It is built into a ravine at Kennywood and uses the park’s hilly terrain to deliver a wonderful ride. The Jack Rabbit is a wonderful woodie that dates back to 1920, which makes it the oldest still-operating coaster in the nation (along with another ride known as the Jack Rabbit at Seabreeze in New York). Why you should ride: The best themed roller coaster in the U.S. Universal calls it a 'family coaster.” It’s so intense, however, we’ve prepared a guide to help you determine whether you’d be able to handle Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike coaster. It includes seven exhilarating launches (a world record when it opened), a section where the train proceeds backwards, and (spoiler alert) a vertical drop that leaves riders breathless. But, the coaster side of the equation is equally compelling. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, however, is the rare attraction that is both a great themed experience and a kick-ass thrill machine.īoasting inspired sets and compelling animatronics (especially the namesake Hagrid), the attraction is a storytelling triumph. Typically, both the thrills and the dark ride features are muted. Either the coaster experience or the storytelling elements suffer because the attraction is trying to do justice to both. Whenever parks and ride designers develop themed roller coasters, something generally gives. We can now say that as a combination wooden coaster and hybrid wooden-steel coaster, it is one of the most unique thrill machines out there. We also used to say that it was one of the best wooden coasters. Why you should ride: It’s one of the best launched coasters. That means it will no longer be considered solely a wooden coaster. Update: In late 2020, Dollywood announced that it would be replacing some of the wooden track on Lightning Rod with IBox track to help prevent problems that had been frequently taking the ride out of commission. The wonderful park has a bunch of other wonderful coasters to check out as well. Set in the Smoky Mountain foothills at Dollywood, Lightning Rod is a sight to behold. And its quadruple down element sends coaster boys and girls into fits of ecstasy. The airtime is glorious on the thrill machine. That’s because it was designed and built by Rocky Mountain Construction and includes the company’s patented, innovative “topper track.” Although it is a wooden coaster, it is remarkably smooth. The world‘s first launched wooden coaster, Lightning Rod revs up to 73 mph, which made it the fastest woodie when it opened in 2016. Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation Why you should ride: Perhaps the craziest, if not the most terrifying coaster in the country. You should also visit Six Flags Magic Mountain, because it features the most number of coasters of any park in the world: 19 including X2 and Twisted Colossus. This creates a discombobulating and panic-inducing ride the likes of which we’ve never experienced on any other thrill machine. X2 is the world’s first “4th dimension coaster,” which means the seats are on the “wings” of the train (on either side of the track), and they rotate independently from the movement of the train. But get this: Riders face backwards on the lift hill, and their seats spin maniacally as they race through the twisted course. It drops a hefty 215 feet at nearly 90 degrees straight down, and it hits an attention-grabbing 76 mph. It can’t match Kinda Ka’s stats, but X2 may equal - if not exceed - the New Jersey behemoth in the scream-your-lungs-out, I-want-my-Mommy department. Why you should ride: Close second for best hybrid coaster in the U.S.īlasting off at 128 mph and ascending to 456 feet, which is what passengers aboard Kingda Ka (above) experience, is certainly terrifying. It has a phenomenal collection of 18 thrill machines, which is second only to Six Flags Magic Mountain for sheer quantity. The park touts itself as “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” No self-respecting roller coaster fan would consider his or her life complete without making at least one pilgrimage to the Point. (And, it should be noted, the trains don't always sync up on Twisted Colossus.)Īnother reason you should ride Steel Vengeance? Because it is at Cedar Point. If Twisted Colossus (above) didn’t include the acrobatic interactions of its two trains, Steel Vengeance might get the nod for the best hybrid coaster in the U.S. It also added four inversions, including three zero-G rolls. Steel Vengeance is another airtime monster, forcing its passengers to go airborne incessantly.

It climbs 205 feet, drops 200 feet, and revs up to 74 mph, all while remaining impressively smooth. In the process, it created another one of its masterpieces. In 2018, Rocky Mountain Construction transformed the notoriously rough wooden coaster, Mean Streak, into the hybrid ride, Steel Vengeance.

Colossus ride