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Hello! Like a lot of folks, Erik & Smisty haven't traveled a lot since 2019. So, a few months back, on the theory that as vaccines rolled out, built-up desire for leisure travel would result in booked up airlines and expensive flights, we sort of speculatively bought tickets for an August trip to Denver. Well, my theories didn't quite pan out, but it didn't seem so bad that we should cancel the trip or anything. And we still had fun. But, as the title suggests, there were some let downs. But, actually, not so much because of Covid. Because of climate change. Speaking of disappointment... Elitch Gardens Okay, to be fair, even though we'd never been to this park, Denver, or even the state of Colorado, we knew exactly what to expect from Elitch Gardens. It's reputation suggests that it's one of the worst parks in the country. And...it's not great. But we knew that going in, so with lowered expectations we still had a good time at what was, after all, a new-to-us amusement park. The following attractions will not be operating today. As well as a bunch of other attractions not listed on this sign. Note also that this includes both of the park's water rides during a heatwave in early August. I did enjoy the covered mini main street entrance. I think there's a lot to be said for this design. Actually, that brings up one of the most interesting things about Elitch, as this is a park that completely relocated back in 1995. So, sure, that was 26 years ago--but, still, this place is an answer to the question: What if you were redesigning an existing theme park from scratch? What would you do differently? How would you rearrange the rides that you already had? And viewed through that lens, everything about the layout of this park, good and bad, is absolutely fascinating to me. After the mini main street (or, er, teeny tiny CityWalk?) there's a carousel and the ghost of an observation tower on the right... ...the entrance to the included water park straight ahead (which includes this baffling sign)... ...and a second, uncovered "main street" leading to the park proper. We entered the park midday, and headed for the Ferris wheel, only to have unexpected lightning move into the area while we were in line. So, off we went to the park's only dark ride. This is an interesting set up. It's sort of a covered midway that connects what would otherwise be two dead ends, and contains the entrance to the dark ride, a gift shop, some vending and game machines, and a small food stand. Also there's an SLC in this photo. If you don't know already, model coasters are very much Elitch's thing. The nice thing about Denver is that Covid isn't a thing there. Apparently. I joke, but it's not lost on me that I may be part of the problem. I mean, we are fully vaccinated, but still, should we have done any of this stuff? Traveling right now is weird. Not as weird as this dark ride, though. (How's that for neck-snapping transition?) Well, you can't take pictures inside, but here's the animatronic robot barker and a ride vehicle for Meow Wolf's Kaleidoscape, a Scooby-Doo Ghostblasters dark ride rethemed to...um, interdimensional travel via splitting doughnut eggs or something? It's low-budget psychedelic weirdness and I am here for it. By which I mean, I primarily came to Elitch Gardens for this weird-ass dark ride. and it was almost worth it. Elitch has some nicely themed buildings that reminded me just a bit of Frontier City. The "one big food court" building probably helped with that impression, also. Not one ride in this photo was open this day. Not one ride in this photo was on the closed sign out front. In fact, the observation tower has apparently not been open for multiple years now, which I can find no kinder word for than "offensive." Luckily, I already knew that going in, or I would've been quite upset. (What can I say? I know myself.) The games were all open. When Elitch says something isn't opening today, they are serious. I couldn't think of a good caption for this weird sign, so I googled "wears like a pig's nose" only discover that this was probably a real sign (or at least a copy of a real sign) as Finks really did make overalls and used both of these slogans. Brain Drain did run that day, though it was down for lightning at the time this photo was taken. I can't blame the park for lightning, though. Seems like they handled that about as well as they could've. (And, as someone who's worked in rides at several different parks, including ones in Florida, this is a subject I know a tiny bit about.) I want to say this was the first Half Pipe...? The park doesn't really invest in new rides anymore, though--and I don't think that's going to change any time soon, since the land it sits on has already been sold. Will Elitch Gardens move again, or just close for good this time? And does anyone care? Actually, I think Denverites care. We talked to a few fellow park-goers (there was a lot of lightning) who seemed to really love the place. I guess the most important thing about a theme park is its location. Because this place would be absolutely buried by any kind of competent competition. I can't imagine it surviving long in the same market as, say, a Cedar Fair park. Elitch has one non-model coaster: Twister II. "Built wilder the second time," is its slogan, and while I never got to ride the original Mr. Twister, I can only imagine that's a lie to shake the heavens. Having said that, Twister II wasn't bad. I mean, there was no airtime or anything, but it was fast and fun and not too rough for a 26-year wooden coaster at a park that can't even keep track which rides are temporally closed, which rides are closed for the day, and which rides are completely abandoned. It's quite an attractive ride. Actually, most of the park *looks* pretty good, and is well upkept in terms of paint and such. But yeah, Twister II's lines are very appealing. I'm not saying that I want to have sex with a roller coaster. That's not what I'm saying. And even if I hypothetically did, looks aren't everything, you know. Emotional attachment is important. Shared interests. A better park to have it in, maybe. Besides, Lech Coaster has my heart, currently. This kiddie ride had a nice theme. One thing worth noting is that most of the kids rides didn't have queue, nor did the carousel. Just entrance and exit gates and maybe three pair of foot prints to indicate where you should start lining up. A bit unstructured for my taste, but an interesting choice. I also think that the blue arch in the background is a perfect encapsulation of this park. The front of it says "Kiddy Land," which it is the entrance to. But the back is just blank, even though that's also the exit. It just says nothing. Not goodbye, thanks for visiting, now leaving kiddy land, buy a season pass, nothing. It's like they couldn't immediately decide what it should say, so they just gave up forever. We tried again to get on the Ferris wheel, but again lightning came while we were in line. And again, the park is not unattractive. Not that anyone is suggesting sleeping with it. Geez, would you stop that already? The park's main gift shop is themed to a carousel building. So that's arousing. What? If you look closely, you can see that this awful shirt is actually three different awful shirts. And, what's more, they don't say Busch Gardens on them! The entirety of Elitch's covid response is not allowing returns. I feel so much safer. Is this a good time to mention that Denver was enveloped in smoke from Oregon and California wildfires the entire time we were there? I mean, that's not Denver's fault, but if I sound a little gruff it's only because I was smoking the equivalent of two cigarettes a day and I've never smoked before. Anyway, Elitch Gardens has potential. But it's potential that this version of the park will almost certainly never reach. Still, I'm glad we visited. Stay tuned for more complaining, coming soon-ish-ly!

