Knoebels Amusement Park - 9/1/2023
Shawn, Brian and I drove this morning from Pittsburgh to Elysburg, Pennsylvania to visit Knoebels. This
beautiful park is located in a wooded valley in east-central Pennsylvania within the heart of the Susquehanna River
Valley. Knoebels Amusement Resort is a family-owned and operated amusement park, picnic grove, and
campground.
The experience is very user friendly, with no fee for parking, no admission price. And no security
screenings. Rides are pay per ride or guests can purchase a ride all day wristband. We all chose the
latter option.
We were directed to our parking space in the large grass parking lot and simply walked into the park. Another
thing that we noticed right away was the fact that it appeared that a vast portion of park employees were older, and
possibly even retirees. I didn't think that we would be running into many park employees that were college
students, like you would at a Cedar Fair or Six Flags park.
The park was full of trees. With the rides and trees, all nestled together very closely. The first
ride of our day was Paratrooper. We then got on Tea Cups, Gasoline Alley, Tornado and Giant Wheel. One
of the unique features of Gasoline Alley, an antique car race, is that it travels inside the support structure of the
wooden coaster, Phoenix.
For lunch each of us had a potato cake. A crispy grease sponge. I was not impressed.
Up next was Bumper Cars. This old school ride is considered to be the best bumper car ride in America
today. These cars can pack a real wallop. The ride operator should really be commended. He took
the time to explain steering instructions to the inexperienced drivers. Even stopping the ride twice to help
one aimless youngster. All of the ride-ops did an excellent job throughout the day.
Next up was Old Smokey, a 1960 coal fired locomotive from Crown Metal Products pulls 1946 passenger cars along a
16 inch gauge track. I have never seen an engine this small that burns coal.
We rounded out our collection of flat rides with S&G Carousel, Super Round-Up, Flyer, and finally Pioneer
Train.
Knoebels is also very well known for its small, yet impressive collection of roller coasters and throughout the
day we rode the four largest. Our first coster was Flying Turns.
This wooden bobsled roller coaster is modeled after similar rides designed by John Norman Bartlett and John Miller
in the 1920s and 1930s. The layout of the ride is most similar to the one that was opened in 1933 at the
Chicago World's Fair and then moved the next year to Riverview Park in Chicago where it operated until that park's
closure in 1967. Knoebels' staff built their version from 2006 to 2008 and it finally opened to the public in
October 2013. This coaster now stands proud as the world's only wooden bobsled roller coaster. This most
unique coaster packs more of a punch than you might first expect.
Another unusual aspect of this coaster is that each car has a maximum weight limit of 400 lbs. Before
boarding the train the guests entering each car are weighed. Although no numbers are displayed, there are red
and green lights to indicate if the riders exceed the limit.
The second roller coaster of the day was Twister.
The inspiration for this coaster is Mister Twister at Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado. That coaster opened
in 1965 and operated until 1994 when that park was relocated and the roller coaster was left abandoned. Knoebels
considered relocating the original Mister Twister but, due to space constraints, built a new version of their own
design adapted by John Fetterman from John Allen's original plans of the Mr. Twister, which they simply called
Twister. This new coaster opened in July 1999. This is the park's tallest coaster and features fast
swooping curves, a large swoop curve at the top of the lift hill, and a large double helix which wraps around the
ride's curved station. To keep the swoop curve in the new design, Knoebels staff designer John Fetterman,
created a split lift hill. To achieve this, the train climbs halfway up the structure on one lift hill, makes
a 180-degree zig-zag turn and finishes the climb on the second lift, stacked directly above the first one. While
several roller coasters use more than one lift hill in their layout, Twister's zig-zag lift is unique. This is
a great coaster, but my aching back didn’t allow me to enjoy the ride as much as I should have. I think I'll
need to come back and visit the park again someday.
There was only one steel coaster on our agenda today and that was the looping coaster, Impulse.
The park opened this coaster from ride manufacturer Zierer in 2015. Its four inversions include a cobra
roll, loop and an in-line twist. This smooth twisting coaster also features a vertical chain lift hill, a
90 degree first drop and a 540 degree helix.
Our final roller coaster of the day was the world famous Phoenix.
Rising from the ashes of Rocket at Joyland Park in San Antonio, Texas, the restored roller coaster Phoenix was reborn
at Knoebels. In its original location, Rocket operated from 1947 until Joyland's closure in 1980. At its
opening, the Rocket was claimed to be "the largest roller coaster in the world," with 3,200 feet of track and a
78-foot first hill. Knoebels purchased the ride in 1984 and dismantled it starting in January 1985. As
there were no blueprints to work with, each individual board was numbered and cataloged on site. Since opening
at Knoebels in 1985, Phoenix has consistently been ranked as one of the top wooden coasters. Winner of Golden
Ticket Awards in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, never falling below 10th place and has not fallen below 5th place since
1999. One feature that helps the ride get so much love from the coaster enthusiast community, is there's only
a buzz bar and no seatbelts. The double out and back layout offers up lots of airtime. It is by far the
best coaster in the park.
As I mentioned before, our final ride of the day was aboard Pioneer Train. We were in line just past 7:00,
so there was less than an hour remaining til the park closing at 8:00. Although most of the lines throughout
the day were usually short, the line for the train was a bit longer. They were running two trains and as I
stood in line, I noticed that the ride ops were moving a third train onto the main line and into service. Wow,
I can't imagine any other park doing this with less than an hour to go before closing. This is another example
of just how well the park and the ride operators treat the park guests so well.
By 7:20 we were walking out the main gate and headed to our hotel in Danville. This has really been a great
day at Knoebels and well worth the drive off of the usual beaten path to visit this unique park. I imagine
someday I'll return to get more laps on Twister and Phoenix and enjoy some of the attractions we missed on today's
trip such as, Black Diamond, Haunted Mansion and try to capture the brass ring on the Grand Carousel. It was a
fun filled day with Brian and Shawn.
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