This was a fun outing for kids - it was just exceptionally hot when we went. Workers were all very…read morefriendly. You get pretty large cups of feed to feed a nice variety of animals. Going in with the deer is a fun experience - kinda overwhelming because they can get a little pushy. The pony ride was the highlight. You get to go around 3 times, and its parent-led, which was nice to have that experience with your kiddos. The animals seem so well taken care of here. Great experience, just know it doesn't have much more than an hour or so worth of time.

It's not ideal for someone in a walking boot due to the gravel and hills, but we still enjoyed…read moreseeing the animals. The deer were almost more aggressive than expected, and I felt overwhelmed when they all came at me at once. It's probably best to feed them from outside the fence! A goat also rammed me, so be careful if you have small children. I loved seeing the huge racks on the elk and reindeer. I also wish we could have held the big bunnies! Unfortunately, I didn't have any quarters for the feed machines, so a better payment option would be nice. However, I appreciated that they sold a cup of food and an apple to feed some of the other animals. The animals with coin-operated feeders probably don't get fed as often. I also liked that there were signs indicating which animals could eat what, which was helpful. Overall, it was a great stop! I would just like to see more handwashing stations throughout the property.All staff were extremely nice.

Our visit to BRIGHTS ZOO was delightful! There is a surprising large variety of animals. They…read moreanimals look healthy and the enclosures were clean. Lots of baby animals too: several baby primates, a baby camel and baby giraffe. When there is successful procreation you know that a zoo is doing a good job. The actual enclosures were practical, not exotic. But that tells me that the money is going towards animal care not the spectators. The biggest surprise was the variety of Giraffe species."Mr. UMBER" was rare to my eyes. Also a thank you to the team that set up a water misting system on a hot August day.

One of the best zoos in the USA! It is spacious and clean. The animals are cared for by a very…read moregracious, knowledgeable and friendly staff. There are monkeys, birds, zebras and all kinds of other animals from South America and Africa. If you ever find yourself in Tennessee don't miss this gem!

First: this is not a biblical theme park that I feared after hearing the name…read more Second: driving up to this place located in the middle of nowhere and getting out of your car makes you fear you wasted (in our case) one and half hours of your life to a broken down animal park. Third: the place proves the old adage don't judge a book by its cover. This is a fascinating private zoo, with loads of animals you probably will never get as close to. Since it is a breeding zoo, there are lots of young animals to see in addition to their parents. We saw monkeys,white tigers, zebras, camels, giraffes, willobees, lemurs, and goats plus many others I cannot remember. Admission is a modest $10 and food is available to feed the animals at a reasonable price. There are keepers walking around to answer your questions and the place is really well kept. Only negative is with very young children really not stroller friendly with gravel and rock walkways. However, great spot for kids to spend a few hours with their parents getting up close and personal with animals they will probably never see in the wild.

This place was amazing! Much cheaper than the bigger zoos I've been to and a lot more fun, even…read morethough they have fewer animals. The giraffe is incredibly friendly and loves to be pet, which the zookeepers encouraged us to do. Definitely want to come back here when I get the chance.

We came here during our trip to the Asheville area. We absolutely loved our visit here. They have…read moreample parking in front of the nature center. The only negative is that there is no direct ramp from the bear parking lot to the entrance, you have to walk completely around if you have a stroller or carry it up the stairs that go to and from that parking lot. We got tickets right away and didn't have to wait in line. You need to keep in my mind that this is not a zoo. It is a small nature center, their focus is on highlighting/featuring animals that live naturally in the Western Carolina's. I love that this is their focus, as I learned so much about the wildlife in our surrounding area. Also, a lot of their animals are rescued animals that can't be released back into the wild. All the exhibits were well maintained and had wonderful information signage. The wellness center had great signage and was easy to get around. It took us about 2 hours to do the entire center. It looks like the nature center will be expanding / updating their exhibits. This is a great place to educate yourself and kids about the types of wildlife in the western Carolina area and things you can do to help keep nature wild / conserve nature. I also loved their pollinator garden! We need more awareness about the importance of pollinators! They also had interactive playgrounds sprinkled throughout the center for kids to play on. All the walking paths were shaded. It felt nice and cool walking underneath the trees here. If we lived in the area we would definitely come back.

