The new coaster is the Tennessee theme park’s largest single attraction investment to date.
By Joe Tennis
Dollywood expands this summer with NightFlight Expedition, the popular Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, theme park’s most elaborate ride yet.
“This is really one of the more important things that we have done,” said park spokeswoman and superstar Dolly Parton at Dollywood’s 2026 season opening in March. “It’s one of the most expensive, too.”
Riders on this $50 million roller coaster simulate soaring above the Great Smoky Mountains, climbing majestic peaks, and plunging into river rapids like a whitewater raft ride. “I call it an excursion, but it is an expedition,” Parton said. “You are not going to get that wet on this ride.”
The immersive indoor coaster spans more than five minutes of ride time inside a 44,000-square-foot building (that equates to four football fields) at Wildwood Grove. “It’s not about money,” Parton asserted. “It’s about fun.”
Park planners based this family-friendly ride on Parton’s memories of growing up in Sevier County, Tennessee, near the bears and butterflies inhabiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “So much of this is really special,” Parton said. “And I love having all these things at the park that kind of remind me of my childhood and give me stories to tell that a lot of people have not heard.”
The story above first appeared in our July/August 2026 issue.
