The thought of tackling all the alpine coasters of the Smoky Mountains is overwhelming. Where do you start? Which one is the best? Over the last ten years, we have seen the number of alpine coasters explode. In 2014, we took our first ride on the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster. Fast forward through a couple trips and we’ve finally managed to get on all of them. The following is a comprehensive guide to help you decide which one to ride first, where to find the best deals, and most thrills.
If you’re not familiar, learn all about alpine coasters and how they work here. Essentially, they’re like roller coasters with manual hand brakes. Instead of corkscrews and airtime hills, the layout are all downhill twists and turns. Anyone can ride an alpine coaster!
*Last updated Feb 15, 2025
Alpine Coasters of the Smoky Mountains
We are going compare the alpine coasters all side-by-side and then dive into each individual ride for a quick review. I am a visual learner so I have created some graphs and charts to help you get a good grasp on what each coaster has to offer and understand the differences between each of them.
*Update: Rail Runner is the only single rail mountain coaster by Brandauer in North America. There are currently three single rail mountain coasters by Sunkid in Canada and one under construction in Virginia.
Here you can see a quick breakdown of all the alpine coasters of the Smoky Mountains, with stats, locations, logos, and the key color we will use throughout the rest of the guide.
When this guide was originally published in 2020 we said we “think we will keep seeing more of these rides pop up. I think the market definitely has room for a few more of these. Hopefully we will see some more unique rides in the future.” Guess what? We were right!
Wiegand is the world’s premier manufacturer of alpine coasters and the reason why they’re behind 80% of the mountain coasters in the Smokies. The Brandauer model (Rail Runner) is interesting too in the sense that the track has the ability to make steeper drops and smaller turns.
As you can see here, most of the alpine coasters are in the $16-20 range (as of April 2024). As will be explained later, the most expensive ones require buying as a package or requiring an entrance fee plus a ticket to ride. When you think that you can get into a lot of theme parks for the price of four alpine rides, it seems pretty steep, but remember a lot of these places rely solely on ride ticket sales, not food or souvenirs, for profit. And couple that with the fact that you can’t just ride these anywhere, it isn’t too bad if you do a couple every time you visit the area.
*Wild Stallion and Rocky Top Mountain Coaster lengths are both estimates as we could not confirm accurate values. More details below. The four longest coasters in the region are Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster, Rocky Top, Lost Mine, and Wild Stallion but it is hard to know for sure when not every ride has published the exact lengths.
Ride time can vary depending on if you decide to go full throttle or pump the brakes. The alpine coasters with the most uphill lift segments typically last the longest, such as Rocky Top with its four lift hills.
Ripley’s Mountain Coaster takes the top spot for speed, being advertised as hitting 35mph. This seems suspect seeing as how it has the same manufacturer as other alpine coasters that only hit 30mph but we’ll roll with it.
Reviews of the Alpine Coasters of the Smoky Mountains
Here are our thoughts and reviews on all the alpine coasters, in order of year opened.
Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster
The original, the longest, one of the fastest. The Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster may easily be the king of the bunch. Its layout has about everything you like to see in an alpine ride—long swooping s-curve sections, double downs, and large helixes. The ride has two main sections, a low-to-the-ground first half that snakes along the top of the mountain and a second half that consists of all of the helixes (some that are quite high off of the ground). If you are only going to ride one, this is the one. It is the perfect blend of thrill, fun, ride length, has a great view, and price per minute value.
Moonshine Mountain Coaster
Formerly the Gatlinburg Mountain coaster, the Moonshine Mountain Coaster has the best downhill to uphill ratio out of all ten alpine coasters at a whopping 76%! Yes, you only spend 24% of the track length going uphill then the rest of the ride going down. Short but sweet.
Tennessee Flyer Mountain Coaster
If you have young kids and are wanting to introduce them to alpine coasters, the Tennessee Flyer Mountain Coaster (formerly Ski Mountain Coaster) at Ober Mountain (formerly Ober Gatlinburg) may be the way to go. Not only does it have the shortest height requirement of all the alpine rides, at 36 inches (Wiegand models have a 39-inch height requirement), but kids ages 3 and 4 are free with a paying adult!
This ride has a top speed of 25 mph, one of the slower coasters in the area, making it best for families (even though my 3-year-old was yelling “faster, faster!” the whole time). I remember getting off of this ride and thinking how great the pacing was too. From start to finish this ride held its own, with smooth transitions and the perfect amount of speed for the layout.
The Goat Coaster at Goats on the Roof
Located just down the road from the Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster, The Coaster at Goats on the Roof can be simply seen as its neighbor’s little brother. At just over 1,000 feet shorter, The Coaster’s layout is almost a mirrored version of the Smoky Mountian Alpine Coaster and that makes it a very good ride as well. Wave to the goats as you fly by! The Goat Coaster has the worst downhill to uphill ratio at 62.8%.
Ripley’s Mountain Coaster
Formerly Rowdy Bear Coaster, Ripley’s Mountain Coaster is a better, more thrilling version of the Moonshine Mountain Coaster. It has one big lift at the beginning then a fast and thrilling downhill run. Ride at night for an even wilder experience.
Rail Runner at Anakeesta
Rail Runner is the only single-rail alpine coaster in the Smoky Mountains (so far!). Watching this ride can be so bizarre—it seems as if the car would just flip around the track. This ride is one of the wildest and most intense alpine coasters I’ve been on. Unlike the other alpine rides in the area, this one has you board at the top and immediately plummet down the side of the mountain. It has a 400-foot elevation change over only a 1,600 foot downhill layout, which makes for some quick sudden drops and super-tight turns. If it hadn’t been for my belt I was easily headed down the side of the mountain, this coaster is nuts!
