Blog for Zipline Attraction in the Smoky Mountains
Located in Pigeon Forge, TN and near Gatlinburg and Sevierville.
Hilariously Bad Reviews Of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
By Ross Bodhi Ogle
Posted on January 9, 2024
That's right; this post is all about BAD reviews of our beloved Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Do WE think the Smokies are a bad place to visit? Of course not; otherwise, we wouldn't have located out zipline attraction here! However, there are a few folks who have visited our area in recent years who weren't terribly impressed by their experience. And their comments are hilarious. It just goes to show you that one person's treasure is another person's trash. Although in this case, we can only laugh and shake our heads at what some of these people consider to be less than worthy.
The first group of responses was gleaned from multiple review sites like Google, TripAdvisor and Yelp and collected by the Knoxville News Sentinel. Their effort was inspired by the work of Outside magazine, which shared its own collection of bad national park reviews from all over the country. In those listings, Yosemite National Park ranked highest on the list, with Great Smoky Mountains National Park coming in at number three in terms of hilariously bad reviews.
We hope you enjoy. And we also hope you make a point of visiting our national park the next time you come to the area to experience our ziplines, Pigeon Forge, TN, or anything else around here that's worth doing.
• "Park staff, including volunteers, actively keep you away from the wildlife so you can't get a look at anything."
• "Overall, there was nothing here that I saw or that was open that would ever make me want to go here again."
• "If you like long lines of traffic, waiting 20 minutes to use the toilet and not being able to get out of your car then you'll like this park."
• "There was no Taco Bell."
• "I don't get it. Just a bunch of trees and mountains."
• "Not impressed. Mountains all over the place, trees everywhere, and the bears there are tiny. Smallest bears I've seen in my life."
• "Saw no bears."
• "Long drive and no cell service what so ever. Nice but be careful, there are bears around to be sure. Expect to walk a lot, even from your car, if you want to really see it."
• "First off, it's hardly the most beautiful place on earth. Second, the crowding is insane. By which I mean absolutely lunatic. The traffic on the narrow paths through the park is bumper to bumper, at a walking pace."
• "It sucked. Looked nothing like the picture."
• "The waterfalls are not that impressive, the scenery is meh, and the hiking is OK."
We at Smoky Mountain Ziplines did a little digging on our own and came up with a few more off-base reviews of the national park. Here are just a few posted by a visitor from Florida in 2020.
• "The scenery doesn't impress. While the mountains are lush and nice, they are not particularly cool, large or beautiful."
• "The fog ruins all views. While many enjoy the eerie fog, I think it obscures the mountain scenery and makes the views look like dim shadows."
• "There is little nature in the park. Most things to see in the park include man-made structures with little historic value. Clingmans Dome, a popular hike, is a large, artificial observation tower that makes the whole area feel fake. "
• "The family hikes are garbage. Given the accessibility, one might think the park has lots to do for families. While I'm sure the adventure hikes are cool, hikes like Cataract Falls are unimpressive enough that I question why trails were even made for them."
• "The wildlife is not particularly common. If this wasn't bragged about as much, I wouldn't complain. However, I saw two deer and nothing else while everyone praises the abundant bears they rarely see.”
