Though the Navitat owners and crew have decades of experience among them, none of them have yet had the opportunity to experience the incredible fall leaves of Moody Cove from a canopy tour. With Navitat only open since the Spring, they’re waiting for the Fall as anxiously as any of their guests! Spring offered views fertile with blossoming leaves and budding trees and Summer’s lush and vibrant symphony of green was inspiring to behold. But, Fall, with its promise of riotous color and crackling crisp leaves, is sure to be something amazing. One staff member describes how eagerly they’re all anticipating zipping through the trees this Fall: “It’ll be like a corridor of color, the explosion of color and life that Fall brings!”
Navitat is also looking forward to welcoming local visitors to experience the canopy tour this Fall. Viewing your own area in such a new way is amazing, and gives people a whole new perspective. Lots of our repeat visitors are from the local area, and have the opportunity to come back frequently to see how the tour changes in different seasons. The Navitat staff is looking forward to experiencing Fall with them for the first time!
Asheville is a fun, unique area known for its beauty during the changing of seasons. Navitat, with a focus on the natural habitat of our surroundings, is constantly changing on a daily basis. Any of our guides can tell that, despite doing the tour more than once daily, each and every tour is different. Navitat’s canopy tour is always a dynamic and interesting experience, ripe with opportunities to take in new details. During a season change, such as Summer to Fall, those changes and details are just more noticeable to most people. We’ve found that many dedicated nature lovers want to experience the Navitat adventure during each season we’re open, and so are looking forward to visiting with previous guests as they return to Navitat to explore Fall with us. No matter what your previous canopy tour experience, you can be sure that the Fall tour at Navitat will be dramatically different!
Both Navitat and the surrounding town of Asheville are known for their eye-catching beauty during the fall season. The leaves, an explosion of color against the crisp blue sky, provide an intricately detailed view that even the most skilled painter can’t capture completely. At Navitat, we’re able to provide our guests with a whole new perspective. Looking at the colorful fall leaves really is a different experience when you’re viewing them from in the trees, rather than from just down below! With Navitat’s canopy tour, you’ll have the chance to both soar through the leaves on our ziplines, as well as view them from treetop platforms, expansive sky bridges, and a few trails on the ground. Every view will show you different aspects of the colorful season, as our skilled guides share some of the intriguing nature facts they love to impart to interested guests.
Exploring nature during the Fall allows our guests to physically see the changes the ecosystem goes through, and hopefully the Navitat experience during the Fall season will help them to appreciate it in a brand new way. After all, seeing things from the opposite point of view (in and above the trees, rather than from the ground) can’t help but make you wonder what else you’ve been missing. Be sure to visit Navitat this Fall and during each season to come to experience the incredible beauty of Moody Cove as it changes and grows.
Most of our Navitat guests aren’t shy about sharing their opinions, and we love the feedback! Our Facebook Page is one great place to check out guest comments. Guests also sometimes choose to complete one of our exit surveys at the reception desk after their tour. In addition to sharing great general info with us, these surveys help us capture guests’ thoughts just after their tour experience.
Here are just a few of our favorites!
“I smiled so much my cheeks hurt!” – JoAnn Fekany, August 7
“Weather was rainy (beautiful!) The whole experience was GREAT! Loved the rain forest effect. The guides were very knowledgeable and helpful. Fun and very safe!” – Tony, May 31
“I felt like I was flying!” – Erin Biggs, August 13
“Not only was this trip a one of a kind experience, your guides David and Jeff were informative and explained the habitat and some of the company’s history – they were above excellent! I can honestly say that everything we did was fantastic! Your people absolutely made the difference!! When someone loves what they do, it shows!” – John MacIntyre, June 7
“A great variety of activities and being in the forest: climbing ladders, rappeling, zipping, it was a zippy-dee-doo-dah time!” – Jonathan Sleger, June 14
“It was all great – right up there as the best adventure of my life!” – Jan Wilcox, June 5
Have you experienced a Navitat adventure with us? Tell us about your experience by commenting on this blog or posting on our Facebook page!
Without our local community and guests, Navitat wouldn’t exist. One of our main goals is to help people appreciate the natural beauty in our area. Sometimes, those of us who live here can become accustomed to seeing the things we see every day; it’s easy to lose sight of the beauty around us when it becomes somewhat ordinary. Navitat allows folks (yes, even us locals) to look around and see things through new eyes.
When we get a lot of local groups, families or local organizations, we strive to instill in them a revived thrill and appreciation for the place we get to live in. It’s an amazing environment, with so much see and enjoy. Part of our hope is always to urge locals to appreciate the land and nature that we’re lucky enough to inhabit.
We’ve also booked some college groups who will be coming out for their orientation, and we’re excited to share the beauty of their new home with them. Navitat’s canopy tours are a great way for them to experience team building and also to see their new area from a unique point of view.
So far, we’ve been really lucky to have had great weather at Navitat during our first year. To us, that doesn’t mean a completely dry season; since our tours go on rain or shine, we don’t judge the weather based on a little water. Instead, it takes lightening or high winds to qualify as bad weather and have us shut down a tour.
Sometimes, people are surprised that we’ll still take tours out during the rain. At this time of year, we’re not getting cold, driving rains that last all afternoon. Instead, we might get a few showers of pleasantly cool rain that feel refreshing compared to the heat of the day. We always tell people to dress for the current weather, but bring a few changes of clothes and other options in the car with them. You never know when the weather might change, or be totally different in two locations as close as Asheville and Moody Cove.