We've visited Western North Carolina many times but never came to the WNC Nature Center. On a…read morerecent stay in the area, we noticed it was open on Sunday so we finally went. Although relatively small, the center is well planned and presented. It's technically a zoo, albeit a small one focusing mostly on native animals. We got to see otters (one of our favorites) along with wolves, bears, birds, reptiles and even a red panda. The cost is not exorbitant and you could do the whole park in 1-2 hours. There are also interactive exhibits and a play area to keep your kids occupied. Glad we went.

I really enjoyed this stop for our toddler while we were in the area on vacation! It was the right…read moresize to not be overwhelming and wasn't overly crowded, so he enjoyed walking around inside to see the amazing birds, reptiles, and other animals. We especially liked the outdoor area to feed the goats and llamas, it was his first time trying that activity and he had such a blast. There are so many options on places to stop while you're in Gatlinburg, but if it's a rainy day, you have an animal-lover, or younger kids looking for an appropriate activity Rainforest Adventures is a great option.

Overall decent place. Wouldn't say it's a stand out attraction, but it does ok to see. 1 thing to…read morenote if you use your GPS, it will take you to an abandoned building parking lot. We went down the road/hill and found it. It's a nice exhibit, they do have animal shows a few times a day, you can easily spend a few hours here, the animals your aloud to touch that I saw were Guinea pigs, and a handler walked around with a boa. Nice little gift shop at the end

Let me say that I'm absolutely amazed with all the beautiful and spacious enclosures for all the…read moreanimals in the zoo. The zoo is huge, so they had the ability to give animals lots of space! The black bear had his own little mountain nook (we didn't get to see him, though he was probably hiding from all the heat that day). We saw a baby gorilla playing with his mommy, that was worth flying from Boston to Knoxville just to see those eyes. There is a Turtle Trail were you get to go inside with the turtles and have them climb on your feet and feed them and scratch their backs...how cool is that! The budgies were pretty cool, you get to go in the enclosure with them and feed them seeds on a stick. Gorgeous, amazing creatures!! The green and blue ones are from The wild and the white ones with blue back are the bred ones in captivity. The otters for sure stole the show, they just played and played in the water, my son was psyched to see them !! The red panda was jumping all over and wanted to get in with the rest of the sleeping pandas on the bamboo trees...what gorgeous animals. And the Rhinos!!! Massive massive animals. First time I've seen rhinos and I'm in love with these very scary huge animals. You should see the enclosure that they had for them. It was very generous, full of mud and massive rocks. OK, I could go on and on about all the animals in there, but the most important thing that I wanted to say is that the sponsors of this zoo respect animals, they don't put them in a tiny enclosure and call it good, they actually spent a lot of effort on matching the natural habitat that these animals lived in, and they gave them room to roam! Also per their campaigns and posters within in zoo, they are trying to save endangered and critically vulnerable species from extinction. They do a lot of work and awareness about the lifestyle of the animals, especially that the staff is super friendly with lots of youths working there and learning about these beautiful animals and transferring this knowledge To visitors. Also, how thoughtful are they to include fun stuff for kids like a huge sandbox, slides, tunnels, climbing rocks, a beautiful merry go round with all the decorated animals, a water park for the kids to jump in fountains (wish I knew I would have brought my kid a swim suit)... my kid had a blast anyway!! They built a whole massive treehouse with a rope bridge so that you could see the gibbons and red pandas up in the trees. Massive enclosures, statues, canopies, overlooks....they thought about everything!! Not only did my kid have fun, my husband and I had tons of fun too. So did my mom! What a wonderful day. I will definitely donate money to this establishment that really cares about the conservation of animals and treats them with respect.. thank you Zoo Knoxville staff abc sponsors. All the love to your work. Keep spreading awareness.

