up the skywalk are accessible to all ages and abilities. There are endless places along the trail where visitors can take a moment just to observe the forest and life below them. The walk also includes a full-sized bald eagle’s nest, which happens to be the highest point on the elevated pathway at 42 feet.
Walking among the tree tops will give museum-goers a different viewpoint of the Adirondack Park. Graphic team leader for the project, Derek Prior, seems to have put it best: “It’s not that you might have never climbed a tree, or looked out a window at a scene, it’s simply that walking along the treetops is a place you have never been, and because of that, you just see everything in a different light, and can start to imagine how our regular point of view is really so limiting.” As visitors walk through the treetops, the immersion into the forest gets more tangible. Taking in the scents, sounds, and textures surrounding the Wild Walk enables guests to become a part of the scene and notice the incredible life that the forest supports.
July 4th represents a special day for the Wild Center. Not only does this date mark the grand opening of the museum back in 2006, but this year it will also mark the official skybreaking of the Wild Walk and highlight “the Makers”. All of those people involved with the building of the Wild Walk will be on hand – from the design team to the tree house builders and steel cutters. In addition, there will be opportunities for visitors to add their own mark to the Wild Walk experience in “Maker Labs”, helping guests look at the natural world in new ways.
