Chris Coasts Again 2025 YTD, Colorado TR, what’s next? Colorado Days 1 & 2

[Chris Coasters]

Hi everyone… been a minute. I’ve done some stuff this year. I’m planning to gloss over my trips from May before going into a more detailed report from my recent trip to Colorado and then start my pre trip report for my final trip of the year at the end of the month. Not sure how much I will post at once or how long it will take to post it all but here we go. Buckle up.


After 4 unexplainable years without riding a coaster I said enough is enough and booked an impromptu trip to Florida less than a week away. My last trip there was in 2019 so a lot has opened and changed. It started with a horribly rainy day at Seaworld Orlando waiting out rain storms to pick up the 4 coasters I needed (Penguin Trek, Icebreaker, Super Grover, and Pipeline).

I managed to get everything and just as I had done back in 2019 I had extra time and when I have extra time in Florida I buy a ticket to a Disney park. In 2019 I had done this twice to go to Animal Kingdom for the first time and get my 300th coaster on Expedition Everest. Then again a few days later to go to Hollywood Studios and face my childhood fear of Rock N Roller Coaster. This time it was Epcot a park I hadn’t visited since 2005 when I was in 4th grade. Typically when I go to a park it’s all about the new coasters but if Disney is involved it’s not a typically cred run. I was excited to get Cosmic Rewind but if told you that was my main reason for going to Epcot I would be lying. Trying Beverly for the first time, smelling the burning smell in Spaceship Earth, and of course journeying into imagination with my old buddy Figment these were the reasons why I was at Epcot and it was truly what I was hoping to get out of this trip pure happiness is what I refer to it as. A moment in which you’re so content if the world came crashing down around you it’s all good. I was beyond thrilled to be back not only in Florida or at Disney but in my happy place traveling, seeing the world and escaping the norm.

I managed to get on every ride that day except The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and every ride was simply fantastic from old favorites like Spaceship Earth, Gran Fiesta Tour and Journey into Imagination with Figment to new rides like Frozen Ratatouille and Cosmic Rewind it was really a perfect day I did it all including using a trash can as a table.

The following day I would head down to Tampa stopping at Peppa Pig Theme Park to ride Daddy Pig’s Roller Coaster. Once a credit whore always a credit whore. When I showed up at the front gate by myself, the lady who scanned my ticket seemed absolutely appalled that I was there without a child, but I digress. Daddy Pig’s Coaster was actually pretty cool as it takes you through Peppa’s house in the queue to Daddy Pig’s car where you have to avoid road work to go somewhere and then end up right back where you started it was pretty unique and I liked how it told a story.

I then headed down to Tampa to go to the Lowry Park Zoo to try to pick up the Tasmanian Tiger credit however because it had rained earlier in the day, zoo staff informed me that the coaster wouldn’t be able to operate until the track dried off. Ultimately the coaster stayed closed the remainder of the day.

Luckily not that far away is lovely Busch Gardens Tampa Bay with three new coasters opening since I was there last and one spite I had four coasters waiting for me in Phoenix Rising, Iron Gwazi, Sheikra and Tigris. I got all four without any problem except for getting stuck in the station for about 10 to 15 minutes on Phoenix Rising and having to get off and go back in line once it was good to go.

After Busch, I headed back to the Orlando Kissimmee area to get the only coaster I was missing at the Fun Spot parks Hurricane. That part of the park was an absolute ghost town with only two employees operating five rides and only a couple other people in the area I basically had the place to myself.

I found myself at Disney Springs shopping and eating at T-Rex before calling it a night. Whenever I go to Florida I always plan for the last day to be at Universal and this trip was no exception. Unfortunately I was there a week before Epic Universe opened. I started out at Islands of Adventure, picking up the two coasters that I needed Hagrid’s and VelociCoaster. Of course I still need Pteranadon Flyers and probably will forever. Islands also has a bunch of undefined coasters on coaster count which I don’t actually count towards my main count but still like to check the boxes off so I rode one side of the Seuss Trolley because the other one wasn’t running and Dudley Do Rights Rip Saw Falls. After those I had lunch at Mythos and headed over to to Universal Studios Florida. It was a true do whatever you want feel as there were no credits to be gotten so it was all about enjoying the park riding Revenge of the Mummy, Men in Black, Minions, Trollercoaster, Escape from Gringotts and a whole lot of ET. ET Adventure is easily my favorite dark ride. I could sit on it all day and not get off just admiring everything about it. Just so good thank you Steven Spielberg. I also met YouTuber World of Micah. I basically rode ET until the park closed, made my way over to Cowfish for dinner and wrapped up my Florida trip. Little did I know just three days later I would be back on a plane off on another journey.

