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Hello, Coastercrazy!
Been away awhile but I've recently picked up nolimits again and I wanted to take a trip to my new home park Elitch Gardens. I've been living in Colorado for three years and I finally made it out to see this little downtown park. Elitch's sits in Denver's stadium district and shares a parking lot with the Pepsi Center (home of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets) and has a nice view of the city skyline from most places with some elevation. It is home to a solid amount of coasters and flat rides considering it is wedged between I-25 and the Pepsi Center. The longest line we waited in all day was the line to park so crowds were small and lines were short (A nice change from SFGAm where lines are usually a 30-minute minimum). Forgive my camera skills. I really was not focusing too hard on getting good pictures but I managed to capture the rides we rode on this trip.
The front entrance of the park was essentially a building with all their park services, a gift shop, and some food stands. It was nice and air conditioned which I thought was unique for a park entrance. You can either go right outside of the building to the waterpark or left down this cute main street area which has some shops and restaurants along it. At the end of the main street is the Ferris wheel which fits well in this area.
The first coaster we rode was the park's Vekoma SLC Mind Eraser. To be honest, every coaster I rode at Elitch's was new to me; including the SLC and Boomerang. The last park I called home was SFGAm so these were not clones I've had a chance to ride yet.
I went into this ride with low expectations and I was actually a bit surprised with the quality of this ride. Mind Eraser is aptly named. This thing beat the snot out me; however, it has some airtime, good speed, and was pretty unpredictable. I was pretty disoriented by the end so I didn't exactly want to hop back on but it surpassed my expectations a bit.
Next up we took a ride on the park's Boomerang. This is another ride people don't usually hold in high regard. Personally, I thought the ride was a little rough but it was not unrideable. The cobra roll was a bit shaky, (I could even see it shake from off the ride so that was not surprising) the loop was nice, and there was more suspense heading up the lift than I anticipated. I could imagine the inverted boomerangs are much rougher than the sit downs.
The newest ride here was a Star Flyer. I'm fairly convinced it is not a Funtime model but I couldn't figure out the manufacturer with a simple google search so I cannot say for sure. Fun ride, but I was feeling a little dizzy after riding an SLC and a Boomerang back to back so I probably should have waited a little longer before getting on this thing. The skyline looked really nice on this ride and the seats flew right over a turnaround on the park's wooden roller coaster, Twister II.
I was working on an RMC redo of Twister II because it has some interesting elements like the turnaround before the first drop. Frankly, this ride is in worse shape than I thought it was. The whole structure shakes pretty significantly when a train passes over it, it does not have a very dense structure and I'm not too sure RMC would even be able to save this coaster. I don't work for them so I couldn't say for sure but I've ridden Medusa in Mexico City and that coaster seems to have much more wood underneath the track as well as pictures of the other RMC's that have been redone. It's a shame because it has some nice qualities to it that could make for an interesting Iron Horse.
As for the ride itself, this thing was tough to ride. The first turnaround was violently shaky and it didn't get much smoother the rest of the way.
It really is a photogenic ride at the back end of the park. It really dominates the midway and dwarfs everything around it. I would hope there is a plan to improve this ride as it is an iconic part of this park.
The park has a Larson Loop called Brain Drain. My friends really enjoy this one but I elected to stay off because I have a rather weak stomach for a coaster enthusiast. Looks a little more thrilling than I anticipated.
I was a bit disappointed that the park's Half Pipe was not operating today. My friends who have been before rave about this one and it is a unique Intamin. The park also has an Arrow shuttle coaster and an Intamin Drop Tower that we did not get to ride today.
Overall, I like this park. It has a nice Denver charm that is unlike any park I've been to before. Definitely will not be the last time I visit. I wish their coaster collection was a bit stronger but that is just the coaster boy in me and I realize a 20 millon dollar B&M would be tough for a park of this size to build.
Greetings from Denver! (I'm in the middle
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