Great Stone Door named one of the world’s most underrated travel experiences

Scenic views of the Savage Gulf like this one from the top of the Great Stone Door are now part of a new Tennessee State Park that includes land formerly managed as part of South Cumberland State Park. According to a new study by Explore Worldwide, Great Stone Door is the eleventh most underrated travel experience in the world. (Photo Provided)

BEERSHEEBA SPRINGS, Tenn. — There a lots of hidden travel gems located around the world and according to a new study from adventure tour operator Explore Worldwide, the Great Stone Door located at Savage Gulf State Park (formerly South Cumberland State Park) is one of them. This week, the group name the Tennessee attraction as the eleventh most underrated travel experiences around the world. The group analyzed over 350 hidden gems in over 130 countries that don’t get enough recognition to create the list.

The group ranked the unique travel experiences based on how high their Trip Advisor score is versus how many people have actually reviewed the activity, and how many Google searches there are around people wanting to try the experience. The resulting list reveals 25 of the world’s most undervalued travel activities which are, for the moment, relatively unknown or of little interest to the general masses, but which promise an incredible experience to the intrepid traveler.  

The experiences span the breadth of the globe, with the top ten underrated travel experiences around the world including activities in East Africa’s Burundi, Pangnirtung in Canada, and Llanfair-ar-y-Bryn in Wales in the UK. From waterfalls and snowy mountains, to tasty dumpling tours, vineyards and remote islands, the experiences that are revealed in the new research provide an enormous amount of different ideas to those who want to try something new on their next adventure.  

Other U.S. destinations on the list include Eudora Welty’s House and Garden in Mississippi and Lake Willoughby in Vermont.

In September, the Great Stone Door area broke off from South Cumberland State Park into the state park number 57 in Tennessee, Savage Gulf State Park. According to the state, the park, featuring one of Tennessee’s most scenic areas, includes the nearly 19,000-acre Savage Gulf State Natural Area, which is also a National Natural Landmark. The site contains old-growth forest and remarkable vistas, including waterfalls and the Great Stone Door, an impressive cliff line overlooking Savage Gulf that gets its name from a top-to-bottom crack in the cliff, resembling a door left slightly ajar.

To learn more about all 57 Tennessee State Parks, visit the state’s website. To view the entire list of underrated travel experiences, click here. •

{The Lynchburg Times is an independently-owned, community newspaper located in Lynchburg, Tennessee the home of The Jack Daniel Distillery. We focus on public service, non-partisan, rural journalism. We cover the Metro Moore County government, local tourism, Moore County schools, high school sports, Motlow State Community College, as well as whiskey industry news and regional and state stories that affect our readers.}