Back in 2010 I made my way out to Minnesota for the first time and visited Valleyfair!, the Mall of America, and Como Park on what was the first vacation I took since moving to Florida and starting my job at Disney... Valleyfair! (yeah, the exclamation point is part of the title) ended up being surprisingly nice, odd for a Cedar Fair park and home of Wild Thing, the now 18 year old Morgan Hyper coaster that seems pretty forgotten about. The ride was also surprisingly good and while not as good as some of the Intamin's built well after it.. it still gives a fun ride and has one awesome floater-air hill that's over 100 feet shorter than the hill it follows! So I'm gonna show it some love.
woo
Wild Thing opened in 1996 and was the first coaster built by Morgan*
It was also only the third Hyper-Coaster in America when built
(after Magnum and Desperado)
And second tallest
Wild Thing is still the tallest coaster in Minnesota, at 207 feet and is unlikely to be surpassed... seeing is how Valleyfair! is the only outdoor amusement park in the state and I doubt the Mall of America will add a +200 foot coaster :P
Ha, kid in the front row is taking a POV
The pretty bulky Morgan Hyper train... All but three of their coasters use this style train, including their kiddie coaster!
Wild Things... uh.. station.
Woo, the ride has back to back banked helix turns... and takes them pretty smooth.
Wild Things layout was enlarged four years later for Steel Dragon 2000.
For some reason in their press release, Morgan compered Steel Dragon to its Mamba coaster at Worlds of Fun... but anyone who looks at the actual layout can tell they more-or-less mirrored Wild Thing's layout and increased the height some 100 feet.
Wild Things 'famous' hidden hill tunnel
Classy classy
And one last random shot that I liked for this completely random post that's from four years ago at this point.... <3
Woo, Morgan Hypers!
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