Sunday 9 October 2016

Glenwood Caverns

Located along Highway 70, the road we'd pretty much be stuck to today Glenwood Caverns is a park that has been atop this mountain since the 1800s starting out as a cavern tour but becoming more of an amusement park in 2003. 


Entrance to the park lies at a cable car station at the foot of the mountain. You can't miss it if you're driving here.

A shot of one of the other cars halfway up the ascent.


Beneath us we could see the Alpine Coaster which looked great, and not braked like the one we'd done earlier.


The park has a western theme, which given the part of the country we were in was apt. Are there any parks themed to native americans only? or is it easier to accept if they use cowboy stuff. Something to think about never. 

OMG, It's a bear!



So we started the park with the Alpine coaster and we were pleased that as suspected when viewing it from the cable car, that it ran unrestricted. In fact we were so pleased we rode it more than once, which isn't the norm for North American alpines. I suspect this is because this was the first to be built in the US when the country was a little more naive about how these things run.

(Photo is Tal's)

To get the group shot Tal spun a yarn to win the ride operators over. It was in bad taste and the other 3 of us weren't on his side when he mentioned it. Still we got the photo. 
Bad Tal, bad! :)


The second coaster was the kiddy one called the Wild West Express. A rather excellent ride operator made sure we acted like the kids as we rode having to cheer and wave etc. Good fun! Tal, wanting the a nice photo of the coaster snuck around the back of the portaloos. The lengths he'll go to for the perfect photo :)

They have another Screaming Eagle up here, and it's pretty good! Anything up a mountain that offers a view is automatically going to be much better than stuff that runs at ground-level.


I chose to have a drink here and went for this Mike's Harder stuff. At 5% it's quite strong but at altitude it's more potent and I was a bit giggly after just the one drink. Ha!

They have a spelunking simulator which was just too narrow for us, despite our best attempts.


The main reason for coming here wasn't for the coasters but for this swing attraction which also makes use of the height. The park have put the ride on the edge of the mountain overlooking a huge drop down to the river below.

I chose to sit with my back facing towards the edge figuring it would show the drop a lot more if I looked down, which I did. If you were facing the edge you'd only see the sky as you swung over it. The height is ridiculous but the ride isn't as scary as I suspected it might be.

This was an attempt at doing a vertical pano to show the drop and the ride. It's not perfect but you get the ideal.


There is one more rollercoaster and this one is right at the top of the mountain. Called Cliffhanger this ride is one I'd done before at it's previous location in Celebration City in Missouri, a park that closed a few years ago. The ride was ok.

and that was Glenwood, although we didn't do the cave tour. It's a great stop and nice place to spend a few hours. The rides are good and the park benefits from excellent staff who clearly like working up the mountain. 

Today's coaster of the day was the Alpine


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