Virtual Walks in the USA

Explore America - Take Virtual Walks in Florida, Maine, Hawaii, North Carolina - and Never Leave Home!

Your treadmill can transport you to green forests in Maine, Florida, the North Carolina Mountains, and Hawaii!

If you love nature, its solitude, sounds, and incredible scenery, then you'll love taking one of our virtual walks through these American locations:

FLORIDA:

Volume 1 of your 60 minute Florida Nature Virtual Walk begins in a typical Florida forest - alive with bird sounds, palm trees and large live oaks. Walking at approximately 3 miles per hour, you enjoy the lush green plant life that abounds in this old growth forest as you follow trails that meander through an old-growth bald cypress swamp with cabbage palmettos, ferns, bromeliads, orchids and other epiphytes. Some trees are believed to be over a thousand years old, and one is possibly the largest oak in Florida, with a girth of over 36 feet. This is the "real" Florida, an area visited by few tourists.

Soon, your walk takes you on an elevated boardwalk and into a Cypress swamp where the camera stops briefly from time to time to allow you to enjoy the amazing views. The last segment of your Florida Nature walk takes you to another Cypress swamp in the early morning where you discover small Resurrection ferns are growing everywhere. Still water ponds, alive with fish, are discovered throughout this nature walk.

Volume 2 of your one hour Florida Nature Virtual Walk was filmed near the west coast of Florida, in an area that dates back to the 1930s and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Beginning in a typical Florida dry prairie - usually flat with dense cover of grasses and saw palmetto, you discover a profusion of Spanish-moss hanging from the tree limbs. Spanish moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients and water through its leaves from the air and rainfall. Also found along the trail, the Sabal palm is one of 15 species of palmetto palm and is native to the deep southern United States and is the state tree of Florida. For a few minutes your trail parallels the river and the camera pauses from time to time to take in the view. Then it's back to the trail as it winds its way through the forest - one moment the foliage almost engulfs the trail - the next, it opens up.

Although the changes are subtle, your trail is always changing with interestingly shaped trees everywhere. The winding trail pulls you forward deeper into the forest. Your one hour Florida Nature Walk - Volume 2 continues in another forest near the east coast of Florida. Again, just as on the west coast, saw palmettos abound but this time, in addition to the sandy path through the forest there are long sections of elevated boardwalk over the wetter sections of the forest. The boardwalk turns corners around trees and follows a winding path through the forest until it transitions back to the sandy trail. Then it's on through more forest lined with saw palmettos before your 60 minute Florida Nature Virtual Walk - Volume 2 ends deep in the native forest.

APPALACHIAN TRAIL:

Your 60 minute Appalachian Trail Virtual Walk in North Carolina begins at Lover's Leap overlook, a popular site along the Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail that runs from Maine to Georgia. An average of around 2,700 hikers complete the entire 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail each year. Lover's Leap gets its name from a Cherokee Indian tale of a maiden who threw herself to her death from the rock after her lover was killed by a jealous suitor. The rock is overlooking the French Broad River. You turn and head downhill following the narrow Appalachian Trail encountering several switchbacks because of the steepness of the trail.

In the background, you can hear the sounds of water rushing from a section of rapids on the French Broad River which flows 218 miles from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into the state of Tennessee. Its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville is the beginning of the Tennessee River. The French Broad River was named by European settlers centuries ago because it was one of the two broad rivers in western North Carolina. The one which flowed into land claimed by France at that time was named the "French Broad River."

Thousands of day hikers come to Hot Springs every year to hike the Lover's Leap Loop on the Appalachian Trail. Eventually you are walking beside the French Broad River as the trail parallels a section of rapids. Almost every section of the Appalachian Trail produces a new surprise.

Leaving the forest, you climb steps and turn and approach the small town of Hot Springs, the only town in North Carolina where the Appalachian Trail goes right through the center of town! This must be one of the few locations where the trail becomes a paved sidewalk and in fact, the sidewalk has the logo for the Appalachian Trail set into the concrete. After walking through the little mountain town, ahead, at the crosswalk, the Appalachian Trail turns and re-enters the forest.

It's along this section of trail that you encounter one of the 50th Anniversary Appalachian Trail Plaques. Continuing on, you encounter stone steps ahead before entering a section of forest with a floor of green ferns. Finally, you find yourself on Max Patch Mountain, certainly one of the most interesting sections of the Appalachian Trail where the trail goes right across the top of this bald mountain with scenic vistas in every direction. Hikers, both serious and day, along with picnickers, are enjoying the amazing view from atop Max Patch Mountain.

You continue to follow the Appalachian Trail blazes while admiring the view until your one hour Appalachian Trail Virtual Walk in North Carolina ends with a magnificent view of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance.

MAINE

The first part of your 60 minute Maine Nature Virtual Walk begins in Acadia National Park at Hunter's Brook Trail off Champlain Road near its intersection with Park Loop Road. The trail follows a clear mountain stream as it rushes down the hillside. From time to time you pause briefly to take in the beautiful scenery that is to be discovered along the trail. Then it's back to the trail as you travel deeper into the forest. This national park actually began 18,000 years ago as a glacial sheet of ice nearly a mile high.