The only downside to getting to Rail Runner is that it is located at Anakeesta, a new-ish attraction above downtown Gatlinburg. If you are only interested in riding the roller coaster, you will have to pay the lift ticket admission to get up the mountain, plus an additional fee to ride. Anakeesta does seem to be picking up speed into becoming one of the premier attractions in the area. Right now they have several stores and eateries, a treehouse play area, 800 feet of sky bridges, ziplines (upcharge), and have slowly been adding new attractions.
Rocky Top Mountain Coaster
The Rocky Top Mountain Coaster is one of the most unique in the region. The ride has four lifts, four tunnels, and a bit of theming throughout the ride. This is more of an experience than a ride. You definitely feel like you are getting your money’s worth with this one; the ride just keeps going! I love that from the road you can only see about a fifth of the layout and when you crest the first hill you can just see the spiderweb of track that is hiding in the hills.
Rocky Top is also the closest alpine coaster to Dollywood, located about a mile away on Veterans Boulevard. We could not find an accurate length so we estimated the downhill track length is 3,887. This puts the percent downhill at 71%.
Wild Stallion at Skyland Ranch
Skyland’s website lists the length of Wild Stallion at 6,600 feet long but we believe that to be inaccurate. Wiegand’s website lists the downhill length at 1,028 meters, or 3,372 feet.
If the coaster were 6,600 feet long then the amount of downhill run would only account for 51 % of the ride, which is no where near the data for any of the other alpine coasters in the region. The average downhill to total length ratio is 70%. Just measuring an overhead view of the layout in Google maps gives a total length of 4,882 feet. Are the elevation changes enough to account for the additional 1,800 feet?
Wild Station has two looong uphill which are followed by two downhill runs rather than a single uphill and downhill. Out of the ten, it’s the furthest away from the Smoky Mountains.
Hellbender at Anakeesta
Personally, my least favorite of all the alpine coasters of the Smoky Mountains. The downhill run is barely over a minute long. It’s just too short for the cost. If you buy the Coaster Pass that allows you to ride two coasters at Anakeesta I would ride the much more thrilling and unique Rail Runner twice.
Lost Mine Mountain Coaster
The best themed alpine coaster I’ve ever been on. If you’ve never been on an alpine coaster before and are a little nervous about it, Lost Mine is for you. It’s the best family-friendly alpine coaster in the region. Not the most thrilling, but an all-around good experience.
Ranking the Alpine Coasters of the Smoky Mountains
Here at Coaster101, we like to rank the coasters at specific parks we go to, so we can give you the best idea of where to spend your time and prioritize your day. Below I’ve ranked all of the alpine coasters, both for their individual thrill factor and an overall experience.
*disclaimer: this is just our point of view, your thoughts may be different, but this should give you a good start!
Coupons and Groupons
If you’ve ever been to the Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area, you know the tourist trap the parkway can be. And with an abundance of attractions comes many (so many) coupon books. Grab them all. There are coupons for almost all of the alpine coasters, usually for a couple of bucks off the normal rate. The best one we found was for Rocky Top, at $3 off for up to 6 adult admissions, which saved us $6. If you are looking at getting some several rides during your visit, take the time to find the deals, it’ll help offset the quite pricey tickets for these coasters. A lot of places will allow you to do re-rides for half-off as well.
We estimate it would cost $228 to ride all ten alpine coasters in the region (without applying any coupons or discounts)!
Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster – Spring 2025
Yet another alpine coaster is coming to Pigeon Forge. I was pretty skeptical at first but after seeing the layout on YouTube, I think this one looks pretty cool and offers a unique experience to stand out from the other ten other alpine coasters in the area.
Slated to open in Spring 2025, the Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster has two tracks where you’ll be able to race your friends. After turning left out of the station, you’ll head up the first lift. A right hand helix is followed by a left turn helix. The tracks cross a bridge over the lift hills. The second lift is the slightly taller of the two. The finale of the ride is a massive helix tower.
The Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster is located at the last traffic light in Pigeon Forge (where that weird dome and ziplines used to be). The placement of the helix tower is genius as every tourist driving south to Gatlinburg will see it.
Other Non-Dollywood and Non-alpine Coasters in the Area
Outside of Dollywood and regular alpine coaster, there are other roller coasters and near-coasters aplenty in the Smoky Mountain region. The Island is home to the Spinning Parrots SBF Visa spinning coaster.
The Avalanche Snow Coaster (formerly Power Coaster) at Rowdy Bear’s Smoky Mountain Snowpark (formerly Rowdy Bear Ridge) is basically a go kart on an alpine coaster track. There’s no slow cable lift; instead there’s a hand lever to control your speed. It’s very expensive for a short track, I would prefer to ride all the alpine coasters before spending the money on the Snow Coaster again.
The suspended coaster is dubbed the Laser Gun Coaster because all riders get a chance to shoot targets along the layout of the ride. I was very impressed with the accuracy of the guns.
The latest “is it a coaster” attraction gets even crazier! The Flying Ox is a rail-to-zipline-to rail zipline coaster at Paula Deen’s Lumberjack Feud. The best way to describe it is to simply watch the video of the zip coaster in action below:
Final Thoughts on the Alpine Coasters of the Smoky Mountains
Whether you are a thrill-seeker or a family looking to have a good time, you will find an alpine coaster of the Smoky Mountains for you! The best part of these rides is that you can control your experience. I like to go all-out and get as many g-forces as possible, but any one of these coasters can become tame enough for anyone with some braking applied. Go out and give some of these coasters a try, we hope this guide has helped you understand these rides a little better!
If you like this guide, check out the alpine coasters of Branson. And if you’re looking for more quick info on how to have the best family vacation, check out Things To Do in the Smokies (affiliate link).
If you’ve been on some of these, let us know what your thoughts are and which coaster is your favorite!
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