One of the must-do activities when you visit Gatlinburg, Tennessee is to ride a mountain coaster.
A video posted by user @ricktock69 on Tiktok on August 30, 2020 shows a visitor’s close encounter with a mother bear and two cubs while riding on one particular mountain coaster.
The rider is on the Rail Runner, one of the mountain coasters where the rider is able to control how fast it goes – up to 25 mph. As the person started to go down a hill, a family of black bears came strolling out of the woods and onto the track.
Black bears are typically shy creatures and having a mama and two cubs approach this close to a noisy roller-coaster is a rare occurrence. Black bears are generally not going to attack a human unless they feel threatened, or you venture too close to their young.
In the video, bystanders can be heard gasping as the mama bear puts her two front paws on the roller-coaster track then proceeds to leap right over it with the two cubs at her heels. As the mama bear lumbers off, one cub hesitates on the tracks for a moment before following while a second climbs underneath the coaster and chases after them.
Watch the video of the close encounter below.