The Highlands Outpost caught our eye for the coaster rides they offer and we walked away with our visit here being one of the highlights of our Highlands trip. For our group of 4 adults and 2 kids, we opted for the Scaly Mountain Screamer and the tubing. What a great time - I've seen footage of mountain coaster rides from Europe, but never had encountered it in the US. You can ride tandem on them which is convenient if you have kids and the speed is all up to you as you control it with a hand brake. Both of the kids in our group ended up doing it multiple times and each circuit gives you some great views of the forest and beautiful wilderness as you speed on by. One of the coolest aspects of the Scaly Mountain Screamer is that they not only clock your speed - each car has a go pro where you can buy the video, which everyone did. Once we had our fill of the screamer, we went to the tubing which was a surprisingly good time. The tubing track is lubricated with misters all the way down, so you get some great speed and keep cool at the same time and apparently they cover the hill in snow during the winter for some snow tubing. I would say that a stop at the Highlands Outpost is a must do for anyone, big or small. While definitely family centric, after riding on the Scaly Mountain Screamer and doing the Extreme tubing, I think its safe to say people of all ages will have fun here, especially given that you can trout fish as well. The group in front of us left with a whole mess of trout to cook up. We will be back here again to have more fun tubing and trying to beat our speed scores on the screamer and you should too. read more

Highlands Outpost - Home stretch on the screamer - Tubing Near Me - Scaly Mountain, North Carolina

Came here for the coaster not realizing they had snow tubing also. This was my favorite day of vacation. Good clean family fun. The Mexican restaurant was super slow service though and the food was ok but the activities were so much fun. Highly recommend to anyone looking for some good old fashioned fun in the mountains. read more

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Martin make our day better, thank you Martin. We will come back next time and hopefully Martin is there. Also I liked the cookies there. read more

Highlands Outpost - Tubing Near Me - Scaly Mountain, North Carolina

Fun, fast, exciting roller coaster. You go really quick and you can control your speed. Very nice people. Also, they had food truck trucks on property in the slow tubing was great. About a 200 yard slide downhill. read more

Great gravity coaster and snow tubing adventure in Rabun Co, GA. My wife and her sister and Brother-in-law had a blast on the coaster and the snowy slope tube rides. read more

We really had a good time here. Especially riding the mountain coaster. The staff was very friendly. We bought the unlimited rides pass and it was worth it. The tubing was pretty fun as well. They do have a restaurant, but it is a limited menu. read more

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Highlands Outpost was so much fun! The longest mountain coaster in NC & I could have ridden it all day! They have so many other fun activities as well (gem mining, fishing, tubing, ice skating)! read more

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****Snow Alert***** It was close to 60 degrees out and we were riding snow tubes. I will admit that the Outpost has a sweet setup and the staff will get you running. 1) Mountain Coaster is sweet. Make sure they put more than 80 ft between you and the previous rider or the auto brake will slow you down all the time. It prevents crashes but also prevents super fun speed!!! 2) Fishing hole is stocked and ready to catch. It's dorky but if your a city slicker this is your kinda fishing. 3) Currently making snow and it moves. Two lane snow tubing but looks like they are putting out more snow. They moved pretty good for us. Up to two tubes at a time if you ask nicely. read more

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This place was great! Had so much fun on the mountain coaster. Friendly staff, when they aren't razzing one another or peeing out behind the shed. Great place to visit on vacation-we came and enjoyed this place twice on vacation!! Cool German made mountain coaster cars! read more

January 17, 2021 While our original plans to tube down Sapphire Valley things worked out just fine here at Scaly Mountain. (Sapphire Valley requires in-person ticket purchases which can be made the day before and when we showed up unbeknownst they said they had already sold out all their tubing tickets...we were not the only ones disappointed by this experience as the website does not disclose that tickets could be purchased in advance). Alas, we travelled back to Scaly Mountain and it was open for business. This was definitely the highlight of our weekend trip! For $15 we got to take our 3.5 year old down the small hill. We arrived around 10AM and our ticket was good till 12:30pm but we were exhausted at 11:15am after taking her up a dozen runs. If your kid is 42 inches or 4 years old then they can go up the big hill. Although our kiddo was fearless I wasn't ready to put her through that just yet. Give it another year. Also tickets to the big tubing hill were $30 a piece, quite a bit steeper than the small idiot hill. Surely worth it though for the thrill of it. In a 3 hour period you can probably make the return trip at least a dozen times despite time waiting in line. A conveyor belt which you stand on drags you and your tube at a good pace up the hill. There is also a skating rink, and combo tubing and skating tickets were also available for purchase. Right out front was a fire pit for people to warm them selves. There is a nice cafe on the second level of the building with out door seating and indoor seating. The cafe had a nice gift shop too. Most everyone we saw had masks on. We felt safe. We will definitely be back again. This was a fun adventure. read more

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Upon traveling to North Carolina, we planned to have some outdoor fun at Highlands Outpost. It was very organized and fun! If you're thinking about it, DO IT, you won't regret it. read more

We drive up for the day and had tons of fun!! The snow felt so real as well. Highly recommend for a fun day in the snow.

