Rattling down a leaf-strewn, rocky road in a golf cart, I am shuttled through a picturesque forest adjacent to the Great Gorge Golf Club in Vernon. Although the day is warm for mid-October, the dense tree canopy is quickly changing to its fall colors. My ride slows to a stop at the entrance to a clearing, cloaked by foliage, where I already see the reason for my journey, suspended above me and stretching out in all directions: TreEscape Aerial Adventure Park.
I suit up with the mandatory gear—a climbing harness, two auto-locking carabiners, safety gloves and a micro trolley for zip-lining—before venturing over to an elevated wooden platform from which all 10 of the available rope courses begin. Here, I am quickly assured of safety precautions by John Matusiewicz, the operations manager for TreEscape, who is serving as my guide for the day. “[The staff] climbs the course every single morning….You want to make sure that a tree or a branch hasn’t gone down,” he says.
The spiderweb of wooden contraptions and steel wiring is well hidden, not just by the trees, but by its location in rustic Sussex County. TreEscape was established in 2017 and is part of Great Gorge.
Now harnessed and ready to go, I make my way onto one of the 10 courses, which come in varying degrees of difficulty, identified by a color-coded key. (I start on a yellow course, meaning easy to medium.) Children younger than 14 are required to be supervised by an adult on the ground at all levels; at higher levels, they must be accompanied and meet a minimum standing reach. Anyone above that age is free to go solo on any course.
The courses range in height, difficulty and length, with dozens of unique rope bridges, each designed to present a different sort of test. The easiest ones, best suited for beginners and families with young children, are just a little higher off the ground than some playground equipment; the tougher courses can reach more than 150 feet in the air and feature precarious obstacles such as diagonal wooden planks and full-body rope swings. There’s a separate zip-lining course, the Black Creek Flyer, where patrons can sail through the trees from trunk to trunk, platform to platform.
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I take my first steps onto my chosen course, secured by my two carabiners. Before departing, I am instructed how to use them: clip the first onto the line, slide it over to a red Tweezle key (a safety-locking mechanism), push the clip into the key to lock it, and then attach the second, unlocked clip onto the line. As I cautiously walk the first section, a collection of wood planks floating on air, my carabiners slide dutifully along the safety line, making certain that if I lose my footing, I won’t end up on the ground. Upon reaching the first tree platform, I unhook the unlocked carabiner, find the next Tweezle key, and lock it in place. This unlocks the other one, allowing me to secure it on the next safety line. This process repeats each time I complete a section, so that there is always one clip free for the next Tweezle and one keeping me on the line.
My course presents plenty of daunting traverses, including three metal hoops I have to climb through. The tightrope below my feet is thin enough to give me a view all the way to the forest floor, glittering with red-orange leaves and spots of light. It is an incredible squirrel’s-eye view.
At the final section, I find a zip line waiting to take me back to solid ground. I quickly hook my carabiners up, take the leap of faith, and am stopped in my tracks. I must appear to be the world’s largest Christmas ornament, twirling six feet off the ground, suspended by a climbing harness and two LockD clips. I had used the wrong gadget on my harness and gotten myself thoroughly stuck in the middle of the line. My guide graciously suits up and comes to my rescue.
TreEscape is one of a handful of adventure courses across New Jersey, a pastime that’s been rapidly expanding in recent years. “People are looking for other ways to get outside and do things, and it’s definitely a unique way to do that,” says Matusiewicz.
Take Sydnie Burnett of Scotch Plains, who enjoyed the challenge of TreEscape—and the workout. “That was only three courses? Wow, it felt like more,” Burnett says. Nevertheless, she and her partner, Jerald Wesley, are eager to keep going.
If you work up an appetite or want to extend your day trip, there’s plenty to do in the area near TreEscape, with a vast nexus of golf courses, resorts and luxury spas blanketing the woodland scenery from Vernon down to Hamburg.
The land on which TreEscape was built was once home to the Legends Resort & Country Club, a Playboy hotel built by Hugh Hefner in the 1970s; Great Gorge pays homage to this history with Hef’s Hut Bar & Grill, its restaurant named for the late magazine mogul. It’s the perfect spot to grab lunch, with elevated comfort food and craft drinks.
For more dining options and overnight accommodations, Mountain Creek and Crystal Springs resorts are both just 10 minutes away.
But for adventure seekers, the main draw here is the courses themselves. And the effort, as my fellow climbers and I conclude, is part of the fun. Ryland Rybau, a first-time patron from Brooklyn who visited with her father and brother, soared through her first course as though she had done it a millions times. When asked if she had been here before, she said, “No—but I’m definitely coming back!”
Connor Carlin is the editor of The Progress, a weekly publication covering the Caldwells, Essex Fells, Fairfield and Roseland.
