(Day 5) "So bad, Six Flags didn't want it"

So the day started with us getting up at a reasonable time for once, although as the norm, we were both up before the set alarm. Today would be Rob's last day of the trip. I'd be dropping him off after we spent the day at the two big Denver parks. He didn't even wanna visit either and I myself was pretty indifferent about Elitch (it was more of a credit grab). Lakeside on the other hand had been pretty high on my To-Do list for a long time so I was pretty excited for that... and I was also trying to be as optimistic as I could about Elitch Gardens being at least semi-good.

 Elitch has a strange history. The current park opened in 1995 in the middle of Downtown Denver. Before that the park had operated some 104 years about 2 miles west of the current park where it was just a few blocks away from Lakeside. The new park under performed and after 2 seasons was sold to Premier who later bought Six Flags but kept that name due to the brand recognition, after some 10 years Six Flags sold the park to PARC... Who dropped it off to CNL Lifestyle and has now pretty much come back around full circle and is owned by Premier Parks, LLC (a resurrection of the original company before buying out Six Flags) Yup.

Signs of Civilization!

Oh look.. and a park!

Six Flags Elitch Gardens!
Er, make that just, Elitch Gardens.

Showing up almost an hour before opening, we got a pretty OK parking spot. And yet, weren't even the first ones here.

What the hell are these?
With some time to kill before the park opened, we walked the entire perimeter fence of the property.

Where we saw some Canadian Geese... with some baby geese :D

And a bunch of ducks just kinda hanging out.

Also next to the amusement park is Centennial Park, a public garden in Denver.

A view of most of the park from the bridge that crosses the South Platte River.

The backside of the park is along side the South Platte River Trail

And it was slightly flooded in a few areas....

Ah... Flooding and my vacations seem to go hand and hand....

Downtown Denver, seen from the trail.
Along the far end of the Elitch property is their bone yard, fully visible from the trail way.

Random Motion Simulator
(Right out of RCT, ha)

:( :( :(
RIP Chance CHAOS, just rotting away in back of Twister II.

Twister II was doing its morning test cycles while we were back behind it

This giant Union Pacific Railroad train passed us while we were walking back to the main entrance. It actually parked in the rail yard along side the park.. but by the time we left the park, the train was gone.

Mmm, Intamin goodness... Tower of Doom was testing.... uh.. with it's OTSR's open

By the time we made it back over to the entrance a pretty big line had started. It turned out there were two different group events in the park (ugh...) It was gonna be a busy day here.
I was hoping most people would stick to the water park.

The main street area of the park was surprisingly nice looking... I was almost impressed.

The Spider at Elitch had these strange 'open cage' fronts I've never seen on any other Spider ride before. I would have liked to have ridden it.. but since the loading process is so long it was skipped.
Our plan for the park was to head to the back first and hit the Half Pipe and Boomerang first as well as Twister II... but as we found out, most of the rides in the back weren't ready for the day yet.

Since it was clear the coasters in the back of the park weren't open yet, we made Tower of Doom our first ride of the day.
<3 Intamin Second-Gen towers <3

After getting off Tower of Doom we saw Boomerang running with guests, we opted to wait a single train to get the front seat.

I was also pretty surprised to see it running. Based off other peoples trips I've seen this Boomerang seems to have lots of downtime and I half expected to miss it.

Nerd Photo #1
The lovely Vekoma Boomerang control panel

The parks Intamin Half Pipe, Half Pipe, had opened after our Boomerang ride, we quickly made our way onto it for fear of massive lines developing on it later in the afternoon.

<3 I'd only ridden the one at the Mall of America before but I really liked it... So I was pretty excited to see the Elitch one operating. It's pretty notorious for massive downtime and even spent a good part of last season closed.

Brain Drain is the parks Larson Ring of Fire.. and unlike the ones built at Six Flags, not marketed as a coaster... Uh, we skipped it
(If I wanted to ride one, I could just wait for the county fair.....)

