The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom is the icon of the park. It’s a wonderfully detailed tree sculpture, with hundreds of animals carved into its trunk and roots. While you can’t walk into the park without noticing it and trying to spot the animals, few guests realize just how close you can get to the Tree of Life at pretty much every angle. In this post, we’re going to tell you all the ways to see the Tree of Life up close!
There are three ways to see the Tree of Life up close. This includes one attraction inside the tree (“It’s Tough To Be a Bug”) and two paths around the tree.
The two paths are often collectively referred to as “Discovery Island Trails.” On the park maps, they’re typically connected and labeled thusly. In actuality, there are two trails. Usually where there could be paths between them, there are ropes. Here’s a look at a map with the main trails in yellow and pink:
If you happen to luck into a day when they’re reconnected, great. But for the purpose of this post I’m just going to treat them separately. For each of the following three sections, we’ll include a photo gallery with arrows on either side that you can tap through.
“It’s Tough To Be A Bug”
The theater for the 3D show “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” is actually inside the base of the Tree of Life. The queue for the show weaves near the tree and among its roots, giving you a chance to see some unique carvings that aren’t visible from afar. Some of them are actually inside the waiting area for the show itself.
When you exit the show, you’ll find yourself at the back of the tree. This is actually one end of the Discovery Island Trail, discussed next. Moreover, the queue into “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” passes next to the Tree of Life Garden Trail, that we discuss last.
Discovery Island Trail
The Discovery Island Trail (sometimes with a “s” at the end, as discussed above) is a trail that runs along the back of the Tree of Life at the back of Discovery Island. Besides offering good looks at the Tree of Life, the trail is a good way to cross Discovery Island quickly, and it connects the start of bridge to Asia with the start of the bridge to Africa.
Besides being a trail, the Discovery Island Trail also serves as the exit for “It’s Tough To Be A Bug,” as we mentioned above. Along the Asia side of the trail, you’ll see guests exiting that show pouring out every ten minutes. If you exited that show and paid close attention on the way out, you’d catch about a third of the trail.
Above, to start the gallery, you can see the east (Asia) side entrance. As you can see, it has a sign that discourages entry by saying it’s the “Exit Only” for “It’s Tough To Be a Bug.” Well, you can’t enter “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” here (that entrance is just around the corner), but you can enter the trail here.
What I love about this trail is that many people neglect the back of the Tree of Life to begin with. Because of the river in the park running along the Tree of Life’s backside, most views of the that side of the tree are from quite a distance.
The Discovery Island Trail is rarely busy. It mostly sees spurts when the crowds exit “It’s Tough To Be a Bug” but is otherwise a quite area.
The Discovery Island Trail is also where you’ll find Pocahontas, the only Disney princess who regularly greets at Animal Kingdom. You’ll find her on the west (Africa) side of the trail.
Tree of Life Garden Trail
The Tree of Life Garden is a trail along the front of the Tree of Life. While the signage on the west side, opposite Pizzafari, is prominent, it’s easy to walk a few steps in and turn back thinking “that’s it?”
On the east side (closer to the Dinoland bridge), the entrance is basically hidden, sitting behind the spot where Dug and Russell greet. As a result, the Tree of Life Garden is nearly empty even on the busiest days at the park.
This is a little shocking, because it’s also incredible how close you can get to the Tree of Life from this trail. You’ll literally come face to face with the front of the tree.
These two trails are both great places to escape the crowds at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, and the up close views they offer are worth a visit on any day at Animal Kingdom!
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