So I actually made it out to White Water on Sunday 8/15. I haven't been in about 10 years so it felt great to be back in the park. The app was correct with ride closures. The area where bermuda triangle / gulf screamer and black river falls was all closed off, as well as the lazy river and dive bomber. It appears that the new 2022 slide will be going between dragon tail falls and take over the old Rapids area. Even though I've read horror stories about the summer reviews with slide closures and crowds, we had a great time! The place was fairly empty in the afternoon and we rode everything within an hour, with the longest wait to be around 10 minutes or so for run away river. Most rides were nearly walk on with under 5 minute waits! Then on Monday 8/16 we ventured out to SFoG. Got a few rides in before the tropical storm approached. Crowds were also non existent with no waits. Most of the big coasters were open with one train ops, as well as Pandemonium and Justice League. I highly recommend the weekdays when they are open in August from 5:00pm to 10:00 pm for minimal crowds. Even got to see some 2 train testing on Mindbender. Looks like they were working on some programming in the station. New trains look really nice. The trains still haul through the loops. One train had weights while the other was empty. Based on where the trains were stopping at the end of the ride, I could easily see them running up to 3 trains now that they are shorter than before, breaking up that long brake run into more block sections.

Park probably has the best location of any in the country (actually in downtown right off a metro station) and is just left to rot. I went mainly because it was convenient to do before catching dodgers at rockies and I had never been. Will never go back, but your TR sums up the place perfectly. I’m also not expecting a replacement whenever it closes. Stan kroenke just spent a metric ton of money on sofi stadium, so he’ll probably sell off the rides…

Great TR! I haven't been to Elitch's in years. The only reason I would go back is for the dark ride. I feel like you captured the true spirit of most theme park employees this season with that Plinko guy. Thank you for not having sex with any of the rides in the park.

THIS! This is exactly what I'm now getting. Clicking on a topic, responding, all so much faster, but when I go back to the index page it seems to take more than ten seconds every time.

