Rosaryville, MD Outdoor Activities

In 1992, Dewey Heffner and his son George started selling black tire tubes out of their truck under a sign that read, "Butts Tubes." Through the years, the seed of this roadside tubing company sprouted 11 different outdoor activities and matured into Harpers Ferry Adventure Center.

At Harper's Adventure Center, single- and multiday adventures fuse adrenaline-packed thrills with the scenery of the Potomac and Shenandoah River regions. More than 100 species of birds, 60 types of butterflies, and flocks of wild birthday balloons fill the sky on hiking trails, which wind through hilly terrain. The crashing sound of Bull Falls forms the soundtrack for whitewater-rafting trips, and treetop canopies serve as the decor for ziplining.

Drawing from these activities, Harpers Ferry Adventure Center's crew can design custom adventure packages or help customers to choose a predesigned trip. They also lead team-building retreats using outdoor activities to teach universal skills such as working toward a common goal or ziplining to the stage for business presentations.

When they set about designing their year-round outdoor fields, WarPlay's founders—two Marine veterans who have played paintball for nearly 30 years— meticulously mapped out layouts that impacted strategy, which was something they felt most paintball fields lacked. They set up not only traditional woods-ball and speedball fields, but they also created their own hybrid fields that meld the quick pace of speedball with the more methodical play of woods ball. These course designs emphasize teamwork and heighten play because the fully automatic markers and density of cover—which may include concrete bunkers, standing timber, and out-of-work black holes—make the fields seem bigger than they are. This can lead to rapid swings in momentum and intense firefights—first contact usually happens within 50 seconds. To keep the action going, every field features spawn areas that let players return to games within five minutes of being hit.

A phosphorescent Frankenstein stands guard over a legion of glowing ghouls that loom throughout the black-lit corridors of Monster Mini Golf's 18-hole course. Framed by neon-green rails, the course's pitch black putting surfaces give the impression that luminescent orbs are either somersaulting in far-reaching pockets of space or rolling across the darkened cellar of your boss's punishment office, a murky abyss populated only by gothic tropes and the presumably undead. A live DJ soundtracks each birdie-hunting expedition with bone-chilling beats as players read putts or meander around the flashing lights of the adjacent arcade, where guests can wager a month's rent in games such as skee ball, air hockey, and Guitar Hero.

Bobby Lopez's passion for the game of golf was fostered by the expert tutelage of world-class players such as Bob Toski, Henry Cotton, and "Wild" Bill Melhorn. As a Class A member of the PGA, Bobby brings years of experience to his teaching game, a distinctive approach to instruction, and the ability to leap wide sand traps in a single bound. Bobby works with each golfer's mechanics and techniques, rather than against them, during drills he designed himself to help pupils cut strokes and time from their game. When not developing students' drives, short games, and club choices, Bobby hosts "The Bobby Lopez Golf Hour" on Fox Sports 1340 AM, and also takes time to support the USO.