Dollywood · Operating · 2023

Big Bear Mountain

48 ft · 39 mph

Photo: See Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Family rideDollywood Official park siteWildwood Grove

Vekoma48 ft · 39 mph

Dollywood's longest coaster layout at nearly 3,900 feet, Big Bear Mountain pairs three launches with onboard audio narrating the legend of Big Bear and forest ranger Ned Oakley. Vekoma built the family coaster as the largest single attraction investment in the park's history when it opened in 2023. It extends Wildwood Grove's family-coaster lineup alongside the smaller Dragonflier.

Specifications

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Ride profile

Scaled against Dollywood's operating coasters

LaunchFamilySteel

Park intensity

Height

48 ft

#7 of 10 at Dollywood

Height48 ft

Speed39 mph

Length3,900 ft

InversionsNone

Ride experience

Launch
Family
Steel

Specs from dollywood.com

Learn more

All guides

Launched coasters

Motors or hydraulics replace or supplement the lift hill for rapid acceleration.

Mine train coasters

Smaller trains, winding layouts, and family-friendly pacing — often themed as mining adventures.

Flywheel launches

Store energy in a spinning mass, then dump it into the train in one burst — classic hydraulic acceleration feel.

How launches work

LIM, LSM, hydraulic — different ways to shove a train from rest to serious speed.

History

Sourced timeline and background for Big Bear Mountain.

Timeline

2022
Big Bear Mountain announced
Dollywood reveals a three-launch family coaster for Wildwood Grove, billed as its largest single attraction investment to date.
Source
2023
Big Bear Mountain opens to the public
Source

Background

Following Dragonflier's 2019 debut, Dollywood continued building out Wildwood Grove and announced Big Bear Mountain in August 2022 as the land's next major addition — and, at the time, the single largest attraction investment in the park's history.

Vekoma built a launch-family coaster around the legend of Big Bear and forest ranger Ned Oakley, with onboard audio narrating the story through all three of the ride's launches as trains wind through nearly 3,900 feet of forested track — Dollywood's longest coaster layout. The narrated format was a first for the park, giving a family-oriented coaster the kind of storytelling usually reserved for larger dark rides.

Big Bear Mountain opened May 12, 2023, extending Wildwood Grove's family-coaster lineup and giving guests too small for Lightning Rod or Wild Eagle a longer, more elaborate ride than Dragonflier without exceeding family-friendly height requirements.

The ride remains one of Dollywood's most requested family credits, prized for combining a genuinely long layout with a fully narrated story most similarly sized coasters in the region don't attempt.

History primarily sourced from dollywood.com. See also our data policy.