If you’re not going to get to a long stretch of placid flatwater during your vacation getaway in the Great Smoky Mountains, consider taking advantage of the next best thing: the Downbound Float Trip at Dollywood’s Splash Country in Pigeon Forge! It’s one of this famed waterpark’s more slow-paced and relaxation-oriented experiences: the perfect cool-off on a hot, sunny summer afternoon.
The Splash Country Downbound Float Trip takes you and the gang on a leisurely tube ride down the waterpark’s very own manmade “river”: a broad, 1,500-foot channel of relaxing pace, perfect for dipping those feet and hands in as you happily bob along the easy current.
The highlight of this low-speed, family-friendly float is the 200-foot-tall waterfall, the refreshing spray of which you’ll pass beneath.
The Downbound Float Trip makes a lazy, flowing circuit around part of the central portion of Dollywood’s Splash Country, with some of the waterpark’s dining and snack areas as well as the Little Creek Falls children’s play area in the middle.
It’s leisurely and laidback as they come, but the Downbound Float Trip does have some rules: Anybody less than 36 inches tall needs to wear a lifejacket for the river ride and must be accompanied by somebody 16 years old or older.
The Downbound Float Trip otherwise is one of the Splash Country attractions that doesn’t have a height cutoff, along with such installations as the Mountain Waves wave pool, The Cascades lagoon, and the Bear Mountain Fire Tower.
The Float Trip’s no-hurry tubing makes a very nice complement to the faster, more adventurous “whitewater” experiences of Raging River Rapids, Big Bear Plunge, Wild River Falls, and RiverRush, the only water coaster in the state of Tennessee.
Simulate the summertime bliss of a float trip down a cool, slow-moving river by tubing your way along the Downbound Float Trip at Dollywood’s Splash Country!