Enjoy something close to a whitewater rafting experience at Dollywood’s Splash Country waterpark via the Big Bear Plunge, a wild ride down a twisting, plunging, partly tunneled course that culminates in a grand splashdown.
The nearly 550-foot-long Big Bear Plunge chute at Splash Country doesn’t much look like a whitewater river surging through some rocky canyon, but the feel of it is a bit similar. There are drops and tight turns like a wild stream follows, and tunnel stretches suggestive of shadowy caverns.
The big finish sees you and your raft companions shoot through a misty veil and down a bumpy “cliff” into a big splash pool at the bottom.
It’s such a fast and varied ride—glimpses of sunshine and tree boughs, sudden dives into dark portals roaring with water, high-angled turns and bouncing careens—that you’ll barely know what just happened when your raft comes to rest in the splash pool. You will know, however, that you had a heck of a time in the process.
A minimum of three and a maximum of four riders can raft Big Bear Plunge; solo visitors or pairs will be seated with other folks, while groups larger than four will be split up. Rafters must be at least 36 inches tall to ride, and those under 48 inches have to be accompanied by a companion at least 16 years of age.
Situated in the “Big Bear Ridge” area of Dollywood’s Splash Country near the Mountain Wave pool and the lazy, looping river of the Downbound Float Trip, Big Bear Plunge is one of several rafting rides at the waterpark. Others include Wild River Falls, SwiftWater Run, Raging River Rapids, and the RiverRun water coaster.
Join two or three others on a swift, spinny raft and flow down the twisting and turning flumes and tunnels of Big Bear Plunge, Splash Country’s very own whitewater rafting adventure here in Pigeon Forge!