Such a fun place! The staff is very friendly and willing to help. We did snow tubing and the mountain coaster. The hill was longer than ones we've done before. The guys helping up there to get in the tube were so friendly and helpful. You can tell They have a servant heart. They enjoy they job and it shows and they have amazing customer service. They guy at the bottom helping us get out of the way for other people coming down, he kept giving us ideas of things to do there and how to enjoy tubing better. They only have 1 person tube, but you can go down holding on to other people (we did 4), so you go down faster. It was a blast We also rode the coaster and that was fun, with lots of turns, and long. Our kids really enjoyed this place. It was nice having the snow play area where our 2 year old could also enjoy "tubing" while we went up and down the hill. It's a small area for kittle ones and has a mini hill they can go down on. It also has a little carousel you can tie the tube to and it goes around- great for a break while the little ones still get entertained. I can't talk enough about the amazing staff this place has. We felt welcomed and enjoyed our time here. read more

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Great experience. Everyone was so friendly. This was our first time snow tubing and we hope to return soon read more

Absolutely horrible the trout were to well feed so no catching anything I think I would have had a better chance winning the lottery than catching a fish never ever going to even consider coming again read more

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 the mountain. read more

We did Summer tubing in July and had a great time. The employee at the top of the hill helping people was exceptionally nice and outgoing. The other families I saw there seemed to be having a good time as well. read more

We just did the tubing and had a blast! Laughed our way down the mountain so many times! Loved the conveyor ramp up to the top. Drive over an hour to tube and loved it! read more

Highlands Outpost - 50 degrees and some man-made snow - Tubing Near Me - Scaly Mountain, North Carolina

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We had a very fun morning at Scaly Mountain Outdoor Center. We didn't have time to take advantage of all they have to offer, but the snow tubing was great! read more

Highlands Outpost - Tubing Near Me - Scaly Mountain, North Carolina

Stopped in earlier this week. So crowded with very few masks to be seen. No social distancing whatsoever. Ticket sales area was jam packed with no masks (including staff). Left quickly. read more

We had a great time here. The kids loved it and there's a good place to sit and watch them when you are ready for a break. The staff was friendly and quickly got us ready to go. We would highly recommend and will definitely be back. Even the food was good at the little restaurant upstairs. We had burgers and waffle fries and I thought they were surprisingly tasty! read more

Awesome family fun! We had a great time here with our two young boys. They loved snow tubing and ice skating - a first for both of them (Florida boys). Plus the hot chocolate is the best! Great place, great experience, we will be back! read more

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Great place. The food is exceptional, the snow tubing is amazing, the ice skating rink is top notch and the staff is very helpful and cheerful. read more

This place is awesome. We love the tubing and the ice skating in the winter and can't wait to check out their new coaster. Very friendly and courteous staff. read more

We LOVED our day here! It was 50 degrees so we were afraid our boys wouldn't get to tube. They had a blast. The lanes were a little icy due to the warm up but it meant they went even faster. The ice rink is small, but perfect for kids. The staff was so friendly and Annie's cafe had delicious food. We were here in a weekday during Christmas break and it wasn't overly crowded. I was told they get incredibly busy during the MLK and President's day break in January. read more

Highlands Outpost - 50 degrees and snow tubing - Tubing Near Me - Scaly Mountain, North Carolina

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The ice cream pops were good they candles smelled amazing but I don't think that a little boy who is like ten should be vaping we went the other day and the little boy was saying to the person who I thought was his dad he called him friend and he said you know what I'm like when I don't have my drugs I just think a boy that age should not be vaping read more

Better than Sapphire Valley for sure! Workers were very nice and helpful and it was not that expensive either. The kiddie area was a joke (pure ice and dangerous), the ice skating was laughable and the "snow" was a very hard (you can not make snowballs). However, my 5 year old had fun tubing. read more

Summer turf tubing was incredible. Lots of fun for my 5 and 6 yo, but also for adults.

After driving over an hour I pulled into a parking lot that had not been plowed. So many cars and 4x4 trucks stuck! Unbelievably poor business practices. For the high dollar they charge for a few hours of tubing one would think that they could spend a little time and energy to take care of their customers. Needless to say after spending an hour stuck in their parking lot we finally got out and left. Their lack of thought cost us a good time. Will never go back. read more