The Amazing Wild Center

You may recall that my last blog was from the Adirondacks last year. Well, this latest one is also from the Adirondacks but mainly focusing on one great spot, The Wild Center, a natural history setting in Tupper Lake.

The Wild Center officially opened on July 4, 2006. The date was selected because the opening of The Wild Center was designed to be a celebration of the Adirondacks as a great American success story. And yes, it is! The Wild Center added Wild Walk in 2015, a thousand feet of bridges and platforms that rise up and eventually over the forest on the center's footprint. It’s designed to transform the way we see into the natural world by offering up the perspective of the rest of nature. You can see it in the photo above and the photo below.

Wild Walk also includes Stick Work, a larger-than-life sculpture that is inspired by childhood and the natural world of the Adirondacks. The artist, Patrick Dougherty and a group of volunteers, bent, weaved, snagged and flexed sustainably-sourced, local sapling to create a whimsical immersive art piece that you can walk in or just look at and be mesmerized.

On Wild Walk, you will also see a replica of a Bald Eagle’s nest. You can climb into it. As it’s the highest point of Wild Walk, once you climb up, you look out across a forest that stretches as far as you can see. Pat and I enjoyed the vista and rested there a bit.

Wild Walk includes the Spider’s Web. You may wonder what it would be like to live on a web, hanging on a thread above the forest. The Spider’s Web at Wild Walk provides one an opportunity to lay in wait or walk across a web woven above the ground.

You may think that Wild Center is all outdoors but it also has great indoor museum. Here’s the entrance to Wild Center. Check out the beautiful woman lurking in the foreground on the left side.

During our visit, staff did a show and tell with Porky the porcupine. Porky was very active that morning and performed as he knew he would receive some tasty food treats

What more can I say… A trip to the Adirondacks should include a visit to the Wild Center. Please leave a comment after reading so I know you received it and read it.