Ober Gatlinburg

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Ober Gatlinburg

Location	Gatlinburg, Tennessee, United States of America
Coordinates	35°42′11″N 83°33′28″W / 35.70306°N 83.55778°W / 35.70306; -83.55778Coordinates: 35°42′11″N 83°33′28″W / 35.70306°N 83.55778°W / 35.70306; -83.55778

Ober Gatlinburg is an amusement park and ski area, located in the mountains overlooking Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA. Established in 1962, the area contains a large mall with indoor amusements, an indoor ice skating rink including ice bumper cars, snack bars, a full-service lounge, restaurant, and gift and clothing stores. Outside there is an alpine slide, a ski mountain coaster, a chair swing, a maze, mini golf, a scenic chairlift to the top of Mount Harrison, kiddie rides, water raft rides, and a rock climbing wall. It includes an area named Wildlife Encounter, where in addition to black bears there are animals native to the Great Smoky Mountains such as North American river otters, bobcats, birds of prey, opossums, raccoons, turtles, snakes, and flying squirrels. An aerial tram connects Ober Gatlinburg to downtown Gatlinburg, about 3 miles east.

Rides[]

Ski trail

Skiing[]

As Ober Gatlinburg is too far south to depend on enough natural snow for snowsports, the theme park is equipped with snow making capability.

A multi-lane snow tubing hill opened during the 2008-2009 ski season, where riders can slide down snow chutes on inflatable snow tubes. The lanes are approximately 400 feet (122 m) long with a 50 feet (15 m) vertical drop. The tubing hill is serviced by an outdoor escalator called "The Magic Carpet" ... no hill climbing involved.

Chairlift[]

Chairlift

The scenic chairlift weight capacity on the lift is 600 pounds (272 kg). Riders can either get off halfway and ride the alpine slide down, or go all the way up. The chairlift runs up into the summit of the mountain, at the top there is a scenic overlook.

Tramway[]

The aerial tramway departs from downtown Gatlinburg and travels west to the resort. There are two 120-passenger cabins, replaced by Doppelmayr in 2007. The 2.1 miles (3.4 km) tram ride runs 17 miles per hour (27 km/h) and takes about 10 minutes, and has views of the mountains in the daytime and the sparkling lights of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and beyond at night. The tramway crosses the Gatlinburg Bypass, a road which connects around the north and west side of the town and provides an alternate route of U.S. 441 (Great Smoky Mountains Parkway, or just "Parkway", which is the main street through town). The road is part of adjacent Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Amusement park[]

The amusement park consists of an alpine slide, the ski mountain coaster, aerial tramway, scenic chairlift, video arcade, black bear habitat, indoor ice skating plus ice bumper cars, miniature golf, water raft rides (summer only), an outdoor maze, a new rock climbing wall, a carousel.

References[]

1.Ober Gatlinburg Tramway

2.Ober Gatlinburg Activities

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ober Gatlinburg.

• Ober Gatlinburg homepage.
• Ober Gatlinburg Tramway
• Ober Gatlinburg Activities