We kept checking on Twister II... but it still hadn't opened for the day.. So we walked back to the middle area of the park for our other credits...

Making our way over to Sidewinder, where after we climbed the 60 feet of stairs, found out it was also closed. I guess a simple chain at the queue entrance was too much?

From sidewinder we could see the big tent used for Cirque du Soleil's touring shows, Denver was hosting the newest Cirque show 'KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities'
A steam punk themed show.

After going back down the stairs from Sidewinder we hoped on the parks Huss Troika, moved from the original park.

Yeesss! Plush Dino's!

Walking into what looked like a gift shop... we found Ghost Blasters, a Sally shooter dark ride hidden within the shop. How odd.....

The park is also home to the first Chance Aviator, DragonWing (Batwing during SF times)
I would have ridden it... but I needed to ride something next door. (Rob did ride it)

XLR8R, the parks 150 foot Sky Coaster
(needed the Colorado Sky Coaster credit....)
The view from the top of the city was rather nice

Also, what the hell happened here?!
This was the first time I had ever worn my Magic Springs / Crystal Falls shirt.... and somehow it got covered in oil at the park.... ZzZzz
Up next was Mind Eraser.... Something I had been dreading since planning this trip.

The lovely Vekoma SLC is known to be pretty awful... but while most people seem to hate them, having grown up with one I was pretty used to them and knew how to actively ride one with little to no pain....That being said, Elitch's was known to be one of the worst, it not the worst.

In the late 90's there was even a lawsuit over how poor the ride was and it was often closed (Hm, a trend in this park?) To add insult to injury, we ended up waiting nearly an hour for this ride as well. There's not much worse than waiting a long time for a ride you know its just gonna be awful... The things we do for our coaster credits.
(Yeah, it was pretty much the worst SLC I've ridden (of 12?))

Nerd Shot #2
The lovely Vekoma SLC control panel

Rob rode Shipwreck Falls... I... sat back and watched
(and was slightly grossed out by the brown water on the ride)

:(
The queue for Shake Rattle and Roll was still remaining.. although the ride had been removed at the start of this season. It had been a Huss Top Spin that opened 'new' in 95 with the new park.
(the ride itself had been relocated from Germany) 
We saw Twister II was now cycling with riders and made our way into the queue.

In line for the coaster there are a few posters for the old park, including one for Mister Twister, the coaster Twister II is modeled after.

The sign in front of the ride claims that it was "Built wilder the second time around!" although anyone who had ridden the original quickly dismisses it...Since I hadn't ridden it I could only compare it to Twister at Knoebels, another coaster based off the same layout.

After waiting over an hour for it... we got our one and only ride on Twister II, at least it was in the front seat. The ride ended up being much better than I thought. It wasn't say... good... but it was far from bad, it was surprisingly smooth too! I would have liked to have gotten a second ride but there was no way we were gonna wait an hour again.

Its also a very pretty looking coaster. If it just got some basic track work and had the trim removed.. it could be a pretty good ride.

After Twister II we saw Sidewinder had now also opened.. We made our way over to find the queue going about halfway down the stairs. The line for the ride was rather awful because of the stupid kids in front of us talking about how badass they were and how awesome drugs were and crap... Yet when time came for them to ride, 2 of the 4 just crossed the train and went back down without riding and the others who had taken the front row also chickened out leaving us able to grab the front (woo!)
This was my fourth encounter with the Arrow Shuttle Loop (I've ridden all 3 still operating as well as one that's been long removed) Getting on the ride we pretty much assumed the worst... In the end the ride was shockingly smooth! Almost... dare I say... fun? Would have even been worth a reride if not for the queue (and having to climb both up and down 60 feet of stairs, a third time)

Making our way out of the park I quickly rode the 160 foot Sling Shot.
I had gotten the combo ticket when I rode the Sky Coaster and it had been a few years since I had been on one.

