From the USA TODAY NETWORK and KZfaq, it’s VRtually There, a weekly adventure with three cool VR experiences.
Race along a zipline at 70mph in VR!
Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, is a pretty escape from the city that offers relaxation and recreation. You can peacefully sail in a boat and catch some fish, enjoy a picnic, or take a scenic hike.
Or, if you’re a little crazy, fly over it all at 70mph on a zipline.
Zipline Adventures offers a half-mile-long ride - the longest in Texas - on which riders can reach speeds up to 70mph. Feel the rushing wind, gasp at the distance to the ground - and pray you don’t need that helmet.
Brace yourself for an adorable grizzly bear encounter in VR!
“Good boy,” says Casey Anderson to his pet as it digs under a rock for a tasty treat. But this is no mere dog video.
That animal is digging for an elk neck.
Anderson adds, “The key to a bear’s heart is food.”
Meet Brutus, a grizzly bear from Paradise Valley, Montana, who’s living the high life at an animal sanctuary. So what’s life like for a giant bear?
Fourteen-year-old Brutus was orphaned as a cub and raised by Anderson, an animal expert. Now Brutus stands eight feet tall and weighs 800 pounds. But just because he lives in a sanctuary doesn’t mean he doesn’t get to experience the wild life.
“One of the coolest things I get to do with Brutus is actually take him away from the sanctuary and give him a little bit of what a wild grizzly bear would experience,” says Anderson. “Let him come out and do what a grizzly bear would do: swim and play in the creek, dig, knock down trees, do all the things grizzlies love to do.”
And it turns out that’s a blast to watch.
Bask in the glory of Joshua Tree National Park in VR!
Just beyond the lights of Southern California there’s a desert paradise, where the sky lights up at night with thousands of stars.
Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park. The park’s 800,000 acres of desert wilderness contains plenty of hidden treasures. Relics of the gold-mining boom - like skeletons of old cars - are scattered throughout the park.
And at night, gaze around at the glory of the night sky; even the Milky Way gleams bright.
Take a breath. Take it in. And don’t forget to look around!
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Be sure to check out our premiere episode, where we launch you from an aircraft carrier and take you walking on a tightrope hundreds of feet above the bottom of an Arizona canyon: • VR launch off an aircr...
See our second episode here, where we take you wing-walking on a plane and skateboarding with X Games pros: • VR wing walk on a plan...
Our third episode, for those of you who want the thrill of skydiving without the risk to life and limb: • VR parachuting with US...
And our fourth episode, where we take you on a trip to a beautiful place you've probably never been: the moon. Check it out: • Cool VR walk on the mo...
Our fifth episode takes you to party in the desert with the wild and creative minds behind Burning Man: • VR Burning Man experie...
Our sixth episode goes behind the scenes at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and puts you through the incredible trials and tribulations of the World’s Toughest Mudder: • Macy's Thanksgiving Pa...
Our seventh episode pays respect to the fallen with a reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor: • VR Pearl Harbor attack...
Our eighth episode catches waves with Ricochet the surfing therapy dog: • VR climb up Leaning To...
Our ninth episode lets you experience game day with the Auburn Tigers: • Experience game day in...
Our tenth episode goes head to head with NHL great Alex Ovechkin: • 360-video: Swim with s...
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