Photo Trip Report: Elitch Gardens!

[IronWolfman]

My sister, brother, and I took a trip to Elitch Gardens on Sunday. It was my 6th trip this year and I will go at least one more time, for Fright Fest. The weather was wonderful, the rides were up almost the entire day (Only Half-Pipe and Boomerang had breakdowns), and the park looks great! I'm pretty sure all the roller coasters except Half-Pipe have been repainted within the last 2-3 years, because they look nice! The food was pretty good, too. Here are some ride reviews:

 

Ghost Blasters: 1 ride, 10 minute wait.

Very fun dark shooting ride! I got only 720 points but that's because I was sitting in the back of the car. My siblings loved it, too. I like the effects. 7/10.

 

Mind Eraser: 2 rides, 1 very front, 1 very back. 5 minute wait both times.

I honestly love this ride! I guess I'm at an age were the roughness adds to the ride instead of detracts but it wasn't that rough, except the roll over. The ride has some really nice forces and is non-stop intensity the whole way through! I even like how abruptly the brakes stop you because it's an intense stop to compliment the intense ride. Pretty solid attraction, could stand to be smoother, but it's a really fun ride! *coughcough*SFNEwhatdidyoudowrongwithyourSLC*cough* 8/10.

 

Dragonwing: 1 ride, 1 cycle wait.

Not very interesting but pretty nice views and a really relaxing ride, nice breather. 6/10.

 

Boomerang: 1 ride, very back. 1 cycle wait.

This ride is really fun as well! The only jolts are in the cobra roll but they are easily avoidable if you hold on. I love the forces going forwards and backwards! The drop is really nice as well. I still prefer Aftershock, but this ride gets a nice 8/10.

 

Sidewinder: 1 ride, very front. 5 minute wait.

This ride is still my favorite in the park. The launches are nice and you really fell like you are getting pulled over a cliff on the drops. Sidewinder is incredibly smooth for an Arrow, too! The front is the place to be on this ride due to: The floaty first drop, extremely powerful loop forwards, intense ejector on the far side, then the insane ejector drop backwards (livin' for that stomach drop) , insane powerful loop backwards, and lastly float onto the load platform. Very nice ride! My only 2 complaints are how short the ride is (excusable) and the 100 steps of stairs to the top. Overall 8.5/10.

 

Observatory Deck: 1 time, no wait.

Amazing views of the park, downtown, and the mountains in the distance. Lots on photo opportunities. Nothing much to do up there if you don't have a camera though and pretty windy. 5/10.

 

Ferris Wheel: 1 time, 10 minute wait.

Nice views as well, along with a relaxing ride cycle. Much more of a conversation ride than a picture ride. 5/10.

 

Shake, Rattle, & Roll: 1 time, no wait.

I love top spins because of this ride. Being dragged against your will upside-down backwards is pretty crazy, and some fun flips too! My complaints are how hard the restraints come down (leg crusher), and the ride cycle is really short. 6/10.

 

Twister 2: 1 time, middle. 10 minute wait.

This is a nice wooden coaster. The ride has great lats and the shakiness keeps the ride from being boring without airtime. I really like the ride for what it is and it looks really nice! It'd be better without the trims but I can deal with it. The brakes are really abrupt which isn't comfortable with lap bars but I understand the lack of space. 7/10.

 

XLR8R: 1 time, with my sister.

This was my first skycoaster, and Sunday was my 3rd time on the attraction. It was my sister's first time so I pulled the cord. The thing is one word: Amazing! The freefall is intense and pure and the swinging is free and comfortable. Such an experience. It makes me want to ride the 300ft skycoaster in Florida! We paid $20, which is a lot, but cheaper than most skycoasters. 9/10.

 

Half-Pipe: 1 time, 20 minute wait (it broke down once).

This ride really is great! Some nice spinning and the vertical spikes are so cool! This ride shakes a lot, so be warned. Too bad the ride cycle is so short, but I understand due to capacity. This and the other resident Intamin are very temperamental, but each ride has it's reasons. 7/10

 

Tower of Doom: 1 time, 15 minute wait.

The views are great from this ride since it's in the center of the park. The freefall feels like it last forever and is very intense (Not as intense as Panic Plunge, but close). This was my last ride of the day and it was a good way to end. The ride is normally temperamental but it didn't break down on me this time. I wish they'd run more than 2 sides but honestly the 3rd side wasn't really needed. Nice ride overall. 7.5/10.

 

Pictures!

 

250ft Observation deck.

 

The entrance building!

 

Nice looking midway.

 

Big Wheel!

 

Ooooh a nice, recently painted SLC! Slingshot in the foreground, that's for October ;D

 

Sidewinder's far platform.

 

XLR8R and Boomerang in the distance.

 

Oh ma dear..

 

Hello there XLR8R, you must wait your turn.

 

Dragonwing.

 

In flight!

 

Mind Eraser red train!

 

Here they come!

 

In-line twist.

 

200+ft...

 

Boomerang time!

 

Entrance area.

 

Infursionsszz

 

Boomerang train.

 

 

Mind Eraser from the Tower.

 

Many rides, 1 shot.

 

More rides.

 

Twister 2.

 

Kid's area.

 

Front area.

 

Downtown.

 

Big Stadium #1

 

Big Stadium #2

 

Lots of Everything.

 

Back on the ground, but about to reenter the sky on Big Wheel!

 

My only pic from Big Wheel :/

 

The theater/show building.

 

Boomerang broke..

 

Red & Teal SLC

 

SLC through the... park.

 

Sidewinder loop.