When it’s raining, most of us sit inside. If our goal at Navitat is to help people experience nature in new and different ways, then getting out in the rain is a great way to experience something new and view nature through a new lens. Watching the smiles on the faces of guests who have joined us on rainy days proves that zipping Navitat is certainly worth experiencing in (almost) all types of weather.
Since Navitat opened this spring, we’ve been surprised by a few things.
The first is the relative quiet. Even with as many as 200 guests per day, Moody Cove is still the peaceful place we wanted it to be. We’re relieved! As much as we appreciate nature, we didn’t want herds of people trampling the area and disrupting the natural solitude of the space. Instead, we were thrilled to realize that the guests we bring into the area are nature lovers too, and appreciate the area and unique sights we’re able to show them. We do attract a lot of people, but we’ve managed to maintain the mountain serenity, too.
The second surprise is how amazing our staff is! We expected them to be qualified and competent, of course. But, we’ve been blown away by how educated, fun – and passionate they are! We have people with master’s degrees who have chosen to make their living with us in order to spend their time out in nature everyday, and that’s just one example. Each and every member of our staff feels the same passion we do about the outdoors, about sharing our enthusiasm for nature. It’s been totally overwhelming and thrilling to see that the staff echoes what Navitat is trying to do.
At Navitat, our staff is in the unique position of observing guests as they experience something life-changing. While the canopy tour means something different to everyone, many people find that it gives them a chance to stretch their personal boundaries and test their own limits.
For those of us in the Welcome Center, we see these guests as they first arrive, and chat with them to take their minds off their jangling nerves. As they head out with the guides, still nervous about taking part in an activity they aren’t 100% sure about, and thought they’d never consider, we smile and urge them to have fun.
By the time they return to the Welcome Center, they have a changed demeanor. It’s really cool to see how they’ve faced the challenge in front of them, stretched past their comfort zones and lived it up on the canopy tour! It’s rewarding to know that Navitat helped them do that, and it gives us a great feeling of pride. We’re lucky to experience this with our guests almost daily.
Nature-lovers live for Fall. The crisp air and brightly colored leaves adding bursts of color to the sky are addicting, and we just can’t get enough. Can you imagine the views as you’re soaring above the treetops, high over the ground? Rich reds, vibrant oranges, sunshine yellows and a few healthy greens will be displayed in a brand new way with our canopy tours.
Navitat opened this Spring, so none of us here have experienced the Fall canopy tour views yet, and to say we’re looking forward to it would be an understatement. We’re as excited as our guests are! Actually, we’re expecting quite a few repeat visitors this Fall. After enjoying the canopy tour earlier in the year, many of them booked their second visits to coincide with the changing leaves. At the beginning of August, we’ve already got bookings well into October, which just shows how excited people are for Leaf Season.
People are going to be impressed and thrilled to see the gorgeous leaves up close and in a new way, not to mention the beautiful and colorful long-range views!
We’ve had a busy few weeks at Navitat!
The real fun finally began a few weekends ago when we hosted our “Friends and Family Sneak Preview Days.” We welcomed over 200 members of our community, family, friends, and members of the media to be some of the very first to experience Navitat. It was a blast! Since then, we’ve had two very busy weeks and even sold out this past sunny Sunday.
We’re proud to say that our anticipating and planning has paid off; everyone from the 10-year-old kids to an 83-year-old Chamber of Commerce volunteer have had a fantastic time and returned with rave reviews. It’s so much fun talking to guests just after they’ve come out of the trees. Smiles all around!!!
The total length of cable run throughout the whole property is just over 5700 feet, which translates into 10 individual zip lines spanning from 120 to over 1100 feet. During the adventure, participants are up to 200 feet above the ground and get a truly unique look at the forest and the Blue Ridge Mountains from our 16 tree platforms.
The entire tour lasts approximately three and a half hours, and is truly an awesome adventure. Beginning with a ride on a rough terrain vehicle to the safety orientation and instructional period until the final hike along Moody Creek to wind back down to the Welcome Center, the tour offers both the opportunity for serene self-reflection and adrenaline-pumping exhilaration.
During the design process, we always had participant comfort in mind, knowing that some visitors will need time to ramp up for the more adventurous aspects of the course. To that end, guests can expect shorter, closer to the ground zip lines that offer a chance to ease into the experience before the faster, longer ones come along. Throughout the second set of zip lines, our guests are amazed by the long-range views that some hadn’t expected to see. Flying above the valley cove is truly breathtaking.
Visitors also conquer two rappelling experiences, soak in the views from two sky bridges, and keep their heart rates up with three short walks between adventure areas. We’ve situated a water station in the center of the course where guests can take a quick breather.
Our canopy tour is an incredibly memorable experience that gives guests a chance to connect with nature on a level many people find hard to reach. Come NAVIgate our habiTAT in a new and exciting way; we can’t wait to share the thrills (and the views) with you! For tour information, follow this link!
Navitat is also looking forward to welcoming local visitors to experience the canopy tour this Fall. Viewing your own area in such a new way is amazing, and gives people a whole new perspective. Lots of our repeat visitors are from the local area, and have the opportunity to come back frequently to see how the tour changes in different seasons. The Navitat staff is looking forward to experiencing Fall with them for the first time!
