The Smoky Mountains’ Wildest Attraction Lets You Roll Downhill Inside a Giant Plastic Ball

When you are visiting East Tennessee, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, or Gatlinburg, I'm sure you already have some semblance of an itinerary. But this tourism paradise is forever "working against us" by constantly adding new attractions, and they're always something we must see. The various tourism commissions in question probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Yes, we can call this a good problem.

East Tennessee Attractions

I think the best course of action is deciding on everything you want to see and then fitting into whatever time you've allowed yourself to be there. Then you can add or subtract as you see fit. Me? I enjoy rides, but I'm kind of middle-of-the-road in this regard. The extreme stuff (roller coasters, for example) are off the table. If they're too mild (like a carousel, say), those are gone, too.

Just give me a big plastic ball, and let me climb in the thing. Then you can push me down the hill and make me a happy camper.

The Outdoor Gravity Park

What you've just witnessed is not called "riding down a hill in a big plastic ball." The technical term is "zorbing." Have you ever "zorbed"? Me neither, but I'd fight you for the front of the line.

Pigeon Forge's Outdoor Gravity Park lays claim to being the only place in the U.S. where you can hop into a giant plastic ball and careen down a 1,000-foot hill. That ball, by the way, is a "zorb," and there are three tracks on which you an go "zorbing." That was the zigzag track. Here are the others.

I want to zorb. Who's with me?