While I was in the parking lot at Peppa Pig Theme Park I got a text from my dad telling me that my grandfather who lives in Mississippi passed away. His three nieces (whom I’ve never met) and brother were going to be holding a celebration of his life the following Tuesday. I didn’t think I would be able to go, but because my work schedule at the time was just on the weekend. I ended up flying back home from Florida on Thursday working Friday, Saturday Sunday, and then flying down to Memphis Monday and coming home on Friday to go back to work on the following Saturday. Originally I had planned an epic road trip while I was there flying home out of Cincinnati after visiting Kings Island and picking up what seemed like 1000 SBF spinners all across middle America, but once I got down to our Mississippi farm instinctually I felt like I had to stay so I rearranged everything to fly back out of Memphis on the Friday to spend time with family sneaking away one day four hours up to Kentucky to go to my first ever Buc-ee’s and to ride the coasters of Beech Bend. I even managed to get a second spinner at City Forum in Clarksville, Tennessee on top of the one at Beech Bend. Beech Bend was a pretty nice park and the surrounding area was really pretty. I was a huge fan of Kentucky Rumbler riding it a handful of times front, back, and middle it was solid all around.

I fueled up at Buc-ee’s got some BBQ, blue soda and a shirt and made my way back down to the farm. But not without getting another cred first.

Upon returning home it was work work work until the first week of August where every year my work shuts down for a week. My girlfriend Lindsey and I had been throwing back and fourth some ideas on where to go but ultimately planned a trip to Colorado for mountains, coasters and mountain coasters.

This first chunk of the trip report lacked a lot of detail and opinions but that was the intent to just kind of gloss over my year so far. For this next part as this just happened and is fresh I will be going into greater detail in part 2 my Colorado trip as well as continue on with my final trip plans for the year.

All photos are my own taken by me on my phone.

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[Chris Coasters]

Colorado Coasting Day 1 & 2

First day in Colorado started with getting our Jeep. I specifically told Lindsey as we passed a Jeep on the way to the airport that we were not getting a jeep because I was doing all the driving and didn’t want to drive a jeep. Upon arrival out of our 12 options for a rental car more than half were jeeps so she convinced me and I ultimately really loved driving her which we ended up naming Mountain Mama. We took her to get creds, climbed up mountains and went through Dutch Bros way too many times. Lindsey and I are still missing her today. So if you go to the Denver airport and rent with Hertz try and find her license plate EEC I70 and I only know because we had to pay for parking everywhere we went and had to put in the license plate every time.

Don’t mind the glasses they are Lindsey’s but the sun was a killer. I had to buy some of my own at one point.

Day one started out at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, Colorado which was a fun time. I got to hold a tarantula and spent a good amount of time sitting enjoying the butterflies and trying to get good pictures of them.

After there we went into Denver to go to Meow Wolf. I have been wanting to visit a Meow Wolf since I first saw one of my favorite YouTubers The Carpetbagger go to one. After visiting I still can’t describe or explain what Meow Wolf is really but it’s glorious and trippy and hours of just being like “what Is going on?”, “where do we go?”, and “did we see everything?”. I would recommend it to everyone.

After Meow Wolf we picked up some Panda Express and went over to Lakeside Amusement Park. I was very excited to go to Lakeside as it is a goal of mine to visit all of the amusement parks featured in the old PBS special Great Old Amusement Parks. The special featured places like Belmont Park, Lake Compounce and Idlewild among others was Lakeside where they showed off how beautiful the park was especially at nighttime. So I was excited to pay the park a visit. I soon found out Lakeside was not how it once looked over 25 years ago when the documentary came out. We went up to the front gate and picked up our tickets for the 2 coasters Wild Chipmunk and Coaster. Coaster was where we started a 5 time relocated Pinfari. The ride is what you’d expect a bit bumpy a little fun but overall nothing crazy. The restraints had me feeling like your favorite nascar driver with chunky seat belt like over the shoulders with multiple cross body clips to make sure you’re safe. I was not a fan as it felt more like I was going skydiving then on a coaster. My girlfriend liked them as anything to make her feel safer on a ride the better.

After Coaster we went to find Wild Chipmunk. This was on the opposite end of the park so I was able to see the true state of affairs. Abandoned buildings, closed food stands being used for storage, and standing but not operating rides including a powered dragon coaster and the ACE landmark wooden coaster Cyclone. In a world dominated by steel coasters a wooden one is a breath of fresh air regardless of how good or bad it is so it hurt my soul to see this wooden coaster just sitting untouched. Who knows if this will reopen at some point but for now it sits abandoned.

Eventually we got to Wild Chipmunk and Lindsey and I decided to ride in the same car together which led to the most horrible coaster ride of my life. She was in front of me and basically was crushing my legs. My ankles were bent and when she leaned back she was crushing my chest. I don’t advise riding this with anybody especially another adult regardless of size. A young kid and an adult maybe but a teenager and up ride alone for your sake. My girlfriend felt bad because she felt like she ruined the experience for me so I decided to ride again solo which led to maybe the second most horrible coaster ride of my life. From my head hitting the back of the bobsled to my ribs and arms smacking into the side I left with a couple bruises for sure. The pictures may look like I’m enjoying myself but trust me I was holding on for dear life. I think at least a seatbelt would help with some of this but I was getting thrown over all over the place. I’m happy to get the coaster for nostalgia and its legacy but that’s about it.

