Top 15 Wooden Coasters I've Ridden - Part 2
7. American Thunder at Six Flags St. Louis (Eureka, MO) - near St. Louis
When this coaster opened in 2008, it was called Evel Knievel and the namesake's family was there to open the coaster. His son Robbie Knievel jumped 25 Dodge Chargers on his motorcycle in the park's parking lot to commemorate the event. After 3 years, and after people started to recognize the domestic abuse that Evel did upon his family in the 1970s and Six Flags trying to get out of bankruptcy by getting rid of their expensive licensing agreements, Six Flags changed the name to American Thunder. The coaster sits in a compact spot once home to the park's old kids area, which was moved, and the car ride, which was shortened and still runs under part of the coaster. The ride isn't very tall at only 82 feet with a drop of 80 feet. It isn't even that fast, only going 48 MPH. However, the layout is designed so that the speed never really gets cut. The hills are designed to get smaller and smaller, the turns sharper and sharper, as the ride goes on. It creates an out-of-control hyperactive feel. Unlike most wooden coasters where sitting in the back is preferred, I actually liked the front on this one for airtime. And with the comfy Millennium Flyer trains, it's not at all rough either. Unlike the other two wooden coasters at the park, this is not in the forest.
6. Thunderhead at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, TN)
This one is celebrating it's 10th birthday this year. It opened in 2004 and was designed by Great Coasters International, who did a lot of coasters on this list including American Thunder. Unlike that coaster, this one is a twister coaster instead of a triple out and back. It criss-crosses under and over itself 32 times. It was also the first coaster with a station fly-through, which means part of the track goes through the station at high speed while another train is loading.
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5. Voyage at Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN) - Middle of nowhere, IN
This one's pretty much the big daddy of them all when it comes to wooden coasters these days. It has 24.3 seconds of airtime throughout it's course, which is more than any other wooden coaster. It has 5 underground tunnels... again, the most on any wooden coaster. It's the second longest, third fastest, fourth highest, and has the 5th biggest drop and 5th steepest drop on any wooden coaster as well. It won Top Wooden Coaster at the Golden Ticket Awards for 5 years (it opened in 2006), and has never been out of the top 5. It's the first coaster The Gravity Group ever designed. The coaster is so extreme that they've had to retrack the whole ride once, and do portions of it several times because of the way the trains tear up the track. It's 163 feet tall with a 154 foot first drop at a 66 degree angle. It goes 67.4 MPH, which is faster than most steel coasters, and the coaster is almost 6,500 feet long. It's a hell of a lot of fun, however some enthusiasts feel the coaster is too rough now. (I didn't think so, but I think they're wimps about such things.) The coaster is in the park's Thanksgiving section, and it was the anchor of that area when it opened in 2006. The ride goes out into the forest and back and is themed to the voyage of the Mayflower. Oh, and it's got steel supports, but a wooden track, which was all the rage in the early to mid-2000s.
4. Legend at Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN)
Well, this is the last of the three adult coasters at Holiday World, but the middle one built. It opened in 2000 and like The Raven is located in the park's Halloween section. It's usually enthusiasts' least favorite of the park's coasters due to perceived roughness (give me a break), but is still considered world class. It's 4,042 foot long path takes it through the woods and over towards Splashin' Safari, the park's world class water park, which I highly recommend. (They'll even let you wear shoes, jeans, and shirt on their slides!) The Sleepy Hollow themed ride with it's schoolhouse shaped station reaches speeds of 59 MPH and a height of 99 feet. However, due to terrain, the highest drop is 113 feet. The coaster was designed by the now-defunct Custom Coasters International (or CCI). It's been in the top 20 Best Wooden Coasters since it opened. I love it's use of forest and terrain as it's supposed to feel like you're Ichobad Crane and the headless horseman is chasing you.
3. Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer Park (Erie, PA)
This coaster is situated in a small park next to Lake Erie in the small city of Erie, PA. This coaster is also a newer coaster, having opened in 2008 after about 15 years of trying to get it built. The park had to fight the RV/Campground place next door, get permission for the coaster to go over a state road, and had to change design companies after CCI, who originally designed the coaster in the mid-1990s went out of business. Finally the coaster was built with a steel support system and wooden track and a final design by The Gravity Group; the same company that did Voyage. The coaster is almost 3,000 feet long with a 85 foot lift hill and a 120 foot first drop at 60 degrees. (Terrain!) It also goes 60 MPH. It's a short, fast, and extremely fun little coaster. It won Best New Ride at the Golden Ticket Awards the year it opened. Believe it or not, with all the wooden coasters that Pennsylvania has, this one has the biggest drop. I strongly recommend a ride on this hidden beauty, (especially at sunset, because it's right on Lake Erie) and a trip to this wonderful small park. (Which has one of the fastest Musik Express rides in the world! And it goes backwards unlike a lot of them do now.)
