Highlands Outpost — Attraction in Highlands

Alpine Coaster (calling this a "Screamer" is just not something I can do) left one desiring more. Hence 3 ★'s. My party & I were expecting a thrilling ride. Instead we were left asking WTH rides over‽ There's too much time spent going "up" not enough track for the money spent -$18pp for us. Maybe they should let riders go twice for the price they charge. At least one would feel a little more satisfied then to ride twice on the small track. Now the tubing was a Blast! 😃 Two lanes & an escalator make things go a little faster. That said this place does get quite busy, & one could wait awhile to get in 2nd or 3rd rounds. It's worth it tho! Plenty of tubes for riders. Young old somewhere in the middle it doesn't matter! Enjoy it! Btw they had a twilight hour Y'all when we were there! Last hour of the night, Tubing was half price!! 🤯❤️Even if you got only 2 rounds in, it would be So worth it! (Dunno if anything else was half price the last hour, or if it's still offered) Didn't ice skate but wanted to. They have 'walkers' that slide to help keep you upright. Almost everyone was using one. It looked like people were having so much Fun Even with the small rink, people were still smiling😀 Gem mining & trout fishing were closed for the season. I will say tho that the pond is a little small. I think it's great that they offer it as an activity, but it's mainly for small kids to enjoy. I hope they add another level like a lower or higher pond so more people would be able to fish. It would be Cool if they had ducks or koi fish in a pond so kids could feed some "wildlife" 🦆Kids enjoy that activity especially feeding fish. They sorta missed an opportunity for them to make extra money. Even Grandparents or people with disabilities would have something fun to do😀🐠 Fish eat all year long I think🤔 The gem mining area was ok another small operation. Glad it's there as an activity. Again tho, looks mainly for kids. Your teens might not enjoy it as much. Didn't get to try it out so I can't speak on how Cool they're gems are🪨 The Outpost is growing, & that's exciting even for locals. Yet with growth so grows the pricing😑 It can get quite expensive if you have several kids. $40pp over age 13 for tubing (there are $35pp days check the Outpost's calendar) If your kids also wanna ice skate that's a separate fee (I don't remember how much for just skating, but if your kid did 2 hours of tubing & 1 hour of ice skating it's $50 bucks per kid! That's all the time that offer allows) There's a kiddy play area for the snow. It's cute, a machine pulls kids in a circle motion on tubes, & they can play in snow for $20 bucks per kid 8 years & younger. I want to mention that $8 per pound for trout is pricey in this area. Your license, pole, & bait are incl for that price, but even so, this place is, if not, the highest per pound in this area It's $10 per pd if they clean the fish🤯 (They don't filet or skin the fish for that price either) Usually trout weigh about a pound & you Have to keep whatever you or your kid catch. There's NO throwing fish back. So you could rack up a hefty bill pretty quick. Kids & adults get caught up in the Fun. That's the point though, isn't it!! So 5 trout could cost around $50 bucks with cleaning, & for a family of 4 that's expensive just for fish you still gotta go home & do more prep work to before you get to cook them. I've looked around for deals this Outpost might have out there. Haven't found any. Like a BOGO deal for families. Frequent rider cards 🤷🏼‍♀️ Anything! to help save money when you go play here. It might be a touristy place, but locals wanna be able to enjoy it too without having to take money away from their vacation funds. So it's a mixed review for me. Liked it but didn't like it. Hopefully a future experience will change my thoughts for the better. But Pricing vs the actual Experience 🤷🏼‍♀️ That and the cleanliness of the restrooms. I won't post the pix here but they do need to work on how often restrooms are checked during the day...

I had no idea this place existed till a friend invited me to go with her the evening before. We went on a weekday to avoid crowds and even though it had snowed a few days prior the place was not busy at all. Arrived at the ticket counter to find no one there. We went ahead and filled out waivers and looked at pricing and decided on what tickets to buy. But then we were just left to stand there as no one had come out to sell us tickets. After a significant amount of time had passed two women arrived that absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke. For a 3-hour tubing/ ice skating combo and 2 rides on the roller coaster, it was $77 a person plus an additional credit card fee. Not cheap but did not feel overpriced either for what you get.

They have snow machines for the tubing hill but there were also several inches of real snow covering everything which was awesome. We spent about an hour tubing, there were maybe 5 other groups of people so there was no wait at the top of the hill and the employees were fun. We went over to ice skate and again, abandoned counter. The person working the counter came back long enough to give us skates then left to go stand by the fire pit. 2 of us needed another size up so we had to wait again for them to return. The worker wandered off again so when we needed yet another size we just go it ourselves. The ice skating rink was not smooth at all and rather hilly but it was a little small for any sort of surfacing equipment. We enjoyed skating around a while though before returning to snow tube some more. Later in the day the employees working at the top of the hill became upset over their lack of breaks (the same guys had been up there the whole time we had been there) and began yelling at someone on their walkie talkie about being up there too long before pushing us down the hill.

Once our tubing time was up we walked over to check out the coaster. They were still building the waiting area, the fresh-cut lumber smelled really good. They told us the ride had only been open for a few weeks. There was no wait and we were able to get right on and ride it 2 times. Another thing to mention, the employees were completely ok with us bringing our GoPro cameras on everything including wearing them on the coaster. The coaster was really cool, it was so quiet, and being surrounded by snow was awesome. After the coaster, we built a small snowman over by the trout fishing pond before we left.

We ended up being there for about 5 hours. We would definitely go again. They may need to get the employees in line a little though. If the ticket people need to smoke, maybe one at a time rather than both, give the skate rental person a space heater, and maybe they could complain about breaks when customers are not waiting to be pushed down...

I would rate this shady operation a ZERO if I could. I've been duped and taken before by corporate businesses, but never would I expect to be robbed blind by area folks running a sham family winter "fun" operation. I was wrong for expecting otherwise.

I drove a good ways for my three kids 14, 12 and 5 to have a pre Christmas weekend tubing experience and read mostly great reviews about this place.

Well my two kids cost me $25 a piece to get them a two hour window on the tubing hill. But what was absolute highway robbery was the kiddie "hill". $12 for my 5 year old and...be warned...another $25 for the parent to have to drag the child and a small innertube up a pathetic and pointless 40 foot hill with very little slope, one carved pathway and a group of other parents and pre k/toddlers hogging it all up. The parent has to pay $25 to do this but can't even ride down with their kid. It is AN ABSOLUTE THEFT by the sheisty, greedy owner. I didnt even take my son on it because it was too pathetic for him to enjoy while jockeying with others for the little track that existed.

Worse...I asked for a refund because I didnt realize the kiddie hill was such a ripoff joke. Nope...no refund.

The owner has all this "blessed" and "stress free" stuff all over his little ticket shop walls, but is a charlatan who is stealing money from families at Christmas time between Highlands and Dillard. It is really messed up.

The place is also a liability suit waiting to happen. All walkways covered with snow from the big snow storm of the previous two days were reduced to pure ice sheets, and yet NO salt was lain to protect his customers from falling. Ironic that the walking paths are a slippery danger considering the so called ice rink (a pathetic little rectangle about maybe 65-70 feet long by 45 feet wide) looks like a rough, dangerous mess for unwitting skaters.

$87 for my 5 yr old to watch his older brother and sister have fun while he and I did absolutely nothing but sit and wait...well no actually $90 because these scumbags had the nerve to charge me $3 for a hot chocolate for the same kid who didnt get to do anything that he was charged $12 for. Easy money is sleazy money.

I paid literally paid this man $37 for NOTHING. We call that THEFT where I come from. There are other tubing options in Western NC that don't rip you off like this place....