CLIMB INTO THE COLOR A brand new way to see fall foliage opens in the Adirondacks

Tupper Lake, New York - Fall foliage fans will be able to see the brilliant colors of autumn from a stunning new point of view this year. Wild Walk, the brand new elevated trail that takes visitors up a winding series of bridges and platforms from ground level to breathtaking treetop vistas is open this year for its first foliage season. The Walk rises into the forest that surrounds The Wild Center, New York’s pioneering “un-museum” in the Adirondacks.

 More than eight years in the planning, Wild Walk will turn the autumn forest into a living, breathing,
learning landscape. Onsite guides will help visitors sort the bright yellow birches from the purple silver maples and flaming sugar maples. Wild Walk’s experience includes a four-story twig tree house and swinging bridges, a giant spider’s web suspended 24-feet off the ground, and a spiral walk inside a ‘dead’ tree’s thriving core. There’s even an over-sized bald eagle’s nest at the highest point where visitors will be able to pause and gaze over a sprawling unbroken forest under their feet.

 A visit to Wild Walk is part of a Wild Center experience. The Center offers a 54,000 square foot indoor experience with live animals, and chances to head out in canoes to see fall displays on the great Oxbow Marsh on the Raquette River that flows by the Center’s 81 forested acre campus. The Wild Center opened in 2006 as a reimagining of the traditional science and nature museum. In place of a traditional collection stored in vaults, the Center mixes the living natural world inside its main building with live exhibits, outdoor experiences, multi-media shows and hands-on everything.

 “We have this great hub for exploring nature in the middle of one of the most spectacular fall landscapes in the world,” said Stephanie Ratcliffe, The Wild Center’s executive director. “We have had a great summer, and the feedback on the Walk, where we took the roof off the museum experience and let the living world be the exhibit, has been tremendous, we’re really excited to be open this fall, and see what the color looks like from inside and up over the forest.”

 The Center is open seven days a week from 10-6 until Labor Day, and then is open from 10-5 until Columbus Day. After Columbus Day the Center is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10-5.

 Wild Walk will stay open until Columbus Day and days after that when there is no snow. Peak foliage season in the Tupper Lake region is expected to be in early October.