Attractions
Pigeon Forge is filled with more than 40 attractions, many along the city’s action-packed, five-mile-long Parkway. You can race go-carts, play miniature golf, stare down a dinosaur or even go skydiving . . . indoors. The best-known of the bunch is Dollywood, the theme park named for hometown superstar Dolly Parton.
Dollywood
Dollywood, Tennessee’s most visited ticketed visitor attraction, is a tribute to the heritage, music, foods and crafts of the Southern Appalachians. Entertainer Dolly Parton has lent her name, imagination, talent and artistic guidance to the park since 1986. The expansive park offers a variety of musical shows, working craftsmen, a bald eagle sanctuary and major thrill rides. Among the thrill rides are three adrenalin-charged roller coasters—the Tennessee Tornado, Thunderhead (a massive wooden coaster) and Mystery Mine. The park’s season begins every year in late March and accents its schedule with festivals and special events. The 2009 season wraps up on January 2, 2010. A tradition at the opening of each season is the Festival of Nations that features entertainment, artisans and foods from countries around the world.
Dollywood's Splash Country
Dollywood’s Splash Country is a fun-filled water adventure park that covers nearly 25 acres and includes thrilling water slides, a 25,000-square-foot wave pool, a mountain raft ride, a relaxing lazy river ride, a children's activity area, Big Bear Plunge (a 548-foot-long whitewater rafting experience) and plenty of sun and shade areas. Splash Country utilizes the Safe-T-Zone locator system. New in 2010 is the $1 million Slick Rock Racer, a four-lane mat slide that’s 300 feet long.
Dinosaur Walk Museum
Life-sized replicas of prehistoric creatures fill this fascinating museum. A menacing T-Rex greets you at the door, and dozens of other dinosaurs are available for up-close-and-personal inspection. Some were created by “paleo-artists” who worked on the “Jurassic Park” movie.
Flyaway
Here’s your chance to experience the sensation of skydiving without ever getting into an airplane. Flyaway, one of the few indoor skydiving facilities in the nation, is a vertical wind tunnel that lets you break the bonds of gravity and soar like a skydiver. The updraft is created by an airplane propeller, and you start your experience standing on a net suspended above the whirling blades.
MagiQuest
The castle-like structure houses multiple attractions behind its turrets and parapets. MagiQuest itself is a fantasy-driven hunt for a sorcerer’s treasures that requires skill and thought to penetrate multiple layers of complexity. Its companion attractions are black light miniature golf, a mirror maze that will befuddle you and a twist-all-around laser maze.
The Old Mill
The Old Mill is a piece of pioneer history that’s still working today. This picturesque gristmill and its 24-foot waterwheel have been in continuous operation since 1830, grinding corn and other grains, producing electricity and providing power for industry. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and today anchors an attractive collection of shops in Old Mill Square. Its flour and cornmeal are put to immediate use at the Old Mill Restaurant and the Pottery House Café and Grille.
Parkway Attractions
You’ll find an array of attractions up and down Pigeon Forge’s five-mile-long Parkway. The action ranges from sedate (numerous miniature golf layouts) to thrilling (bungee jumps, aerial rides, zooming go-carts and more). When the weather is right, the action continues well into the night.
Wonderworks
WonderWorks is the peculiar upside-down building at the north end of Pigeon Forge. The fanciful back-story is that it’s a science facility lifted out of the Bermuda Triangle by an experiment gone awry and dropped into Pigeon Forge. Inside are scores of interactive attractions, including a 360-degree bicycle, an earthquake room and a space shuttle landing simulator. It’s called “an amusement park for the mind.”
Zorb Smoky Mountains
Imagine an inflated plastic ball 11 feet in diameter with a smaller sphere suspended inside it. Now imagine climbing into the inner sphere and having someone push it down a 750-foot-long mountainside track. That’s Zorb Smoky Mountains, an extreme sport imported from New Zealand, the same place that introduced bungee jumping to an unsuspecting world. Zorb Smoky Mountains is the only Zorb location in the U.S.