Sunday, July 31, 2016

2 WNY Outdoor Reviews - Canalside BFLO Harbor Kayak and Holiday Valley's Sky High Adventure Park.

Just wanted to give you a quick review of my recent visits to new outdoor activities in WNY!

This past Tuesday, Nick and I jumped in the truck and headed to Buffalo's Canalside for a quick kayak up the Buffalo River. We couldn't have picked a better day! We arrived around 11:00 am so it was around 77 degrees and was bright sun with puffy clouds! We parked a ways away as parking was packed downtown. But it was so nice out that the walk was welcomed after the 20 minute drive from home. 



We walked up asked for 2 kayak's; $20 for an hour each including life-jacket and away we went. 

Nick and I have kayak'd before so this was easy to just jump in and go. As you can see they have the Stand Up Paddle boards as well as pedal bikes too. 




Nick and I made it just past Conway Park and then came back and paddled up to the ships and back. 
Lots of Geocache's all over the place on the map! Our path was around 2.4 miles in 1 hour. We took our time too. 




And here are some pics of our journey at eye level! Enjoy! We sure did!






















Canalside has so much going on that you will never be bored, from the Naval Park, Liberty Hound to kid activites boats and so much more! Get down here!!



Thank you BFLO Harbor Kayak!





So then on Thursday we said lets go have some fun at an aerial park called Sky High Adventure Park in Holiday Valley. The largest in New York State! It is located near the Tannenbaum Lodge and was about an hour drive south from home. You can make reservations days in advance and they have group and special rates so check their Website out.


Once there, you check in and wait until you are called. You need to sign a release form and you should get that done first! Once you hand in your paperwork you pay $52 for access to the park for 3 hours. We added a pass for the sky coaster which was $6 more bucks for a total of $58 per person. Well worth the admission price! 

You are then fitted with a harness that contains 3 important items 2 special locking lanyards and your zipline attachment, they also provide gloves and you can bring your own. We are trained on how to use the lanyards and zip line, and then we are sent to a demo course to get used to them, and then we are sent on to the course itself. We got there at 8:55, we were suited up by 9:05 and after the training we were on the course by 9:20. Its a steep uphill climb so be ready to go! 

The courses are rated Yellow, Green, Blue, Black Diamond and Double Black Diamond - easiest to most difficult. 

Even the yellow's are challenging so starting there was smart! 

Here are some shots of our trip! I highly recommend it for families with children 11 and up but I saw a boy as young as 7 on the course. 










Here are the 2 locking lanyards. One was always locked so you could never not be connected to a line. Super safe, but it took a lot of work to move them between each line.




















 The best part is kind of odd, as there was always this sense of danger and fear of getting hurt if you weren't very careful. But then I felt the rush of excitement every time I got through each obstacle on the course made this a great day!

We also hit the Sky Coaster which is a roller coaster that you control the speed. Its fast, fun and thrilling with you controlling the speed. Well worth it! We didn't take any pictures but there are plenty of videos on their website!!

Thank you Holiday Valley Sky High!!


Based on my experience these two places will get you outdoors and moving and you will have a great time!!! Let me know if you do go and leave me a comment! 


Thanks for reading!

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