What follows below must be one of the most amazing trips I (Jerome) have ever taken. Seraina was able to join us for the trip below for the first couple of days, so the majority of the below will be written just out of the perspective of Jerome. In most cases, we will let pictures do the talking as we travel the great natural treasures of the United States of America.
Off to the west! South Dakota, Badlands, Mount Rushmore.
What did we plan to do? We did the most US-American thing one can do for vacation: A road trip. A long road trip. We would start in Minneapolis and drive all the way over to the west coast of US America, ending in San Francisco. For context, this is a trip of 1978 miles or a drive of 29hr, comparable to a drive from Oslo Norway to the strait of Messina at the south of Italy. We were joined by our friends Samuel and Celina from Switzerland.
Our first leg of the trip brought us to Badlands National Park, with its eroded buttes and pinnacles. Located in South Dakota, this just gives us a taste of what is about to come. It is surrounded by the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Most notably, we saw so many prairie dogs.
The next day, we visited the national monument of Mount Rushmore. A very impressive site, most likely one of the most American places in the country? Throughout the day, we drove to Livingston Montana to get ready for our visit to Yellowstone national park. This was one of the longest travelling legs we have taken – about 1000 miles in two days.
Yellowstone, Great Salt Lake
We stayed at Yellowstone for two days. No need to explain what Yellowstone stands for, we will let the pictures speak. Most stunning features we saw: Multiple bison (herds), one bison up close as it decided to walk towards a walkway for tourists… A black bear. Finally, we took a quick swim in Yellowstone Lake.
Seraina left us in West Yellowstone to visit a friend living in Bozeman, Idaho. We continued towards Salt Lake City and took a quick walk into the Great Salt Lake. Sadly, the Great Salt Lake State Park was closed due to a wildfire…
Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Cedar Breaks NM
We now moved down south towards towards the Grand Staircase area. Known for its Hoodoos (irregular columns of rock), this area is hard to describe. The beauty of the washed out stone columns everywhere is astonishing, and based on the height of the plateau, the rocky patterns change quickly.
Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP
Part of the Grand Staircase, we visited the north rim of Grand Canyon, being on the “lower steps”. It is hard to grasp the dimensions of what is Grand Canyon, looking from the plateau down is actually uncomfortable due to the great height. Zion NP is known for its famous Angels Landing hike, which now has lottery based admittance. There is also only shuttles allowed to get to the back part of the park, which we took. We bathed in the North Fork Virgin River at the very end of the paved trail where you could hike upwards to the Narrows through the river.
Las Vegas, Lake Mead NRA, Valley of Fire SP
In Las Vegas we stayed at the Paris hotel and of course had to take a swim in the swimming pool just below the Eiffel Tower. We also gambled and of course lost our money.
I went on a trip around Lake Mead National Recreational Area, towards Valley of Fire State Park. The high iron contents of the surrounding rocks makes them look very red. Lake Mead was created through Hoover dam, which you can drive over after going through a security checkpoint. Lake Mead has lost a lot of its water due to climate change and the high water consumption of Las Vegas, which makes it pretty dystopian to drive through as old access roads to the water stop in nothingness or in abandoned coastal villages.
Sequoia & Kings Canyon NP
Sequoia National Park is bigger than it seems. Just driving through it will take most of your day. The sequoia trees are absolutely monumental, absolutely breathtaking. I took a hike up Moro Rock, from where you have a fantastic view of the surrounding area. Of course, a drive next to tunnel rock and tunnel log should not be missed.
San Francisco
Advertised as being a very dangerous place right now, San Francisco did not seem too bad ;-). Jokes aside, SF has had a rough time after Covid, and sadly is not yet up to its previous state. However, tourists are unable to see most of the issues at hand.
I was able to drive over Golden Gate Bridge in maximum fog (which was a bit disappointing, especially because you pay a lot of toll). I was able to visit Pier 39, took a boat ride around Alcatraz and under Golden Gate, took the stairs all the way up Coit Tower and saw Lombard Street. An amazing place, really!
Finally, I left with a red-eye flight from SF to Minneapolis again and was reunited with Seraina! Overall, we travelled 4766 miles (7600km) with our Jeep Grand Cherokee, of which 891 were driven electrically. We payed 1600 USD for that rental car, which I would call a steal ;-).
Nerd talk
After our trip, I had multiple days at my hand to visit 4 amusement parks in the California region. I will start with the underwhelming ones and keep the best for last!
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo CA
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom originated as a zoo. Up to this day, the park contains rides as well as many animal enclosures, multiple of which should in my opinion no longer exist. The park for example holds dolphins and still does live dolphin shows – welcome to 2024 Six Flags! I hope that they will remove the zoo soon, but as it is in the USA some things sadly just take longer…
In the end, it was a mistake of me to go to this park as with doing so I only add to the problem – I tried to work around this mistake by not consuming anything on site.
The park features two major areas, the older one with all the enclosures with some rides in between – this area is nice to look at and only seems a little bit neglected. The front of the park is built onto the old parking lot and has this classic Six Flags Parking lot vibe – not nice to be there, especially in the summers heat! Most coasters are located in that park area.
