School
Field Trips

The Adventure Center is the best outdoor experiential adventure for activities that cultivate leadership skills, team building, character development, and immersive learning!

We create exciting and competitive experiences designed to instill confidence, cooperation, communication, and connection between group members.     

Our adventures are not just for students, we also host teachers and administrators for a fun day of team bonding adventures outdoors at ACA!

              Choose one activity or group multiple programs together for a full day of adventure.  

School Field Trip Adventures

• Asheville Treetops Adventure Park is the largest WNC challenge course in the trees with 70 unique climbing, rolling, and swinging elements in a wooded park on 7 aerial trails. With new technology, our smart clips keep all guests attached to our aerial trail cables until you are down on the ground. It is Challenge by Choice! Aerial trails range from Beginner to Intermediate levels.  Watch your group step out of their comfort zone to complete an aerial challenge while encouraging each other to create a team bonding atmosphere.
• Team Building Low Ropes Facilitated Programs are custom-created fun and competitive experiences designed to instill confidence, cooperation, communication, and connection between group members. Our facilitated programs with experienced instructors focus on active interactions designed for guests to step outside of typical comfort zones while collaborating to accomplish group goals. We highlight the potential strengths of task completion and the challenges of processes such as communication, group decision making, and task sharing/delegation. Our programs are fun, engaging, challenging, sometimes frustrating, thought-provoking, and personally enlightening. Whether you want to spend 1-hour playing fun team bonding games to get your team warmed up or a half or full day of goal-driven facilitated programs, we can create the team-building experience you are looking for. Your students will walk away knowing more about themselves and each other, and hopefully, apply the skills they learn to their lives.
• Asheville Zipline Canopy Adventures is an urban canopy tour with 11 ziplines & 3 sky bridges in treetop platforms on adventure towers with views of downtown. We use a hand-breaking system that teaches self-reliance and confidence.  Our extensive ground school and course options are created for group volume to minimize wait time. 
• TreeQuest is recreational tree climbing on a large oak tree. Guests use specialized gear and techniques to climb on one of our stately oak trees using a rope without negatively affecting the tree. Climbers “inchworm” their way up one of our eight climbs that range in height. Then they can participate in a team-building exercise while “hanging out” in the tree! 
• Kolo Bike Park is a mountain bike sampler-pack designed for all rider levels.  With 2 pump tracks, a jump line, 4 miles of trails, a skills area, and scattered challenge features, Kolo is the perfect venue for your mountain bike team! 
• Whitewater Rafting at 2 locations (Pigeon & Nantahala River) close to Asheville by our sister company, Wildwater. Ltd. Whether you are looking for a float trip or Class IV rapids, students will raft with our experienced guides to have a splash on the river!

Experiential Learning Programs: STEM/Environmental Education/Wilderness Skills

Our adventure activities pair perfectly with our outdoor environmental education programs! We have designed hands-on programs with North Carolina and South Carolina state standards and outdoor survival skills in mind,  but they can be tailored to cover your school’s goals and standards. Our program staff has decades of education and experience in experiential education with Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in the field. So we are excited to create an immersive learning experience for your students that encourages curiosity, teamwork, and fun!

Program options include: 

• Ready. Set. Go Physics!  Students will get to see the physics of zip lining and ropes courses up close and in action. Using small-scale models to show how gravity, weight, friction, and other forces affect the motion of zipliners, students will get to experiment in a controlled environment.   Add this to our Treetops Park or Ziplines so that students can experiment with and experience physics in action! 1-2 hours  NC & SC standards: NC 5.P.1, 7.P.1, 7.P.2, Psc.1.1, Phy.1.1, Phy.1.2; SC 4.S.1, 5.P.5, 6.P.3, 8.P.2, 8.P.3, H.P.2, H.P.3
• Trees & Me Ecology gives students an inside look at plants, and how they interact with other living and nonliving things in their environment. This ecology-based class offers hands-on learning for students to get to know trees up close and personal through tree identification, decomposition exploration, and a guided sensory hike to experience nature among our 100 acres of property. 1-2 hours  NC & SC standards: NC 5.L.2., 6.L.1, 6.L.2, 7.L.2, 8.L.1, 8.L.3, Bio.2.1; SC 4.L.5, 5.L.4, 6.L.5, 7.L.3, 7.EC.5, H.B.3, H.B.6
• Wilderness/Outdoor Survival Skills teaches students what is essential in a survival situation.  Whether it is learning to build a primitive shelter, how to build & start a fire using primitive materials, or what items are truly essential for an outdoor outing, students will have a blast working together to “survive” in the woods! While also learning about “Leave No Trace” principles, students will practice some essential outdoor ethics. 1-3 hours
• In our Lost & Found Orienteering program, students will learn how to use a topographic map and compass, then apply those skills to our orienteering course. Students then will work in small groups to navigate themselves to victory.  So with a little teamwork, they then go home with skills they can use in real life.  1-3 hours

Our activities instill personal development and self-confidence, encourage cooperation with others, enrich problem-solving skills, and offer fun with a challenge.  While expanding your comfort zone, each person is supporting and planning with others in the team, developing positive relationships, building trust and inspiring positive changes.

Nowhere in Asheville are there so many different outdoor activities in one place that offer personal growth and discovery. Guests are encouraged to expand their personal comfort zones, increase their self-confidence, and support others challenged to do the same. We offer opportunities to move from good to great friends, team members, or leaders as guests literally climb to new heights!

Meet our Team

With literally decades of experience and education in outdoor education, team building programs, environmental science, outdoor recreation, and experiential learning, our leadership team offers field trips that surpass every expectation.  From our adventure activities to our environmental education programs to our facilitated team building, we create custom made activity driven immersive learning in our 100-acre outdoor classroom like no other company. 

Contact group sales today to create your custom school field trip adventure!  828.225.2921