Turn of the Century, the parks odd looking Swings... While I waited for the Sling Shot I got to watch an amusing downtime take place on it... The ride wouldn't park and just kinda kept slowing turning with riders just a few feet off the ground and the operator had to keep yelling at riders for trying to jump off. <3

Disaster Canyon opened with the park in 95 and we both wanted to ride it.. but from Sidewinders queue it was clear they were only dispatching boats every few minutes and that the line would have taken forever, ugh.

Nothing says fun rides on a Ferris Wheel like jail-cell cages!
Not to see Elitch is not to see Denver... So, uh, I guess we saw Denver?

The parks beautiful 80 year old Carousel.

Before making out way out of the park to grab some lunch and heading over to Lakeside, we went up the parks semi-infamous Observation Tower.
Shockingly, it was open. During the Six Flags era it was notorious for being closed, always.
(it also tended to make the news for trapping people)

Overview of almost the entire park but half of Island Kingdom.

Downtown Denver as seen from the top of the Observation Tower.

The rest of Island Kingdom Water Park.
(man.. that name brings me back to the Riverside days)

SlideZilla is the parks newest slide. It looked pretty fun
(And I got to ride a near clone of it at Six Flags Over Georgia about a month after seeing this one)

D'oh!
Blazin' Buckaroo, the parks kiddie coaster. The former kiddie coaster had a 'No Adult' rule so I didn't think to even check on its replacement... After leaving the park I found out I could have ridden it... but since Rob had the credit from its old home in Alabama... and I was kinda over being at the park anyways... I didn't really care.

Twister II
It's a very nice looking, coaster.. I just wish it tracked a bit better.

There's my car!

Centennial Park again

The Downtown Aquarium is across the river from the park. If I'm ever back here I'll be sure to check it out.
(Along with the Denver Zoo)

So after leaving the park we stopped at a Subway and got some lunch. I was shocked to find the veggie patty available since even in Orlando sometimes I can't come across them.... After that we made the short 10 minute drive to Lakeside.

Half the fun of Lakeside was just trying to find a place to park in what I would say is the worst amusement park lot I've ever come across!
(Think: massive dirt lot with potholes big enough to swallow entire cars!)

Also... Lakeside has this "strict" no photo policy that is semi famous around the amusement fan community... So at first I was acting all stealthy in my photo taking.. but after a while it seemed pretty clear that none of the employees really cared or that the rule may have been more relaxed... So I just walked around openly taking photos and seeing others do the same... no biggie.... Well, until later in the day I guess... 

Wooooo!
The 107 years old Lakeside Amusement Park!
(the 34th oldest park in the US)

Overview of most of the park from their ARM Drop Tower.

The first coaster we came to was the parks Zamp Dragon Wagon.
The ride has been off and on SBNO and since we saw it open, we quickly got our ride.

Uh, +1?
Even if its a powered coaster.
Walking deeper into the park we were both itching to get on the parks star attraction....

The amazing Lakeside Cyclone, one of just two Vettel coasters still operating.
(The 30th oldest coaster in the world)

And home to some of the most awesome restraints I've come across.
Even on the tightest clip... I had over a foot of slack!

The ride was almost euphoric for me... Just an all around fantastic ride
Not to say its the best or anything.. but its one of the few rides I've been on that's just pure simplistic fun.

The 80 foot curving first drop. The ride is kinda unique for the fact that it starts as a twister and mid ride turns into an out-n-back.
(and it needed to be ridden a bunch!)
But there was still one last ride-able coaster here for us.. So we made our way over to it...

Ah, the Wild Chipmunk, one of just four known Miler Mice
(Only two remain but I had manged to ride all 4 in my travels!)

<3 The best kind of Wild Mouse!

Good turns, strong airtime with minimal restraint, and....

A pretty awesome helix at the end!

