Occupying 115,000 square feet in the heart of downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies is a giant lens into the beautiful and often mysterious world of the deep sea. The $42 million attraction is home to hundreds of species of creatures from around the globe, and what you'll see ranges from the familiar to the strange, from the beautiful to the ferocious.
Among the thousands of salty residents to be found at the aquarium are exotic tropical fish, jellyfish, living coral, sea dragons and the giant Pacific octopus, complete with its eight-foot-long tentacles. You'll also meet the Japanese spider crab; with a leg spread of up to ten feet, this crustacean is the largest such species in the world. The Amazon River Basin exhibits will house giant catfish and Piranha from the Amazon River in South America.
The centerpiece of Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies is an underwater acrylic tunnel in which visitors pass through 1,000,000 gallons of water on a 340-foot moving glidepath. The journey is designed to offer panoramic undersea views and bring you within inches of all kinds of undersea tough guys, like moray eels, not to mention some of the ocean's poisonous predators.
And guests are almost "swimming with the sharks" as the tunnel takes them among several varieties of nature's most feared and most misunderstood ocean inhabitants. Sand tiger black tip, bonnethead and nurse sharks are among the breeds swimming in clear view.
Many attractions warn their guests, "Look, but don't touch," but you'll be able to get a true hands-on experience at Ripley's Aquarium at their "touch tank." There, you'll enjoy the multi sensory sensation of actually laying hands on creatures such as horseshoe crabs and stingrays. The aquarium carries this interactive concept even further; trained scuba divers will conduct hourly shows, during which they'll get up close and personal with many of the residents on exhibit.
While entertainment is certainly a primary emphasis at Ripley's Aquarium, education is also the name of the game. The facility houses onsite classrooms where the aquarium's knowledgeable staff utilize lectures and films to teach visitors about the life forms on display. There are even plans for overnight outings in which youth groups can camp out in the underwater tunnel.
Tours of the aquarium are self-guided, and guests should plan on as long as two-and-a-half hours to do it all justice. The Aquarium was designed for maximum viewing of all the unusual sealife as is totally handicap accessible.
Ripley's Aquarium is one attraction and adventure that you should not leave the Smokies until you've been there.
- Article Provided by Steve Ellis Tours.