2. The Phoenix at Knoebels (Elysburg, PA) - middle of friggin' nowhere... about an hour from Harrisburg
This coaster is something of a legend among coaster enthusiasts. It opened in 1947 at Playland Park in San Antonio, Texas as The Rocket. When it opened it was considered the largest coaster in the world with it's 78 foot tall lift hill and it's 3,200 feet of track. The park closed in 1980 and the coaster stood but did not operate for four years. In 1984, Knoebels bought the ride, numbered each board in order to put it back together correctly as they had no blueprints, and moved the coaster piece by piece to Pennsylvania. It was the first relocation of a large coaster in many years and started a small effort for parks to save old coasters left to neglect. The ride was re-opened in 1985 on June 15 (10 days before I was born!) and coaster history was re-written. The coaster is considered one of the best on the planet due to it's strong airtime and traditional single buzzbar per seat. There's no seat dividers like on modern coasters either. Having one of those single-position buzz-bars, which don't staple you down to your seat like modern individual lap bars do, with the airtime this coaster gives means you are pretty much standing during large portions of the ride. It's not much to look at, just a regular old double-out-and-back design, but don't let it's unassuming looks fool ya. And it's not just the coaster at Knoebels. Knoebels is one of the best parks in the world. Don't go expecting a lot of coasters, but go for atmosphere and their history of saving rides from other parks. It's shaded, it's friendly, and it's affordable. Good for a two-day trip with Hersheypark, which is about an hour away.
1. El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ) - middle of the state... middle of nowhere
So here we are at #1. Hope you've enjoyed it so far. This bad boy was built in the spot of one of the most hated coasters. A coaster named Viper used to sit on this spot. It was a steel looping coaster made by Japanese coaster-maker TOGO. The whole company is known by enthusiasts for creating painful coasters. They made Shockwave at Kings Dominion too. However, the one time I rode Viper, I didn't think it was that bad. Not great, but not bad either. Still, Great Adventure wanted a new better coaster. Their answer was El Toro. It was designed by a company known more for steel coasters, Intamin. (Builder of Volcano and Intimidator at Kings Dominion.) The company used a new type of wooden track to build this coaster. They used prefabricated wooden track, which is made in sections of wooden laminate that can be placed on the superstructure after that's built. It makes for a very smooth ride. And by smooth, I mean it's smoother than most steel coasters. No roughness at all. They call these "Plug and Play" models. The coaster opened in 2006 and is still the fastest wooden coaster in the world at 70 MPH. It has the biggest drop on a wooden coaster too, at 176 feet. (It will be beaten next year by Goliath at Six Flags Great America in Illinois, which will have a 180 foot drop, it's fastest record will be broken by that same coaster. 72 MPH) The coaster is usually considered the best wooden coaster by most enthusiasts still after 8 years. The airtime on this one is immense, rivaling the airtime of my #1 steel coaster pick, Skyrush. Oh, and I didn't mention that this is the first wooden coaster to use a cable lift instead of a traditional chain lift. So you don't get that clickity-clack noise going up the first hill. The only negative about this coaster is that, like most Intamin coasters, those who are as they say "of unusual body proportions" can't really ride. The seat belt used can't be out past a certain length and the lap bar has to be down a certain amount for the ride to start. Every single time I've rode this, at least one person has had to take what we call "the walk of shame" where they are told they can't ride due to chubbiness.
(Please note that the white wooden coaster in the video was demolished this year. Believe me, the ride sucked. El Toro is now the park's only wooden coaster.)
So that's my top 15 wooden coasters I've ridden. Sometime soon I'll do a list of top coaster I want to ride. But first, I'll leave you with this video of The Beast at Kings Island. It's the longest wooden coaster coaster in the world and is in Ohio near Cincinnati. The only reason this was not on my list is because only night rides are great and due to the ride being braked so much these days. But you still deserve to see the video of this historic, quite popular ride.
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