Besides the zoo issue, my second biggest problem were operations and how the park is run. It was a Friday, attendance was pretty low. Nevertheless, waiting times for certain coasters were 1h plus. This, because due to bad maintenance, 4 out of the 10 rides were not running (issue there: no available trains) and all others besides Batman were running only one train.
I got super lucky when entering the park: Only two rides were running at the start of the day, and every time I finished one ride, the next one besides it opened, so I never had to wait long.
Joker and Medusa are both nice rides. Joker is an RMC conversion from an old wood coaster and opened in 2016. Its well balanced, and while it only is 30m tall, it still feels super fast and snappy. I must say, one of my favorite RMC conversions so far, besides maybe Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa… I was surprised to see no second train available on this ride – where did it go? Most likely it serves as spares for the second one. A shame…
Medusa is a floorless B&M coaster, only 46m high, but runs really smooth. It was built in 1999. The second train was standing next to the ride, but remained unused.
On both coasters, operations were super slow, which added to the long wait times.
As I did not eat in the park, I cannot say anything about food. Flash (train completely disassembled next to the ride), Kong (no information), and the Boomerang coaster (no train in the station) all were not running. When I left, the Superman ride that was open in the morning had closed down as well. Overall, a very underwhelming experience. Would never go again. 4.5/11.
California’s Great America, San Jose CA
California’s Great America is located near San Jose, which itself is near to San Francisco. In its vicinity, there is the San Francisco 49ers football stadium, and currently the park shares its parking lot with the stadium. This leads to problems, as on game days, the park will not be able to operate in future. Cedar Fair has announced that they therefore will close the park in future, which is a shame as it is by far the best park in the area.
In general, the park was very clean and well maintained. Operations were OK but not outstanding. Their ride selection is also OK but not outstanding (there is a theme here). Food was not great.
Ride-wise, they have a bit of everything. Flight Deck is an B&M inverted coaster, not very long and not very intense (as far as I know one of the shortest of its kind). Gold Striker is a GCI wooden coaster. It is pretty intense and is one of the major rides of the park. I love its location, its standing very dominantly on one side of the park being the major sight there. Just beside it is the parks newest addition: Rail Blazor, a RMC mono rail coaster. I was lucky enough to get on the ride early in the morning without long waits, and like all other RMC’s of its kind it is very intense and fast. Very re-ridable :).
Patriot is a B&M floorless coaster, this must be the tamest I have ever been on, but still real fun – this just shows that these coasters do not need to be overly insane to please riders! Finally, they have Berserker, an old Bayernkurve ride, it consists of a round piece of track with one hill and one valley, all seats are attached to the center that then spins the endless train around. A really cool ride for sure. Overall, 7/11.
Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia CA
This park stands out as it is home to so many different rides. The focus here is definitely the rides, and not the theming, which was basically non-existent. Ride operations were mediocre, but attendance was very low on the day I was at the park, so I was able to ride all coasters until like 5pm in the afternoon, which I did not expect to happen. It was very hot that day, and to my surprise there were no areas that allowed you to cool off – the entire park is outside. In total, the park has 21 countable coasters! Food was sadly again a let down.
To mention the most spectacular ones: Full Throttle is a S&S launched coaster with an intense first launch. The coaster starts with a very big loop (at the time of opening the biggest in existence, 38m). Whats also cool is that on the way back to the station, the coaster runs through a tunnel where it comes to a complete stop, and is then once again accelerated backwards and forwards. The coaster then climbs the loop on the outside and returns to the station.
The park is also home to Goliath, a coaster made by Swiss manufacturer Giovanola (they used to build ropeways in Switzerland), and the ride was very smooth! Giovanola only built 3 coasters all over the world, and its not 100% understandable to me why they stopped as the outcome was respectable! One more for the history books is New Revolution (called Great American Revolution) was the first ride to ever contain a looping. Built by Schwarzkopf, they currently only have one train, so the wait was very long. Ninja is a suspended coaster from Arrow Dynamics, but not the kind where you sit with your feet dangling, its one where the whole carriage is dangling below the track. Only few of these coasters still exist, so it was a pleasure to finally ride one. Then there is the standard selection of B&M’s that all these parks have, Tatsu (flying), Scream! (sit down), Riddlers Revenge (stand up), Batman the Ride (inverted). There is Viper, one of the biggest Arrow Dynamics loopers, which was very uncomfortable to ride.
Another mention must go to X2 – originally a prototype from Arrow Dynamics that lead to the company going bankrupt. The ride is built like a wing coaster, but instead of the seats being fixed in place, the seat assembly can rotate, giving the ride another dimension of movement. This coaster actually surprised me to an extent where I got anxious, it was such an unpleasant experience. The rotation of the seats was very rocky and abrupt, and would lead to you hitting your head throughout the ride. Finally, the last drop would rip peoples shoes off of their feet (I saw one flying away), the ground was littered with shoes. I later read that they ran only train 2 that day, and that train two was very uncomfortable. Well good for me I guess. One coaster I would not re-ride.
Last important mentions to Wonder Woman Flight of Courage, an RMC single track coaster, and Twisted Colossus, a dueling RMC convert. The latter has two lift hills, it would wait on the second one for the next train to be dispatched, really cool concept.