I unfortunately have to say this zoo was a waste of money on our trip through Tennessee. Most…read moreenclosures had no animals in them and one was full of cockroaches. Those said cockroaches were coming out of the enclosure to where the people were. The kids area was dirty, nothing like the website described. Honestly the whole zoo felt dirty. The bathroom stalls didn't lock in most cases which is a very uncomfortable situation. The website makes the zoo look like a must see place as well as the google ratings. It doesn't live up to either. Parking is weird and you are charged at the gate for parking? The staff was annoyed by me asking how the parking is tracked if you pay after the fact. The whole place, besides the front gate, was a dead zone when it came to employees. This is not a place I would ever recommend going to. I wish there was a refund option.

A wonderful family owned petting zoo in the heart of Anderson County Tennessee. There are wolves,…read morefoxes, llamas, and other animals that you can interact with.

I love the walk at your pace experience. Animals are well kept. The staff are friendly. Expect…read moreyour typical animal smells. During summer months, it gets hot and there isn't a ton of shade, some of the walk is uphill. We visit at least a couple times a year. Prices are reasonable.

World class ranch! Skilled cowboys, well taken care of horses & other animals, breathtaking views…read moreon the horse trail ride! 10/10 recommend! Must do for kids under 15! What an amazing time!

My daughter and I visited Big Rock Dude Ranch during our trip to the Smoky Mountains because…read morehorseback riding was one of the experiences we were most looking forward to. Unfortunately, the experience was incredibly frustrating. There was little to no clear signage explaining where to check in or how the process worked. We waited at the "Riding Stables" counter, and when we finally spoke to an employee, we were simply told to stand by the stop sign at the stable. We waited there for nearly an hour before learning we were supposed to have purchased tickets first. No one at the counter mentioned that, even though we specifically told them we were there to ride and didn't know what to do. When I went back to buy tickets, I was told both riders had to be present, so I had to run back for my daughter, only to lose our place in line (we were next up). We were then told rides were assigned based on ticket purchase time, meaning we'd have to start all over again. Since we had a flight to catch, we had no choice but to leave without riding. We could've used that lost time for a nice breakfast and one last hike. To make matters worse, when I explained what had happened, the employee dismissed our concerns and said she was "just in charge of pictures and that we would probably still make our flight" even after starting the whole wait process over. Better signage, clearer instructions, and staff who take ownership of customer issues would have prevented this entire experience. The lady at the main ticket counter wasn't helpful either. Very disappointing.

This is one of those places where we have mixed feelings, mostly because she's we don't know all of…read morethe details of how it is ran and how the bears are cared for aside from what we see while quickly visiting. This is somewhere we've been twice now. We have enjoyed it both times as we enjoy seeing bears because they're not something you normally see, much less up close, and at this zoo you can even feed them! The workers running the place are super nice and it's very cheap to get in. Two adults, a three year old, and four trays of food was only $15. The bears do seem to beg for the food, but they're bears and we're feeding them fruits and vegetables. It's not exactly filling and nothing different than animals at petting zoos and drive through zoo experiences begging for the food pellets they have provided there. Their fur and bodies look healthy and today several of the bears were splashing the water and playing with their tire toys. None of them seemed unwell or miserable. My hope is that they are treated well aside from what we see as guests in the 30ish minutes we are there. There are also goats you can feed and lemurs as well as some sort of foxes(?) to look at on the way out of the place.

I would give this place zero stars. It's a disgrace for Native Americans, who supposedly care so…read moremuch about nature, to keep these poor animals in CEMENT enclosures. If they feel they have to imprison wild animals, the absolute least they could do is have a very large enclosure so the animals have access to grass, trees, and the things they are meant to be around. One of my exes took me here once many years ago, and I had no idea what it was all about. I ended up bawling my eyes out by the time I left. And I would NEVER give them another dime. I have complained about them to the tribal chief of the Cherokee, as well as to PETA (several times). It is absolutely heartbreaking to see these majestic creatures in a cement tomb. I don't know how these people sleep at night.