
A treewalk built into a small grove of redwoods near Rotorua, NZ. . . so if you’re sick of the Lord of the Rings franchise, you can come here and pretend to be an ewok.
the website of Mark S Bailen. . . writer, illustrator, and fake-nature photographer

A treewalk built into a small grove of redwoods near Rotorua, NZ. . . so if you’re sick of the Lord of the Rings franchise, you can come here and pretend to be an ewok.

the cabanas in Bali are next level. . .


variations on a theme

also in the background, a nice theme-park cabana, with a slide. . . Score!


Wow. The theme-park cabana at the Audubon Aquarium is exquisite.

Ahoy! A pirate stronghold!
No, wait. That’s one of those silly adventure courses. Blah.

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by . . . instead I’m trapped in a climate-controlled hotel lobby with a cabana and cheap rum just out of reach. Arrgh!


The fenced-in sky of the Omaha Zoo aviary. I didn’t see many birds. Either the zoo is restocking or the birds found an escape tunnel.
Elevated wooden walkways are perfect for “nature.” They separate the humans, lifting them above the muck so they don’t get their shoes dirty.

I love theme-park cabanas. This one has everything I like: a thatched conical roof, hexagon floor plan, log beams tied together with thick rope, a wooden platform and no walls.
BONUS: the foundation is a concrete boulder embedded with fake tree roots