Rum Village Aerial Park kicking off the 2021 season with visitors driven by outdoor activities
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- A family-friendly attraction is already bringing in more people than usual, all eager to try out the rope courses, zip-lining flying experience, wooden bridges and more.
Rum Village Aerial Park is officially open for its 2021 season with different challenging obstacles to choose from.
The park is open at full capacity with 20 people allowed in every half hour.
Since the activities offered there are all spread out outdoors, the overall risk of contracting the virus is considered low.
That means, guests don’t have to be as concerned about social distancing.
But, other COVID-19 safety precautions like mask wearing are still being enforced to staff members when interacting with the customers but since it’s outdoors, masks are optional.
The equipment is constantly being cleaned after each use.
Now, gloves to wear on the site are optional but are recommended.
They also have sanitation stations throughout the park at the entrance and on-the-go when you're on the ropes.
Aerial assistant manager Allison Angel calls the adventure park a “hidden gem.”
In fact, she says, she didn’t even know about it until last year when she was first hired.
She believes this is a great chance for the community to experience something different in their own backyard.
“We had a lot more walk ups last year, where people we’re already out here at the park and you would kind of just see them walk up and say ‘hey what’s going on out here’ and they would come up on the course and you’ll see them come back a couple more times that same year. It was just one of those things where during the middle of the pandemic a large amount of indoor activities were close but because we’re outdoors we didn’t have that same type of restriction,” said Allison Angel, Rum Village Edge Adventure ssistant Manager
The aerial park will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. so here is what you need to expect when you arrive.
When you get there, aerial guides provide quick training to get you going on your adventure, which allows you to choose from five different self-guided courses.
They courses range in height from 16 to 60 feet tall and each one is color-coded based on level of difficulty.
For example, yellow is the easiest and blue is the hardest.
You can climb ropes, ladders, wooden bridges, and make your way through nets and obstacles from tree to tree.
Between challenges, you can catch a nice view and a few deep breaths while high atop the canopy platforms sound?
And, don’t forget the zip-lining experience spread throughout the courses.
A season passholder says she didn’t know this place existed until a friend told her about it during the pandemic.
Now that it’s open, she says she’ll likely be here every other weekend.
“We had a wonderful time here at the park last summer. It was the only covid safe thing my son and his great friend could do,” said Sarah Mckibeens, a season pass holder.
In order to join in on the fun, visitors have to be at least 7 years old.
When you visit, be ready to string on a gear harness and helmet ahead of your aerial adventure.