Hiking on a mountain trail or walking through a pine forest brings a distinct sense of peace and connects one to the beauty of nature. Yet these experiences, as profound as they may be, are still limited to the narrow perspective of the ground level. Above the carpet of dry pine needles, through the perfumed branches of white pines, and up towards the blue sky, a different world teaming with life is always out of reach. The Wild Walk changes that by bringing people to the world of the treetop ecosystems and allowing visitors to experience a familiar environment in a completely different way. Located in the Adirondacks Mountains, Wild Walk creates a direct link to wild nature and makes visitors feel more connected both to the surrounding wilderness, but more importantly, to their own natural being. Wild Walk was designed by Charles P. “Chip” Reay, who worked in 1964 in Charles Eames’ studio. “I wanted to connect everything to the surrounding environment, whatever the scale, not to objects in glass boxes”, he says. This one of a kind natural history museum immerses visitors in a natural habitat, combining learning with a different kind of forest walking experience. Visitors can wander through wooden paths, hang on a suspended web that is reminiscent of a spider’s, or gaze towards the horizon from a huge bald eagle nest. Here, humans are not merely observers of the surrounding environment, but they become an integral part of the landscape and uncover the strong bond they have to the natural world, or put more simply, to home. Images courtesy of Wild Center.
