#1 of 80 fun Adventures to do in California

Looking for fun adventures to do in California? Great! I have started a new series called “80 fun adventures to do in California” Here is #1 of the upcoming 80 things I found to do.

#1 Zip-lining and Cave tours at Moaning Cavern Adventure Park

Have you ever been ziplining? Or you may be like me and have been to afraid to try! Lol. I found a great place for first time zip liners.

This park offers a few different attractions. There are twin zip lines (so you can race your friends or family down), a cave tour that lasts about 45 min to an hour, rock walls, and spelunking for those of you with a more adventurous side. It is open year-round. Monday – Friday from 10am-4pm and Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm. It is located in Vallecito, CA.

On to the Ziplines!

This was my first experience ziplining. I was SO scared to try it but I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do it!

When you first arrive head on into the store, this is where you will purchase tickets. You can decide to do a solo zipline or if you have children under 70 pounds you can tandem zipline. Then you will need to sign some waivers.

You may also want to rent a go pro for your experience or bring your own! If you rent theirs they will down load the footage onto a thumb drive for you.

After your all done signing waivers and grabbing your go pro rental, head to the “shack” to get suited up in your ziplining gear.

This is where the team of instructors will fit you for the harnesses and helmets. This is when it starts to get real lol! The equipment is a little bulky and it has a little weight to it but not too bad.

You need to leave purses, backpacks etc in the car for this. You can however bring your phones and while your ziplining they will be put in a nylon bag and attach it to you.

When your all geared up you will hop into a little off-road vehicle and be driven by one of the instructors up to the ziplining area.

When you arrive, you will then walk up a short little hill and across a bridge and onto the deck where your experience will start :).

There are two ziplines both 1500 feet long and 80 feet above the ground. The instructor will guide you on how to “sit” in your harness. Your then guided to take a step up onto an angled platform.  The instructor will then radio to the other tower letting them know your on your way. You get the countdown “3”, “2”, “1” and you lift your legs and ‘voila’ you’re on your way! Well that’s how it is suppose to go… for me.. lets just say it took the instructor about 3-5 minutes extra to calm me down LOL!

My middle daughter went first. She took the go pro because I couldn’t focus on hanging on to it and hanging on for my dear life!! He counts her down and off she goes, smiling and filled with excitement. Watching her go it looked like such a breeze!

Up next was myself and my youngest daughter. We were going to race to the the other tower…or so she thought ha! The count down happened “3”, “2”, “1” and she left again smiling and filled with excitement and I panicked!

I literally could not lift my feet. LOL! I felt the anxiety start and I thought to myself..oh my gosh I am literally not going to be able to do this! I am going to have to get down and walk to the other tower where my girls are’. BUT the instructor I had named Tyler was SO encouraging and patient he actually had a plan. He told me “Don’t look, just close your eyes while I count down then on 3 lift your feet” So he counted down and I had my eyes closed “3”, “2”, “1” and I lifted my feet…that’s when the screaming began hahaha! I was on my way and oh my gosh it was SO exhilarating! I did have tears in my eyes from laughing and crying lol. After I was able to get over the initial shock of what I was doing at 80 foot in the air and 35 mile per hour, I began to relax. I noticed I felt safe in my gear and there was no drop feeling, it was just soaring through the air and having an amazing experience! I LOVED IT!!! Looking at the tops of the trees under me and feeling that breeze in my face was such a freeing feeling. When I arrived at the other tower my daughters were there waiting for me. They had told the instructors to “mess with me”. So when I came in to the landing deck the one instructor acted like he was unable to catch me and I started going backwards. I screamed! lol. My daughters thought it was hysterical! Don’t worry there will be a time in the near future I will get them back lol!

The Cave tour-

Head back into the store where you purchased your zipline tickets. Here is where you can purchase your cave tour tickets if you hadn’t already when you purchased the ziplining ones.

• Plan on wearing good shoes as the stairs can be a bit slippery from the dripping water. You may want a light jacket as it gets a little cool down in the cave.
• Also make sure you’re up for a little work out, there are a LOTS of stairs.
• The tour is roughly 45 min.

You will begin the tour learning a little about its discovery. After hearing some great information you will then proceed down your first set of stairs to the caves depth of 165 ft! The stairs are fairly steep but totally manageable with the hand rails. Children are welcome on this tour also. You will have a few areas where the walls of the cave are pretty close and you’ll need to be careful you don’t hit it with your head.

After finishing these first set of stairs you will come to a landing. Here you will notice beautiful cave formations! There is another railing that you can stand up next to and look off to the bottom floor. The tour guide will show you beautiful areas of stalagmites and stalactites. You’re even able to touch a portion of the wall.

The tour then starts the descent down the spiral staircase. This staircase mind you is NOT held with any cables lol. After going down the stairs (for what seems like forever) you will come to another landing. Although this is as far as the tour guide takes you, there is still much more cave below you! You can walk to the ledge and look over to see an area where there is still human bones from explorers falling into the cave. We were able to see a kneecap! The tour guide will show you all of the beautiful formations and also explain why the cave got its name “moaning cavern”. The lights will be shut off and the tour guide lights a candle to show you how the first explorers discovered the cave with minimal light. Your eyes will not adjust to the darkness because it is so dark down there and no light coming in! I bet that was so scary for those first explorers!

There is water that drips down the cave walls and in one area it has formed was is called “The Chocolate Wall”. It seriously looks like chocolate dripping :). Its brown and a has a very smooth surface. Just imagine a chocolate fountain.

You then proceed out of the cave the same way you came in. Yes, up all those stairs lol! Its a great leg work out for sure ha!

The cave and ziplining was a definite must see. It was very fun and a great adventure to do with the family.

Have you tried ziplining? If so where?

Chat soon!

Trudy