Dollywood today shared exciting construction photos of Big Bear Mountain, the park’s new-for-2023 multi-launch coaster. Construction on the Vekoma-manufactured coaster continues to progress at a rapid pace. In fact, the coaster’s final section of track is expected to be installed this week, which is an impressive feat considering we’re not even to the halfway point of January yet.
Update 1/11/23 – Big Bear Mountain’s track is complete! Dollywood sent us photos of the final section of track being put into place. Enjoy the photos below:
All 3,990 feet of track are now in place!
Below are photos from the original 1/10/23 post:
However, there’s a lot of work left to be done before opening day, including the decorative features such as the waterfall — the progress of which is shown in the photo below:
Big Bear Mountain will feature three separate launches, a top speed of 48 mph, numerous airtime hills, high-speed turns and tunnels — including a pass through the aforementioned waterfall.
The full layout of Big Bear Mountain is shown in the rendering below:
The coaster’s 3,990 feet of track (it will be the longest coaster at Dollywood) stretches nearly the entire length of the Wildwood Grove area and occupies roughly six acres of land. It will also be the first coaster at Dollywood to feature on-board audio.
From concept art, most of the land under the first half of the coaster (pictured above) will be covered in grass, so hopefully landscaping won’t require too much time to complete.
Big Bear Mountain is slated to open in the spring pending any weather delays. The park will open for the 2023 season on March 11 (with a passholder preview day on March 10).
One thing is for certain — even if Big Bear Mountain isn’t open, we’ll get an up-close look at the coaster due to its proximity to the path through Wildwood Grove.
To hold you over until the coaster opens, watch the below animation of Big Bear Mountain in action:
See more photos of Big Bear Mountain construction on the official Dollywood blog and from our December 2022 Big Bear Mountain construction update.
What part of Big Bear Mountain are you most excited to experience? Let us know in the comments section below.
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