 

Close up.

 

REALLY close up.

 

Airtime!

 

Airtime with a train on it!

 

TROIKA!

 

Yay!

 

Hello resident Intamin coaster!

 

Shake, Rattle, & Roll.

 

Twister 2 train.

 

Boomerang still broke.

 

Best ice cream place I've been to anywhere!

 

Slingshot stop tempting me! I said wait till' October! ;D

 

Kiddie Coaster! No credit yet :<

 

Carousel!

 

I leave you with a picture of Big Wheel's lights.

 

I really enjoyed the park (hence the 52 pictures). I think the only reason the park gets a bad rep is because it doesn't have any spectacular, record smashing coaster. The park honestly has improved severely from the Six Flags and PARC years and has made itself a great place for families and coaster enthusiasts alike. Can't wait for that Skyloop (Magic Springs, give it up already just kidding, except not...)!

[Blatch]

Lots of compact coasters at Elitch's. That small amount of space seems like it can definitely pack in a lot of rides. Glad you had a great time, man!

[PKI Jizzman]

Wow, Denver deserves some better coasters! It looks like a nice little park; more like for Indianapolis or something. I feel like for a bigger city like Denver there would be a bigger draw for coasters. I also had no idea it was sooo close to Sports Authority Field/ Broncos Stadium! Cool.

[Hercules]

^ Indianapolis Population (2011) - 836,924

Denver Population (2011) - 619,968

 

Nice report!

[xmichellex]

Sidewinder: 1 ride, very front. 5 minute wait.

This ride is still my favorite in the park. The launches are nice and you really fell like you are getting pulled over a cliff on the drops. Sidewinder is incredibly smooth for an Arrow, too! The front is the place to be on this ride due to: The floaty first drop, extremely powerful loop forwards, intense ejector on the far side, then the insane ejector drop backwards (livin' for that stomach drop) , insane powerful loop backwards, and lastly float onto the load platform. Very nice ride! My only 2 complaints are how short the ride is (excusable) and the 100 steps of stairs to the top. Overall 8.5/10.

 

There used to be an Arrow like this called Black Widow at Riverside Park in Massachusetts (which is now Six Flags New England). I totally agree that this type of coaster is awesome, and I miss it! It used to be one of my favorites to ride. The backwards drop was my favorite part--it always gave me that "stomach drop." I would take this back at SFNE in a heartbeat. It beats the hell out of Mind Eraser and some of the other not-so-great coasters we've got. It was a short ride, but always a blast!

[RideofSteel]

Sidewinder is awesome. It's actually in my top 5. I have yet to experience any other coaster with that level of airtime, where you physically lift out of the seat and slam into the OTSR.

[Philrad71]

I think if I ever went to this park for the coasters, it would only be for Sidewinder as I loved the one's they had at SFGA and Boardwalk & Baseball when I was younger.

 

The rest of the park looks very pretty and compact, but it certainly looks like it has the worst coaster line-up in all of the Six Flags chain....perhaps maybe even the worst coaster line-up as any theme park I've ever visited.

 

I am sure that no one would argue that this park could use a compact Intamin Mega-Lite to at least bolster it's decent coaster collection to two.

[simon8899]

Looks like a nice park but has too many Arrow/Vekoma coasters for my taste.

 

Also interesting to see a portable TopSpin in a park. The two towers on the side are filled with ballast to anchor the ride - park versions don't have those using two metal support beams on each side moored into a footer.

[IronWolfman]

^The one Arrow is awesome though! And I like the Vekoma's (In fact all the coasters) for that matter, not nearly as bad as they've been made out to be.

[XYZ]

Nice trip report. Also, is it me or does the drop tower only have 12 seats? If so, that is really low capacity.

[IronWolfman]

^Yes, it's only 3 sided. The sad thing is that ToD is on par with Mind Eraser for popularity, so it always has the longest line in the park, no matter what day you go.

[chetCO]

^ Indianapolis Population (2011) - 836,924

Denver Population (2011) - 619,968

 

Nice report!

 

Gotta factor in those "metro" numbers...

 

Denver.....2,645,209

Indianapolis...1,928,982

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas

[BigBomer]

Nice report Michael! Congrats on the front page. This park has always amazed me on how they were able to fit so much into so little space. Also, does the Observatory Tower have an elevator? I thought I read somewhere that it didn't and I can't tell from the picture.

[daveydo5172]

Twister 2...certainly a very beautiful looking roller coaster - quite awesome looking....and yet it offers quite a painful, brutal, agonizing, disgusting, murderous experience for a roller coaster. Mister Twister, at the original Elitch's was FAR superior, thrilling, smoother and more enjoyable - as a matter of fact, it was in the worldwide top ten lists for most of its life!

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

^I wouldn't mind Twister II so much if the double helix was still in the design. The current one as it stands is just boring and sluggish.

[GnastyGnoric7]

Very nice trip report, I always liked the scenery around the park

[zombi3elephant9]

Didn't this used to be a Six Flags park?

[IronWolfman]

^Yes, it was sold along with Darien Lake (and a few others I think) towards the end of 2006.

[23savannah]

I just went to that park late July, and I must say, I really liked it! Where I live, CP and KI don't have those types of Vekoma's, so I was actually really excited to be able to ride the Boomerang and Mind Eraser - both weren't too bad (as I always heard Vekoma's being the worst when it comes to headbanging). It was also awesome to ride one of the few remaining Arrow launched loop coasters - best Arrow I've rode on. Overall, nice little park for a city; wish Indiana offered something like that that isn't primarily a water park.