Further into the forest trail, the stream gets narrower and the trail transports you up some rocks and by a scenic cove before your walk takes you beside Maine's rocky coastline. Once again the camera pauses briefly from time to time to take in the scenic vistas before continuing on and the terrain changes and you pause to watch a small red squirrel aggressively defending his territory from you and the camera. As you continue following the rocky shoreline, the trail gets steeper and your one hour Maine Nature Treadmill Scenery Walk ends at another scenic vista with blue ocean in the distance.

HAWAII

The first volume of your two Hawaii Virtual Walks, focuses on the Hau'ula Trail where you'll feel as if you’ve been transported to a far away jungle. Beginning just off the Maakua Homestead Road, on Oahu's North Shore, you enter the trail through an opening in the forest with a carpet of ferns. After crossing the rocky dry Waipililo Gulch, the trail heads uphill through a grassy path. Continuing on with your walk, you quickly adjust to the rocks and gnarled roots of the ironwood trees lining the trail. The needles from these trees often form a slippery bed for walking, but create an eerie sense of magic as you walk.

Your walk continues as you next encounter a stand of stately Norfolk pines where the trail offers the walker a mix of sun and shade and ferns with their green fronds dot the way. The trail now follows the narrow ridgetop and from time to time along the trail, you stop to enjoy the amazing views - either inland to misty volcanic Koolau Mountains or seaward towards the blue Pacific. The plants you pass along the trail are surprisingly varied. And after the trail loops back on itself, your 2.5 mile walk ends where it began.

The second volume of your two Hawaii Virtual Walks begins beside a 32 acre lake located within the 400 acre botanical garden where you walk along the edge of the lake populated with ducks, geese, fish, and assorted fishermen (catch and release only). Such a beautiful location for a walk with numerous tropical trees and colorful flowers and even the strange "Cannonball Tree." From time to time you pause to enjoy the scene before then moving on through more tropical scenery. The park includes many types of palms and tropical plants including Frangipani trees. Waterfowl, including ducks, abound in Hawaii and are a joy to feed and fun to watch.

Continuing around the lake and crossing a bridge before continuing on beside the lake. You turn away from the lake and the scenery begins to change and you cross another bridge and enter a garden that is best described as a "tunnel of trees." The trail, constantly twisting and turning, is always interesting. The backdrop of the mountains, reminiscent of "Jurassic Park," is breathtaking. In this section of your walk, the fresh Kaneohe breeze picks up. Many people rate this botanical garden as a "gem hidden in Kaneohe" and a "must see." This park sits at the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains and is a nature-lover's paradise. And your treadmill can take you here.

THE FOUR SEASONS

This one hour Virtual Nature Walk takes you through the same forest during all four seasons of the year. Your walk begins on a bright summer morning where you will find yourself immersed in a sea of green foliage. As the pathway curves gently downhill, you are walking in a lush, leafy forest. As you enjoy the songbirds heard throughout this segment of your walk, civilization will seem a lifetime away. On a quiet morning walk, you are sometimes privileged to see a great blue heron resting and in flight.

And now autumn takes her turn in the spotlight. The deep greens of high summer become more subdued, showing a different color palette, before bursting into a golden landscape. The dry leaves crunch under your soft footsteps.

Now winter brings its quiet dignity on stage and a light dusting of snow covers the brown pathways. The forest is cold and silent as you walk along the same paths as before.

And, after the dormancy of winter, the forest comes alive again in Spring, nature flourishes, vegetation abounds, and birds begin to sing once again. Nature's cycle has begun once more.

Whether you use these Virtual Walks to make the time spent exercising on your treadmill FUN, or use them as a way of "relaxing" after a hard workday, you'll delight in the amazing scenery and vitality captured in these DVDs and HD Downloads.

Customers tell us again and again, that these virtual walk videos actually make the time spent exercising on their treadmills, ellipticals, or Nordic Tracks, "fly by!" They tell us they exercise longer and enjoy every minute! One of our Amazon customers recently posted this review, "These folks that make these DVDs do such a great job that I feel I am actually there! I can't wait to get the next DVD that they make. I am never disappointed."

Another customer wrote: "Hello, I bought all of your walking DVDs recently and have just had a chance to spend more time with some. They are truly a treat for me. I just watched the Four Seasons one in fast forward. I'm a native Californian and, although it does happen relatively dramatically in parts of the state, I've rarely seen obvious signs of seasons changing in my daily life. It was SO interesting to watch the changes along the same path right before my eyes. What an interesting concept you had in doing this. How moving it is allegorically as well. Further, the mini-doc on flowers and ferns is so lovely .. offering the things one would focus on while walking past but you can't safely with a camera while continuing walking. My biggest compliment is for the very rare pleasure of experiencing editing to the phrases of the music. There should be whole semesters/years on this in film schools and specialists sitting with non-musical editors because it makes such a difference. Very often you made gentle transitions as the music went from one phrase to the next and I loved how you would slowly zoom in on a flower and hold the shot through the climax of the phrase. Well done! I'm not sure which came first, the film or music, but if it were the film, it was photographed with uncanny musical timing. However it happened, I appreciated and got great pleasure from it. I'm looking forward to the rest - and ones coming in the future. I'm slowly savoring them since I know I'll be living with them for a long time. Thank you for these and for making my ordering so easy that night I was doing them one by one, Janet."

So if you love nature in all its splendor and variety, then pick out a location and order either a DVD or a High Def Download today. Tomorrow you could be taking a treadmill virtual walk in a green forest in Florida, Maine, Hawaii, or the mountains of North Carolina. So much history and beauty here, waiting for you to experience while you exercise!