Atop former monorail track, Minnesota Zoo's new Treetop Trail set to open

The Minnesota Zoo will open the gates on one of its biggest new attractions in years on Friday — built atop a vestige of the zoo’s past.

On the structure that once supported enclosed monorail trains, the new open-air, at-your-own-pace Treetop Trail loops for more than a mile through the forest canopy at the 485-acre zoo in Apple Valley, Minn. It give visitors a new perspective on the animals and habitats — and makes the full expanse of the zoo grounds more accessible than ever.

“A lot of people don’t realize we’re the fifth-largest zoo in the country,” said John Frawley, the zoo’s director. “The zoo that people experience is really about one-third of the southern acreage. But there is a lot of woods and lakes and ponds that people don’t see on the Minnesota Zoo property. ... The original monorail and this new Treetop Trail takes you over some of those north woods. Half the walk is going to be through the woods and through the trees and the canopy. And then half the walk is above the amazing animals.”

Those include lions — well, mountain lions — and tigers and bears. Bison roam grassy pastures, leopard sharks swim around and ducks paddle across ponds.

But the latest addition to the zoo has decidedly more urban origins.

The new Treetop Trail was inspired by a trip to New York City, shortly after Frawley became the zoo’s director in 2016. He walked with his wife and some friends on Manhattan’s High Line, the mile-and-a-half-long freight rail line turned into a public park.

And he realized: He had that.

“We were just looking at a repurposed old railroad truss. We said, ‘This would be so perfect for back at the zoo in Minnesota,’” he recalled.

The monorail, futuristically called Skytrail, had hauled visitors for decades at the zoo until it was retired in 2013. Its track, in some places three stories above the zoo grounds, had been abandoned to an uncertain future.

“So we came back and hired architects and looked into the substructure, and could it handle a project like this? And sure enough, they came back and said the substructure, the old monorail track, was really well-built and it’s going to be around for a long time,” Frawley said. “That’s when we started the journey.”

Five years and $39 million later, the last mile and a quarter of that journey opens Friday.

Most of the looped trail is 8 feet wide, surfaced with composite grey planking made from recycled plastic bottles, held down by recessed fasteners. There’s a nearly chest-high, climb-resistant steel railing on either side and nearly 30 bump-outs that are 12 feet wide and feature benches and room to park strollers or wheelchairs.

The trail is unsheltered, all-weather and complete with a fleet of brushes, plows, pressure washers and shuttles to maintain and keep it open to visitors year-round. The bottoms of the railings are open to make snow removal easy.

The old monorail station platform is being repurposed into event space, according to Jamie Flaws, the project manager for the trail design and construction.

“As we were designing the trail, we really needed to think about additional programming space for classes like yoga in the trees, or mindfulness classes — but also our events and educational opportunities,” she said. “This is a place where we can house evening events, cocktail events, things of that nature.”

The trail also connects to the zoo’s Hanifl nature center, which will host semi-annual art exhibitions as well as additional space for programs, receptions, donor events and other activities.

The trail project was publicly and privately funded, including $11 million in state bonding funds. The zoo raised the rest, nearly $30 million, from foundations and private, business and tribal donations from around the state.

Construction is finished, although workers were wrapping up landscaping, cleaning and other details earlier this week. The trail will officially open with a ribbon cutting at 11 a.m. Friday. Grand opening events for zoo members will run Friday and Saturday night, and there will be chalk art, social media activities and a variety of other events on the trail and elsewhere at the zoo to christen the new attraction.

The Treetop Trail will be open to zoo visitors during regular hours; there’s no additional cost beyond zoo admission.

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