This park has everything. If you go to one park and one only, this is one of the contenders. There exist very few parks with such a huge offering. Sadly, the park is not that well maintained, it would need some investment to get it look nice again. And under the California heat, not having a place to cool of seems crazy to me. 8/11.
Knott’s Berry Farm, Los Angeles CA
Knotts Berry Farm is in Los Angeles, California. It was to be expected that there will be a lot of attendance, and oh boy. So many people. This is the only park where, if you want to get all rides done, you will need a fast pass. I did get one, this was the only park in California where this was required.
Besides that, the park is absolutely stunning. Very detailed with multiple different areas, where the wild west themed entrance area stands out. There are even actors that impersonate people from the 1900s. Food was also good (ton of variety), however, because of the crazy attendance, lines formed in front of all food kiosks, so I decided to eat outside the park.
For the rides, they have 9 countable coasters, of which most are really stunning! The parks standout coaster is Xcelerator, being Intamins first hydraulic launch coaster that opened in 2002, so a coaster of historical significance. Of course it was closed on the date I attended the park. Hope to be able to ride this legendary coaster at one point in future.
The otherwise most standout coaster must be GhostRider, Its already pretty old wooden coaster built by CCI with GCI trains. The ride was refurbished in 2016 and, while still a bit rough, has a super long layout. Operations were terrible. Worthy to mention is HangTime, a Gerslauer Infinity Coaster. Super tight layout with a lot of inversions, it barely allows you to breathe.
Finally, the park also owns one inverted B&M coaster named Silver Bullet, and a Zamperla Moto Coaster with a horse theme called Pony Express, with a Flywheel launch. This ride is super short though, over after a couple of seconds. Jaguar, a Zierer family coaster was being refurbished while I was at the park. Sierra Sidewinder is a Mack spinning coaster (like Euro Mir), but with the spinning of the carts unlocked throughout the entire layout. Really fun!
Overall really liked the park for its theming. The park also offers real dark rides, like Calico Mine Ride (a train ride with an actual ride conductor) and Knotts Bear-y Tales, a 3D ride where you have to shoot down opponents. At the latter, operations were the worst I have ever experienced. Even with a fast pass, it took me about 60 mins to get on the ride, and I felt so sorry for everybody else that had to wait the entire queue. In summary, the park is up there with the best ones in the US, 9/11.
Update from the future: I was actually able to ride on both Jaguar and Xcelerator few weeks after my initial visit. What a ride Xcelerator is! Was perfectly reasonable to go back. I was the first one in line when ropes dropped for the day, and even was sent off alone in one train!
Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, MO
This park I visited with my friend Molly on Labor day weekend. I really enjoyed this park, more than I was expecting: The park is super clean and tidy, there is some theming and you could see that the park owner took great care of the land. The park however feels a bit neglected in the new rides department, there was little reinvestment in the park made. On the day we attended the park, we were unable to ride the two standout attractions as they had a lot of downtime (Prowler) or were closed (Zambezi Zinger). The latter was built for the 2023 season by GCI, and features a spiral lift hill on a wooden coaster (!!). Food at the park was the same kind you get in all Cedar Fair and Six Flags parks, it was not very good and super expensive.
Boomerang is a Vekoma Boomerang that hurt astonishingly little. Mamba is a Morgan coaster with a long out and back layout. What was astonishing that for the 2023 season, they disabled the block breaks in the middle of the coaster, after which the train rips through bunny hops that are not intended to be taken at that speed. Definitely something that caught us by surprise. Another parkgoer told us that apparently no additional maintenance on the ride is required. I am not so sure about that :’D.
Patriot is a B&M steel invert, one of the most tame ones I have been on, but butter smooth. For a ride built in 2006 that is amazing! Finally, Timber Wolf is a Dinn wooden coaster. It was refurbished and retracked in 2018. Molly did not want to go on that ride first because she remembered it to be extremely rough, and the last couple of meters of the ride that have not yet been refurbished let you feel exactly that, super uncomfortable. The rest of the ride is now fun though.
Operations were fine while we were there besides on the Boomerang, it took them forever to load that train.
Overall the park is a nice experience but a bit lacking in the coaster department. 6.5/11
Summary:
- Silver Dollar City, Branson MO, 10/11
- Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Orlando FL, 10/11
- Busch Gardens, Tampa FL, 9.5/11
- Knott’s Berry Farm, Los Angeles CA, 9/11
- Busch Gardens, Williamsburg VA, 9/11
- Six Flags Great America, Chicago IL, 8/11
- Six Flags Magic Mountain, Santa Clarita CA, 8/11
- Kings Dominion, Richmond VA, 8/11
- Carowinds, Charlotte NC/SC, 7.5/11
- California’s Great America, San Jose CA, 7/11
- Lagoon, Salt Lake City, UT, 7/11
- Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, MO 6.5/11
- Six Flags St. Louis, St. Louis MO, 6/11
- Valleyfair!, Minneapolis MN, 5/11
- Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo CA, 4.5/11
- Nickelodeon Universe, Minneapolis MN, 3/11