Love this trip report! Man SF STL has gone down hill since I visited. No more Intamin drop, Xcalibur closed, at least Freeze was running. If you've been on more than 100 coasters it's really difficult to get excited about STSTL. Sad to hear Outlaw Run is in that shape during the day, man I have such fond memories of that coaster. What a great supporting cast of Wildfire, TNT, Powder Keg and now there's TT. Can't wait to get back to that park!

As a local Denverite who has been to the park 10+ times this season due to its proximity to my work, I cannot disagree with anything anyone has said in this thread about the park lol. Shame Sidewinder was closed, but it seems the park can't be bothered to staff it aside from weekends and some weekday afternoons. It's my favorite ride there, with the ends of the train offering the best & most airtime the state has to offer currently. Troika is usually open, so sorry to see it wasn't. Glad Half-Pipe was open too, that can be very hit-or-miss with being staffed. I believe it was the second one ever, with it's only remaining model sibling being the one at Chimelong Paradise. It's definitely sad to see the park in it's current state, with incredibly poor operations (ex. usually 3-5min dispatches for the SLC), quite a few rides unstaffed or abandoned, and the rides themselves not being in great shape. Supposedly Twister II is tearing itself apart so badly, it's the reason they had to shorten the train from 4 to 3 cars in 2018. A shame it's doing that with zero airtime and only a few good lateral moments. Tower of Doom has been on two-sided operations for literally the past decade, they've never bothered to fix the third on an already low capacity ride. Thunderbolt is now a skeleton, and Disaster Canyon has not opened this year whatsoever. Since I'll likely be moving out of state before next year, I definitely have tried to appreciate Elitches for what it is, and still maintain that it's better than nothing. Can't complain that I got to turn basically all my in-person work days this summer into park days, too. But, the park is in a slow death waiting for it's eventual demolition, and I hope the Denverites do get something better one day. I don't expect any current park chains to consider the market, but a third Elitches iteration isn't entirely off the table just yet.

I hate this park. The dark ride is cool. Sidewinder is fun when it opens. They also like to open it late every day (like... scheduled) and then not announce it. They need to hurry up and close.

I don't have much else to add that hasn't already been said. However, like @swfan1988 said above, don't rush! I would say this is especially true when visiting multiple American parks on a single trip. This country is enormous and driving/flying between parks (especially the further west you go) can take away huge chunks of your day. Also, allow yourself flexibility for weather, potential ride closures, etc. Some parks may truly only need 0.5 days or 1 day, but if you're visiting a major park for the first time I would almost always recommend 2 full days if this is your single chance and you know you won't be back for a while.

@Rai Fox You somehow made SFStL look worse than WoF. Magic! I've said it many times and I'll go ahead and say it again: The Boss is a masterpiece of a ride, exceptional layout that uses the terrain to its advantage, great laterals, great airtime, and a nice ride time. BUT, and this is a massive BUT, it has run quite sporadic and mostly bone jarring for the past decade. I must ride it every time I go because I remember those early rides, but the last time I went I was holding on for dear life and regretted it. No joke, it is on the same brutality level as GASM at SFoG prior to whatever retracking was done recently. I really hope the Boss is the first RMC re-track with the steel rails that do not alter the layout. I cannot fathom your experience on American Thunder. I have ridden it so many times, never would I have ever described it as slow. Confused? I guess so. Ninja is a pretty good classic. It gets hate, I am no stranger to joking about it, but it has nice air on the first drop and it really isn't as jarring as many other coasters of its time. If they replace it with an S&S freespin I will be so sad. Respect the Ninja!

When they first moved, the carousel was in the entrance building where the carousel-themed gift shop is now.

I don't understand how there's anyway this was an ACCIDENT?!?! This was a grown adult, not some squirmy toddler. It took effort for him to get out of the car the way he did.

Did you really sign up just to come on here and trash Intamin or did you just conveniently forget about how an RMC Raptor also had a wheel fly off and towards guests literally weeks ago? Or any number of recent incidents involving a whole slew of manufacturers?

Did we come from the same site. Lol.

