Trip Report: Arnolds Park - 7/26/2016

A few weeks ago while on my way down to visit the family, I decided to make a slight detour and visit Arnolds Park for the first time. Despite living fairly close to this park for a few years, I never actually bothered to visit the park until last month. It's a small park that's in the middle of nowhere in northern Iowa, but despite that, I did enjoy the few rides that I went on as well as the nice old-school environment. The park's only major coaster is The Legend, a wooden coaster that was built in 1930 (currently the 13th oldest coaster in the world) and designed by John Miller. A few years ago, it was given a retrack by GCI, and while I obviously never rode it before the retrack, it looks like it has definitely help the ride because it was honestly one of the smoothest wooden coasters I've been on. I enjoyed the ride itself, was especially surprised with the floater airtime it had, especially in the back seat. In addition to The Legend, they have several other rides, of which I rode three. Overall, it's a nice park for what it is, and while it isn't really worth going out of your way for, if you ever find yourself in the area, it is a fun place to spend a few hours.

Nice entrance.

My main reason for coming.

Due to my poor planning, I had to wait in a 15-minute line to get a ride wristband.

Heading into the park.

First order of business.

Creepy.

Overall a fun coaster, very smooth with some nice air. Especially liked that it had buzzbars.

The Point of No Return.

Up next was the park's log flume, Boji Falls Log Ride. Didn't get very wet, but the final drop was fun.

The more I ride log flumes, the more I like them.

Their Roll-O-Plane was just weird.

Their Tilt-a-Whirl runs a crazy program. Lasted for a while and pulled some nice Gs.

Time for more rides on The Legend.

Hard to see it from here, but the text on the fire extinguisher says "Big Scary Legendary Roller Coaster".

Advertising on the train? Must be a Six Flags park.

View of their carousel from the station.

The park is along the shores of Lake Okoboji.

Little Coaster is the park's kiddie coaster. I was too tall for it, even if I wasn't, wouldn't have ridden it anyway.

One thing that surprised me was how minimal their safety checks were. They don't do nearly the amount of safety checks I have to do as a ride op at Valleyfair.

Rode it 11 times due to nonexistent lines.

In the end, Arnolds Park is a nice little park with a pleasant atmosphere and good wooden coaster. Might have to come back in a year or two.

Thanks for reading!

One impressive photo of a park entrance with the All-American-looking train "proudly" flying over!

Legend seems like a good coaster. Sucks that the hills aren't as crazy steep in spots as they used to be, but it seems like GCI did a decent job

[mkingy]

Looks like a cute little park!

[Paradox]

I must ride a Roll-o-Plane and a Rock-o-Plane in the near future. They look like insane and sketchy rides.

Wow Rock-O-Plane is like a crazily flipping Zipper!