Ziplining in Saluda, North Carolina With Video

In 2014, I went with my husband and his family on a trip to the mountains, and we decided to go zipling at "The Gorge Zipline," in Saluda, North Carolina. A gorge is a valley between the mountains. We ziplined through the Green River Gorge. It was a 3 hour experience, and included 11 ziplines, 1 sky bridge, and 3 free-fall rappels. The ziplining trip went through over 100 acres of protected forests.

This was a photo of us waiting to zipline. I was anxiously waiting. I was not thrilled at first and was almost petrified. My mother-in-law backed out and I almost backed out too, but the group wouldn't let me.

We had two tour guides, and the female guide talked calmly to me when I was standing at the ledge of the platform. She helped ease my anxiety and talked me into taking the first plunge. Here I am going down my first zipline.

And the verdict...

All smiles! It wasn't so bad. While we were gearing up, there was an older gentleman with his son. He knew I was scared, so he shared with me that he ziplines often. I told him how I hate the feeling that roller coasters can give, that feels like my stomach is about to jolt through my mouth, and I was scared it would do the same thing when I was ziplining. The hard part is once you start on the zipline, there is no turning back. You have to go till the end.

He swore that ziplining was nothing like that. He said the reason I get that feeling from roller coasters is because the extra weight of the roller coaster cause stronger g-forces. He said when you are ziplining, it is just your weight going against gravity, and it wouldn't cause the stomach jolting feeling. He was right. There was only one zipline that made me get some flutters in my stomach and the guides shared that it was because it was the most steep line out of all 11 lines. I share this with you all because if you have those same fears, I hope this alleviates your fear for ziplining!

Here is a photo of the gorge. This photo really does it no justice. The valley seemed so deep while zipping over it.

However, the video below is amazing and shows the awesome view!

Take notice of us all standing on the platform. We all were strapped in twice for a double precaution of safety. Look at the man to the right, who appears to be at the edge of the platform being nosey. Yep, that's my husband and he almost slipped off of the platform, even though he wouldn't have fell far since we were strapped onto it. Out of instinct I grabbed the yellow ropes that were fastening him to the platform and yanked them as hard as I could to help him from going off the side of the platform. It worked thankfully! If you go ziplining, don't stand too close to the edge of the platform because you might give your spouse a heart attack, lol.

They told us to make silly poses on the drawbridge, so here were our best silly poses lol!

The ziplines were pretty steep. Here are some good photos of us coming down the zipline path to show the drop off.

Here is my husband being silly during one of the free-fall rappels. It sounded scary, but it really wasn't because it had a lowering machine that slowly lowered us down. I just had to step off of the side of the platform and it would slowly anchor me to the lower platform.

If you get a chance, come see North Carolina and all of its beauty! Definitely take a trip to Saluda, NC to zipline through the mountains! It is worth the views and the adventure!