I really love the Miler Mice and hope Lakeside keeps theirs going as long as they can
(same for Wonderland)

The parks fourth coaster is tucked away in the back of the Kiddieland area, simply named Kiddie Coaster.

Its strictly kids only and we didn't even try.

UMM.... No thanks, I'll just hold it....

The famous 'Star Ride' Ferris Wheel
Its over 100 years old and has been SBNO since the 80's although even into the early 00's there was talk of the park trying to restore it.

Satellite jets!

(that were bounceable!)
And also missing 2 cars, ha

Mm, and a Rock-O-Plane!
Second one of the trip... and it had to be ridden!
(Rob sat it out, ha, he had made himself sick on the one at Lagoon I think)

Hm, the parks Roll-O-Plane was closed the entire time we were at the park.
(Its also no longer listed on their website.... :( )

Eli Wheel

The park from the other side of Lake Rhoda.

The Train here is pretty awesome and circles the entire lake and the trains themselves were relocated from the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.
Although people in our car kept smoking the entire time.. ugh

Uh? Heart.... Flip?
Kinda like an old school version of the Wisdom Tornado.

Since this was my first time seeing one in person... I squeezed my ass into the tiny car, along with rob.. spinning until we were both pretty GD dizzy. haha

<3 I haaddd to take the Whip for a ride!
(although it was super rough for some reason???)

Uh, overachieving water fountain?

Ooooh no... the Crystal Palace!

Easily the most diabolical Mirror Maze I've come across!

And almost seemingly out of place... the park is home to an Intamin Flying Dutchman?
(Yeesss!)

Visible from the parks awesome Train are the rockets from an old Traver Circle Swing!
Shame they couldn't keep this running.. I've ridden the modern built version at Disney California Adventure as well as the similar classic one at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Zoom, the parks ARM Drop Tower
That was ridden 3 or 4 times <3

A Bunny!!!

Ah.... so after HOURS and hours of walking around the park, taking hundreds of photos...
*This* is the photo that got me in trouble. Suddenly I was told how I was not allowed to take any photos of any Ride, Tree, Building, or Art Deco within the park without a park escort and photo taking permit. (photos of family / self were OK?) I laughed it off and put my camera away... shrugging and saying whatever.

(I'm a rebel)

Apparently the Round-Up is the World's Most Exciting Ride!
It was one of the last things we did before leaving.

Obviously saving a night ride on Cyclone for last.
A true coaster gem and my favorite for the trip.

The park really comes alive at night. Its one of the most beautiful parks at night I've visited and it just kinda sucks the park is crazy about people taking photos to show off what a fantastic place the park is.
It should also be noted at how insanely busy the place got as the sun went down! I'd be willing to say there were more people at Lakeside than we saw at Elitch! Ha.
(Rob HATED Lakeside)
Honestly, I enjoyed the palace and I'm glad there are still a few, very few, parks still like this around. I'd like to see some money get pumped into the park to kinda smooth away the rough edges and fix things up a bit... I'd also love to see them add a few more rides (hopefully classic style... but I wasn't against their drop tower <3) I could understand Rob's dislike of the park and him not 'getting it' the way I do... To me it was like a flashback to Canobie Lake and Whalom of the early 90's that I grew up with in New England.
After our last ride on Cyclone we made our way back to the parking area and headed off to the airport so Rob could catch his red-eye back to New Jersey. 

Annddd.... I dropped off Rob at DEN
From here on out.... #RidinSolo

And before I pass out for the night... a photo of my delightfully tiny hotel room.
(photo taken from the entry door, ha)

The next day would be the start of some of my more random adventuring, bringing me to places I've never been nor places I ever really thought to go....

And... uh.. the Twitter stuff!

Elitch Gardens 1 - Photo

Elitch Gardens 2 - Photo
Sidewinder (via Vine) - Video

Downtown Denver, CO - Photo
Lakeside Cyclone - Photo
Lakeside Cyclone (via Vine) - Video

Woo
(Also, Elitch really wasn't that bad)