Wildside
is an “adventure park” in Pigeon Forge currently offering mountain biking
trails and ATV tours. It is a private area that opened in July 2024. I saw
information on the park online and mentioned it to Ed, who had not heard about
it. The park covers 900 acres and has a dozen MB trails totaling 8 miles. One
review on the Knoxville Cycling FB was positive, comparing it to Baker Creek in
Knoxville. Ed and I were both were interested in riding, but it took a while
for things to fall in place. 
Wildside Bike Trail Map Sept 2024.
The
drive from home took me 90 minutes, getting there just in time for the 9AM
opening. I drove to the last traffic light in Pigeon Forge and headed east on
Mill Creek for 4 miles to the park. There’s a gravel lot adjacent to their
basecamp and bike shop buildings. We had to fill in an online wavier, then get
a $20 park pass. Another $20 will get you a shuttle pass, but we hoped to tough
out the climbing. 
Creek Climb is the park's ascent trail.
If
you’re not using the shuttle, all your trips start up the Creek Climb Trail,
which is the well graded access route. The rest of the trails are downhill, and
we broke them into four groups.
1-Queen
Jolene-Chicken of the Woods, all green
2-Halfway
Up-Holler Holler, all green
3-Rattler
Ridge-Thrillium, all blue
4-Halfway
Up-Very Gneiss, VG is blue
There
are also two short black diamond trails, but we had no intention of riding
those.
Our
first trip up Creek Climb was good. The trail is wide and smooth. It’s so new
there’s no face slappers, no nettle, and no poison ivy. We found Upper Creek to
be steeper, but still didn’t need to hike-a-bike. For two old guys it was the
downhills we were worried about. But both Queen Jolene and Chicken were wide,
smooth surfaced, had plenty of turning room, and kept a reasonable grade. All
the trails had a good flow with enjoyable twists and turns. COW was the
favorite line of both Ed and I, but we’d only ride it once since it required
the longer climb to reach it’s top. 
Ed riding up Creek Climb.
For
the next trip we rode up to Halfway, then came down Holler Holler. I’d grabbed
my phone for pics, but we had a bright sunny day in the dappled woods, not good
light for photos. I noticed Ed was dropping back, and he mentioned that he was
having trouble with a brake cable. Near the bottom of Holler Holler he was
having trouble slowing his bike, and it turned out the rear brake was not
gripping either. Luckily, the bottom of HH is fairly gentle and he was able to
coast it in.
Ed starting the Holler Holler Trail.
We
pulled into their basecamp area and found a covered table to have lunch. Ed
decided to head back home rather than continue to battle the brake issue. I
decided to stick around and try the blue runs, and be super careful while
riding solo.
I
rode the Creek Climb to the top of Rattler which proved just a bit tougher than
the green trails. Rattler was narrower and both Rattler and Thrillium had very
steeply banked turns (called berms on their signs) that were tough on a slow
rider. The blue trails all had rollers, but these were gentler compared to
those at Baker Creek. The trail signs indicated there would be tabletops, but I
saw only one small one just above the Basecamp.
Typical trail surface.
I
hoped Very Gneiss wouldn’t ramp it up much from Thrillium, and was pleased when
it didn’t. VG would probably be my second favorite trail behind COW. I had
enough fun that I decided to take one more loop around Holler Holler (and my
fifth trip up Creek Climb) before calling it a day around 1PM. My total was
12.3 miles and 2,000’ of climbing. It took me about ten minutes to climb up to
the halfway up junction. The weather was cool and dry, 84F in the parking lot
when I finished.
More trail detail.
The
basecamp area trails (including Rod Run) were closed because the park was
pouring cement for what will be the base area for zip lines. I saw a sign near Rattler
for the Snake Bite Trail, which was not on the map, and looked to be a bypass
for Rattler. So other new MB trails may also be in the works.
The
park also has ~ 6 miles of ATV trails separated from the MB trails, and on a
larger area, so these trail may expand also. Besides the shuttle, the park also
rents bikes and e-bikes. The work they’ve done so far looks really good, and
the trail system seems built to last, with good solid surface, good drainage,
and no erosion yet. It was fun to ride these trails while they are still shiny
and new, and fun to get eight miles of new trail in one morning. I’d visit
again if there were new trails to ride.
They’ll
need to feed off the tourist market. Most folks from the Knoxville area won’t
come out to pay $20 for the type of riding we get in our city parks. Their
prices are comparable to Windrock Park which has an order of magnitude, or more,
area and mileage, but is not next door to the Smokies.
Ed
and I had speculated that the area might be adjacent to the Foothills Parkway
Right of Way, but after plotting my GPS track, it appears the two are about a
mile and a half apart.
