Although the Disney extravaganza had seen it’s final day, I still had one more classic amusement park to visit before I could color this trip completed. Although I had been to the Knott’s Berry Farm Halloween event known as Knott’s Scary Farm last October, I had never really gotten to enjoy a ‘traditional’ visit to the park. Since they were now owned by Cedar Fair, this once low-key tourist destination had blossomed into a full-fledged amusement park. In other words, there had been some huge roller coasters added, which blended in rather oddly with some of the classic attractions. No matter, I liked both styles of rides for what they were, and enjoyed my experience there to the hilt.
Jimmy and I got a bit of a late start on Sunday morning, April 22, 2012, which consequently put us about ten minutes late in arriving at Mrs. Knott’s for breakfast just outside of the park. David was already there, as was my good friend Stacey. It was becoming a tradition for us to meet up in the Buena Park or Anaheim area during my visits. Since our first attempted plans to meet at the Magic Castle the day before had been nixed, she decided to just catch up for breakfast, before us three guys went into the park. We had some major, major laughs (“kind of a bigshot”), and I had the fried chicken, eggs, and hash browns to eat.
It’s always great to meet up with Stacey
After lots of food and lots of laughs
Stacey took off, taking along a batch of toilet paper that was attached to her shoe, and Jimmy, David, and I entered the park just before 11am. We started out in the Ghost Town section on the roller coaster known as GhostRider, the one that actually looms right by the restaurant. This ride has the distinction of being the longest wooden roller coaster on the west coast, and from all indications, one of the shakiest. David and I rode it alone, because Jimmy began to experience some back pains that nearly made him collapse like the Tin Man while were in line. This would put a bit of a damper on his riding activities for the day.
With the boys at Knotts
As we started our ascent up the first hill, I snapped a self-photo of David and myself and just then the coaster stopped moving. After a couple of minutes, one of the workers came walking up the stairs, stopped at our car, and told me that because they had seen my pull out a camera, the ride couldn’t resume unless I gave it to them. Feeling like a scolded schoolboy, I complied, and then got my camera after the ride without further incident. This put a damper on my picture taking ability that day.
The photo that stopped our train in its tracks
Our next ride was the Pony Express, a unique coaster that had us mount miniature horses so that it gives the feeling of some high-speed horseback riding. Although it only reaches a top speed of 38mph and lasts under a minute, the vulnerable feeling of our positioning makes it actually quite thrilling. Jimmy agreed, and said this one actually made his back feel better.
The Bird Cage Theatre is a replica of an old west theatre built in Tombstone, Arizona. Steve Martin used to perform in this one at Knott’s. There were no shows playing this day.
Getting ready to mount a surly steed on wheels
Next up was a show called Mystery Lodge that utilized the famous Pepper’s Ghost phenomenon that is used in Disney’s Haunted Mansion ballroom. It teetered on the border of being quite cool and quite cheesy, but overall it was fun and even though I completely understand the concept of the illusion, I had trouble seeing exactly how it was done.
Random stop to pick up some floozies
The Calico Mine Ride was one of the early classics that opened in 1960. And it’s got that 60’s feel to it, and fortunately that’s meant in a nice way. Riders actually sit in an ore boxcar guided by a live engineer/tour guide and maneuver through a mining excavation site complete with some early rudimentary animatronics. This one brings home the flavor of the classic Knott’s Berry Farm.
On the Calico Mine train. That’s our engineer guy.
The Timber Mountain Log Ride isn’t quite as old at the mine ride, but it dates back to 1969. I rode this one when it was decorated for Halloween, and thought it was pretty amazing. This one blows the lid off of the version at Kings Island. We ended up getting moderately wet.
Our last ride before we departed Ghost Town was the Silver Bullet roller coaster. This one was an inverted coaster (again, the longest on the west coast) with six loops which incidentally can be seen prominently at the beginning of the film Knocked Up. David and I did this one on our own.
It was around 1:30 when we headed into Camp Snoopy (which a slightly different name than its Kings Island counterpart). We all three rode the Sierra Sidewinder, but this would be Jimmy’s last ride. This one has the distinction of being the first ever coaster to feature multiple free spinning cars on a train, rather than several individual spinning cars. Whatever that’s worth, it was pretty thrilling for a ‘kids ride.’We then took a snack break at Lucy’s Lunchbox, but I only had a glass of the Knott’s specialty: Boysenberry Punch. It was delightful.
David has sign envy
Snoopy and three peanuts
We then moved into the Fiesta Village, where David and I lined up for Montezooma’s Revenge. This was yet another thrilling coaster and is the only flywheel-launched coaster currently operating in the United States. That fascinating fact aside, it was your typical forward loop, up a hill, then back down backwards, and up another hill coaster. I liked it.
The Supreme Scream is a ride similar to Drop Tower at Kings Island. At the time that it opened in 1998, it was the record-holder for the tallest turbo drop ride in the world, but was eventually surpassed by several others including Drop Tower. Unique to this one though is that it actually has three towers arranged in triangular fashion… and it bounces you back up for a second fall. I’m getting better and better at dealing with these free fall rides.
Ready to tackle this thing
Prepared to head upward
After dropping downward
I had been eyeballing the amazing Xclelerator since my October visit. Looking at it from afar is pretty darn thrilling, but actually riding it is nothing short of amazing. Here are the stats: 1) It acclerates from 0-83mph in 2.3 seconds. 2) It climbs 205 feet at a 90-degree angle. 3) It descends 200 feet at a 90-degree angle. This was incredible. Even more incredible was that I found out later that this ride only laid the groundwork for even larger, faster rides – one of them being at Ohio’s Cedar Point. Their version is twice as high – TWICE! – and hits 120mph. My hands are sweating just thinking about it.
Such a crazy thing. After we rode it, we stopped to watch the tracks sway in the wind.
After Xcelerator, nothing was going to seem quite as thrilling, but we gave Boomerang a chance. This one was fun, and was virutally identical to Invertigo at Kings Island – only it didn’t have an inverted track.
It was 4:30 by that point and we had hit all of the major coaster. David wanted to ride GhostRider one more time, because apparently he didn’t have his brain scrambled quite enough the first time. Thankfully, the second ride-thru seemed slightly smoother than the first.
Our final stop of the day was to eat food. We chose the nearby Ghost Town BBQ Grill. Since I had had chicken with breakfast, I opted for a simple burger and fries… along with a boysenberry punch float. It was practically perfect.
After a hard day at Knott’s Berry Farm, the boysenberry float really hit the spot. Incidentally, the spot is also called a love handle.
We left Knotts Berry Farm about 6pm. We might have stayed a little later but Jimmy and I had one last event to attend for the weekend. We said our goodbye to David and then headed toward Venice. Venice, California, that is.
The California weekend will conclude in the next posting…
A nice picture of the roller-coaster worker in mid-scold would have been hilarious!
Dave Chasteen
June 28th, 2012
Wonder why they care if you took a picture. Did they think you were pulling out a gun or something?
Bev
June 28th, 2012
I think they see it as a safety issue. The camera could potentially fly out of my hand on the ride and hit someone in the Adam’s Apple.
Brad
June 29th, 2012
I thought you took a pic of me and my trailing “WAD”,hahaha! Can’t wait to see you guys again in August! Woot Woot!!!
Stacey Soleil
June 30th, 2012