Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s theme park in Tennessee, has announced the largest expansion in its 32-year history. The park has announced a massive new area called Wildwood Grove, featuring 11 new experiences for guests that include six new rides. The expansion will cost $37 million, with new attractions including the Dragonflier, a suspended roller coaster that “lets guests soar with a dragonfly as it dips and darts along the gushing geysers and lush landscape of Wildwood Grove,” according to a press release. There is also the Black Bear Trail, where guests ride through the natural habitat on the back of an actual bear, and the Sycamore Swing, a “leaf boat” that swings back and forth like a leaf falling from an enormous sycamore tree. Parton says the new expansion was inspired by the days of her own youth, when she would wander the hills near her family’s home in the Smoky Mountains and let her imagination run wild. Wildwood Grove is slated to open in 2019.
