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VIDEO: Tahoe’s newest adventure park takes thrill-seekers to new heights

Kaleb M. Roedel
kroedel@sierrasun.com
Candace Wong of Monterey flies down a zip line at the Tahoe Vista Treetop Adventure Park, which opened in early July in North Tahoe Regional Park.
Kaleb M. Roedel / Sierra Sun |

If you go

What: Tahoe Vista Treetop Adventure Park

Where: North Tahoe Regional Park, 6600 Donner Road, Tahoe Vista, Calif.

When: Open daily through Labor Day, Sept. 5, when it will move to weekends and holiday weeks. The park offers six sessions per day and each session lasts two and half hours: 10:45 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.

Cost: $45 youth 5-12; $55 teens and adults

Online: northtahoeadventures.com

TAHOE VISTA, Calif. — You’re hanging 50 feet above the ground — arms raised, feet splayed — ripping across a zip line at the North Tahoe Regional Park in Tahoe Vista.

As you fly from one towering pine to another, your feet find the tree’s platform, where you pull yourself up to a steady stance.

You take a few breaths and gaze out over the treetops.



And then the view takes your breath away. You see Lake Tahoe, a seemingly endless stretch of brilliant blue waters, backdropping the swath of green trees covering the Sierra Nevada.

“I always tell my crew that we put smiles on faces. It’s another great activity for the Tahoe area.”Jesse DesensNorth Tahoe Adventures

Not only that, you’re soaking in the Tahoe scene from a wholly unique point-of-view — a bird’s-eye view, high up in a pine.



Indeed, the newly opened Tahoe Vista Treetop Adventure Park, operated by North Tahoe Adventures, takes rope courses and zip lining to new heights in more ways than one.

“We’re up high, getting the view that only the birds and the squirrels get,” Jesse Desens, president of North Tahoe Adventures, said Tuesday afternoon with the park full of adventure-seekers. “It’s a great activity, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s super positive; people have a great time out here.”

Tucked in the forest of North Tahoe Regional Park, the newly opened Tahoe Vista Treetop Adventure Park offers seven diverse ropes courses — from Beginner to Black Diamond.

In all, the park boasts 70 tree platforms, 20-plus zip lines and bridges and a wide range of other obstacles. The park is suitable for ages 5 and up, and there is no height requirement.

“I always tell my crew that we put smiles on faces,” Desens said. “It’s another great activity for the Tahoe area.”

The Tahoe Vista adventure park is the third branch of North Tahoe Adventures. The company also runs a treetop adventure park in Tahoe City at Granlibakken Resort and a ropes course at Squaw Valley.

The park in Tahoe Vista, which opened July 2 of this year, has already helped ease congestion at their other operations, Desens said, especially the Tahoe City site.

“It’s great, it’s been really busy,” Desens said of the expansion. “It’s been nice because the course in Tahoe City, for the last couple years, has been so busy that we would be sold out for days ahead of time. And people would get frustrated; they’d come up here on their vacation and they couldn’t get a reservation.

“So in a way this kind of provided some relief for that and people are spread out between the courses.”

The Tahoe Vista Treetop Adventure Park came to fruition after a yearlong process that included obtaining permits, blueprinting the adventure park and, lastly, constructing the course, which took roughly five months, Desens said.

Of note, one of the highlights of the park — something you can’t get at the Tahoe City or Squaw Valley sites — is the course called Lakeview, where striking views of Lake Tahoe wait at the end of many zip lines.


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