During the fall months, the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee are one of the most popular destinations. Because of the popularity of the area among tourists, the Smokey Mountain area is bustling with resorts and timeshares, each competing to draw visitors to their location. While the temperature is still in the 80s, it won’t be staying that warm much longer. With that in mind, the Westgate Smokey Mountain Resort has a leg up on its competition with the opening of its newly completed Wild Bear Falls Indoor Waterpark, the only indoor waterpark in the area, in spring 2007.
The Westgate Smokey Mountains Resort is a fairly new resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and is adjacent to the Smokey Mountain National Park. The resort keeps the mountain theme alive with its lodge like structures, and decorative theme. The resort features planned daily activities to keep visitors busy, an arcade, heated outdoor swimming pools and hot tubs, a playground, hiking trails, a grocery store, deli and snack bar, and horse riding stables.
Wild Bear Falls is new this year and features over 60,000 square feet of aquatic fun making it the largest indoor waterpark in the south, and is open only to resort guests. Westgate kept with the mountain theme by naming it’s waterpark attractions after popular local spots, such as Cades Cove Lazy River, the 900 foot long lazy river, Clingman’s Dove, a 360 foot long body slide, Laurel Falls, a 300 foot long tube slide, and Little Pigeon River, a zero depth entry pool with a play area designed specifically for toddlers.
One of the main features of Wild Bear Falls that causes it to stand out from other indoor waterparks is the fact that it is covered by a state-of-the-art retractable roof that can be opened with the weather outside is warm, creating an outdoor waterpark.
Another nice feature to the waterpark that sits it apart from others is that while most waterparks have seats and snack bars at water level the Wild Bear Falls waterpark features a 15,000 square foot mezzanine that houses seats, a snack bar, and game room. This way parents can easily keep an eye on older children from above, providing a better view than eye level.
While the Westgate Smokey Mountains Resort is a time share resort it still opens it’s condos to nightly rentals as well. Timeshare unit owners are granted access to the Wild Bear Falls waterpark free of charge, while other resort guests are given the opportunity to purchase general admission tickets to the waterpark available for a fee of $21.13 for a one day pass, $44.54 for a three day pass, and $74.65 for a five day pass, children under the age of two are admitted without charge. The passes for multiple days do not have to be used on consecutive days.
For more information on the Westgate Smokey Mountain Resort and the Wild Bear Falls waterpark you can visit the Westgate Web site.