Visited the park Saturday evening (preview) and Sunday (11-7). Overall, had a nice time and managed to get on all the coasters plus a few more rides. Here are my rankings on the coasters and musings on the park: Storm Runner - man, what an intense ride. Just front to back AWESOME. Great Bear - also reasonably intense, especially on the tail end. Unique layout, of course helps. Fahrenheit - reasonably intense moments and a fun layout. Running well! Candymonium - glass smooth and a pretty solid hyper! Lightning Racer - running pretty well. Got a superb race the second lap we took which made the whole thing a bunch of fun. Laff Track - just a blast! Solid addition. Super Dooper Looper - it's a one trick pony. I'm happy it's around, but the trims for the back half really neuter the ride. Comet - just meh. Runs smooth enough, but doesn't do much of anything. Trailblazer - it's honestly a bit of a disappointing mine train but glad it's around! Cocoa Cruiser - fine Wild Mouse - okay Sidewinder - not a fan, as usual. Wildcat - just brutal and not a lot of fun Thoughts on park in general: I recognize I was at a park on the weekend in the tail end of summer, but I think this park is getting a little too crowded for it's own good. Super super congested Saturday evening, especially at intersection to enter the hollow. Feeding off of this, I realize staffing is at a premium, but it seems unacceptable for a park this size to be open 8 hours on the weekend. With as many coasters as they have and the crowds they draw, the park ought to be open 1-2 hours more, at the minimum. Especially for the ticket price. Just my opinion, is all! Fast Track was a real bummer in some cases. Fahrenheit was loading 4 fast track and 6-8 standby (depending on if folks were in even groups, etc.). That means they were pushing through ~200 standby people / hour. Only 1,600 people could ride in a day. I realize the ride is low capacity, but fast track really sucked the fun out of a few of the lines we waited in. I would rather subsidize the $$ they make from fast track and not have it. Just my two cents. Overall, operattions were pretty good. Comet was rough, but that seemed to be the exception not the rule. Loose articles and compact areas in station make this tough. Some rides had gates open quickly, others would take forever. Mobile ordering lunch worked out pretty well Would recommend, though options for it are still limited. Don't rely on the HP app for lines. Waited 10 minutes for Sooper Dooper Looper and it suggested it was 120 minutes. Rarely updated. Candymonium line filled most of the indoor quene and was about 45 minutes. Moved reasonably fast, but was still double-stacking. The Zoo portion is.. okay. New entrance area is functional, albeit a bit bland. I know they tried to throw some character into it (plaques on ground marking history, carousel, etc.) but it's not the most exciting area. It gets the job done.

They all run on a hydraulic drive and there's really no "programming" needed. It's just a valve that feeds the hydraulic fluid in the other direction. Apparently a lot of parks won't run them in reverse though because someone managed to fall out of one years back so now it's a liability issue (see the current discussion in the Lagoon thread...one idiot ruins things for everyone...) Of course if an operator just says that, people will beg, so they always just claim it can't. That said, the one at IB is a Mack Musik Express, KK's is a Reverchon Himalaya, and while I definitely can't say for certain that the Reverchon models aren't as good, I've never personally seen one that runes nearly as fast as the best Mack models. The one at KK was...okay, but not what I'd call fast.

^It's not fair to punish the ride for his actions but it seems that's where we're heading with everything. The Vessel in NYC has also been closed a bunch and is closed currently due to people jumping off of it. Let's fix mental health in this country before rides and buildings!

Individual topic pages load faster now. The main index page is still slow and only seems to respond after a few seconds.

Keep in mind the age of these rides, their environment, frequency of use, the load forces on parts, etc... It's obviously not a rollercoaster, but I run a canning line at a brewery. You'd be amazed what happens to a simple sealed bolt after a few hundred thousand actuations. Stress fracturing can often not show up until just before the part fails, rust can do some weird things internally, just friction can so some absolutely insane things. (for example, I go through 3 pairs of stainless bolts holding our keg machine ramp, these wear completely through just from vibration of 12k kegs a year) Manufacturing defect? Naw, the level most of these firms operate at isn't that. Park neglect? At best - maybe. Could be a monstrous number of factors as many of these rides have sat still for longer than usual then suddenly put back into operation by teams that may be less experienced than usual. Unless they're completely stripping and rebuilding every single one of those trains every off season, it's really hard to catch some long term wears.

My Friend Katie Wennerberg took this pic yesterday from the Crows Nest Ferris Wheel of Poltergeist's new paint job! looks amazing, and can't wait to see the updated queue. . the whole ride reopens in 3 weeks on Labor Day weekend. to compare. .here's what it used to look like: (these pics from April)