Tree Trekkers Frederick MD is a popular aerial adventure and zipline park located just outside downtown Frederick. The park features multiple high ropes trails, zipline courses, and outdoor challenge experiences suitable for families, groups, and thrill-seekers.
Nicole and I have been many times, and we believe it’s one of the best things to do around Frederick in terms of outdoor fun.
Read on to discover the excitement of Tree Trekkers’ aerial adventures in Frederick, Maryland.
A Trip to Tree Trekkers - Review
Zipline and Ropes Course for Kids and Adults
My family went on an outing to the zipline and ropes course at Harpers Ferry Adventure Center last summer and had a great time. Ropes courses are popping up everywhere, are super fun, and most combine with zipline parks.
So my daughter suggested doing it again, but this time closer to home. When I first checked out the Tree Trekkers website, I thought it was mainly a place for kids. I could not be more wrong.
Sure Tree Trekkers offers lots of activities targeted at kids. Summer Camps, Field Trips, Birthday Parties, and Kids’ Clubs are a big part of their offerings.
But make no mistake, the ropes courses at Tree Trekkers are designed for adult climbers, and they are difficult! But the challenge is very much part of the fun.
Tree Trekkers Frederick MD - Basics
Location: 9560 Old National Pike Frederick MD 21701
Distance from Frederick: ~4.7 Miles East on Old National Pike, 10 Minutes
Hours: vary by month, but generally, daylight hours
Tickets: read below, but 2 Hours is $54+Tax and 3 Hours is $64+Tax. Buy in Advance.
Parking: Free
What to Wear: Comfortable Clothes and Good Shoes (sneakers or hiking shoes). No Crocs!
The Tree Trekkers Visit Experience
Before I get to the actual courses you’ll be taking, let me discuss the venue and the overall experience. Tree Trekkers is a clean, tidy, and well-run operation.
Buying tickets is best done online and in advance. You buy for either 2 hours or 3 hours (we did 3 hours; I’d recommend it because the time flew by).
But Tree Trekkers constantly has specials, events, and other ways to experience the park. For example, they have ‘after work’ and ‘twilight’ specials at certain times of the year. Check the website.
You will also sign your waivers online in advance. This means that when you show up, you can quickly set up your equipment, complete safety briefings, and start your adventure.
During our visit, you will probably be sharing the place with groups of kids, but the staff does a good job managing everyone.
Checking in involves mostly getting your equipment, which includes gloves and a fairly sophisticated personal harness system, which you will wear during your adventure. The staff efficiently helps you with all these and gets you through a required safety briefing.
Your eyes will already be gazing at the climbers above and around you.
The Adventure Course Practice Run
Let me reiterate that the ropes courses at Tree Trekkers are the real deal. You will be 20, 30, 50 feet in the air. You’ll be asked to scale all kinds of interesting obstacles from platform to platform, whether high wires, spinning barrels, swinging steps, or other creative contraptions. So, safety is paramount.
Your personal harness is designed to ensure your safety, mostly by keeping you clipped with at least one connector.
This device requires learning, so to that end, the Tree Trekkers staff will take you through a practice area for instruction so you can learn the basics of the harness, how it’s used on the course, how to zip line, and everything else you need to know before the fun begins. Pay attention to this; it’s all important.
The Tree Trekkers Courses: Beginner Through Expert, with Lots of Ziplining
Now that you have your equipment and have been trained on the basics, the real fun begins. Here’s where you’ll decide how much challenge you want your day to have.
Tree Trekkers has
- 16 courses of varying degrees of difficulty
- Classified and coded as ‘beginner,’ ‘easy,’ ‘moderate,’ ‘difficult,’ or ‘expert’
Each course combines obstacles you must climb from platform to platform and ziplines. Some courses are also classified as all ‘zipline’ (and are very fun).
Tree Trekkers requires you to start at either a Beginner or Easy (purple or yellow) course, and you also need to try courses in order of difficulty. In other words, don’t start at ‘difficult’ without first doing a ‘moderate’ course.
Report from Our Tree Trekkers Adventure Day
My daughter, Nicole, and I went on a recent Sunday for 3 hours. In that time, we tried 4 courses. We began with a course rated ‘Easy’.
While none of us had serious difficulty, it was more challenging than I expected for something described as ‘easy’.
One question we had was whether to bring phones for picture taking during the adventure. In general, Tree Trekkers provides a place to store all your belongings during your time on the course.
However, since I wanted pictures, I brought my phone in my pocket, like I do with almost every adventure.
This was a bad idea. While I got some good pictures of us on the easy/yellow course, the phone fell out of my pocket several times. Luckily, each time I lost it, it fell onto the platform (and not 30 feet below the forest floor).
Once, it fell out at the end of a zipline section onto the slanted landing platform, requiring me to climb back down to retrieve it (quite scary).
My phone went into storage after completing that first course.
What Makes Tree Trekkers Such a Fun Frederick Outing
After finishing the ‘Easy’ course, we went on to tackle a Moderate, Difficult, and Zipline-Only course. I don’t exaggerate when I say they were some of the most physically challenging things I’ve done in years.
Combine that with being 50 feet in the air, and it all makes for a huge thrill.
This is what makes this venue such a uniquely fun activity near Frederick. If you’ve never done ropes courses or ziplining, it’s like nothing you’ve done before. It’s physically challenging.
You will need all your strength, balance, and agility to climb some of the obstacles. You will get tired. The heights will scare you (some more than others). But you will feel completely safe due to the advancements in harness technology.
You’ll feel accomplished when you finish each course, and you will have fun!
Additional Info and Tips About Tree Trekkers
Tree Trekkers can be a place to do much more, especially with kids. Check their website for more details.
A Great Place for Birthday Parties, Corporate Picnics, Events, Picnics
They make it easy to order food from Il Forno (pizza and Italian)
They have Fire Pits for rent and take care of wood and lighting
Suggested post-adventure refreshment destination: Vintage in New Market.
Tree Trekkers Frederick MD - FAQ
Yes, its highly recommended that you book ahead (link).
Tree Trekkers is a popular place, and can fill up. Plus a reservation gets you a modest discount.
I would plan on at least 2 hours to get the full Tree Trekkers experience. But its possibly to spend longer than that and not run out of fun.
This varies a lot by course difficulty. But some are quite high!
Beginner courses don’t get much more than 10 feet off the ground. The advanced courses can be as high as 65 feet! Then there is everything in between.
Spending time on aerial courses and zip lines many feet in the air is thrilling but also a bit scary.
Tree Trekkers puts lots of emphasis on safety, including high-quality harness equipment that ensures you are always tethered to a safety line.
Children 8+ can access most of the courses, while the advanced trails are reserved for those 10+.
If you visit with kids 4-7 years old, they must be accompanied in a 1-to-1 ratio with an adult, and there are some beginner trails designed just for them.
Outdoor Activities In and Around Frederick, MD