After the Wild Chipmunk it was time for me to figure out the kiddie cred situation. I try to do some research typically but sometimes what you see online and in person vary so I just decided to see if I could ride solo. This is a first for me in the realm of kiddie creds. I have been rejected for being too tall, weighing too much and not having a child with me but never for being too old. I asked a ride operator and he said I was the second person to ask that today and they enforce a 12 years and younger policy. Was not gonna get around that one…so we left with a spite at our first park. Not a good start but that put a ribbon on a day 1.

Day 2 started out on the most beautiful drive of our lives from Denver to Glenwood Springs to visit Glenwood Caverns. With a number of mountain coasters along that drive I picked Copper Mountain for the Rocky Mountain Coaster to stop along the way.

This may be my new favorite mountain coaster as it was long and I didn’t have to deal with some slowpoke in front of me like I had to on another coaster on this trip. Very fun ride long lift hill which led to a long plummet down the hillside and a very fun ride. Was about $30 a person so one of the more expensive mountain coasters although some of the others I looked at in the area were actually more expensive. We got back in the car and our drive to Glenwood went by so fast as we were enamored with our surroundings with a highlight of the drive being a bald eagle flying directly over the jeep. Eventually we got into Glenwood and began our gondola ride to the top of the mountain. I didn’t really know what to expect with Glenwood but was hoping for something better than Lakeside the day before. First ride of the day was the one you can see as soon as you get into town, Defiance.

I was really hoping for a killer view but you’re only on the top of the lift hill for a second before the ride starts and ends. It was a very fast ride and even them running one train the wait was not that bad. Eurofighters don’t really blow me away and I kind of feel the same about all the ones I’ve been on short, zippy and a little bit of roughness but overall not too bad and easily the best coaster I rode on the trip (excluding mountain coasters). Next up was the kiddie cred Wild West Express which was solid. My favorite kiddie creds are Zierers and E&F Milers so I knew it would be a solid one.

After that we waited in our longest line of the trip about 30 minutes for the alpine coaster. It had one nice view and an interesting layout as the ride ended with a lifthill but I guess if you’re on the top of a mountain you can’t really start out by going up can you. It was fine +1. We decided to head up to the top to ride Cliffhanger but we stopped at the swings first which were amazing. The view from the swings was the best you will get and dangling over the canyon was so beautiful, an absolute must do. We continued up to ride Cliffhanger. Despite it needing a paint job really bad I enjoyed it. My girlfriend did too so we rode it twice. I especially liked the little overbanked drop thing I don’t know the technical name for. Coaster design lingo was never my strong suit.

We started to make our way down the mountain doing the two cave tours. I highly recommend both cave tours especially if you get Jimbo as your tour guide. Jimbo was a nice older gentleman with lots of knowledge about the caves with humor and the catchphrase “here’s the ding dang deal” Jimbo was great. He also called people there names based on what was written on your shirt. I was wearing a Legoland shirt and he kept calling me Legoland. So if you go don’t wear an inappropriate shirt or Jimbo may end up calling you something you don’t wanna be called. I took a drop on the Crystal Tower drop ride which was great and sat through a quick show at the 4D theater before heading back down the mountain to Mountain Mama.

The fairy cave tour brings you to this great view called “exclamation point”.

We got some local Asian food and made our way back to the hotel and that’s where day 2 comes to an end.

 

[Chris Coasters]

Day 3

At some point on the trip I knew I’d have some solo time as my girlfriend had to spend some time in our hotel room doing some school work for her radiology program so I would have some time to get creds. So we got up and had breakfast and I headed over for my first visit to Elitch Gardens. I was excited driving into Denver and seeing it right in the middle of the city amongst where the Broncos play and the aquarium. The unique location was not enough to keep my excitement and energy high as soon as I walked up to the main entrance I was hit with the “the following rides are closed today sign “.

Knowing you got a spite before walking into the park is brutal but at least it was only one coaster unfortunately that coaster wasn’t an SLC or a boomerang but the park and Colorado’s only operating wooden coaster Twister Storm Chaser III.

I knew I was only gonna be riding everything once and leaving to get back to Lindsey and she finished as I was leaving the park so the timing was great. I decided to start things off on a positive note and go for Blazin Buckaroo the kiddie coaster. Solid as a rock, now let’s go get hurt.

My original plan was to ride Sidewinder next however, when I got there, it was closed so the coaster gods said you need to go ride a Vekoma so I did. I started out with Boomerang and it was exactly as you would expect a Vekoma boomerang.

Next step was Half Pipe, which other than a little bit of roughness in between the two sides of the pipe it was not too shabby. I was a little worried about feeling nauseous from spinning as I feel as though spinning messes with my head a lot as I’ve gotten older, so I’m not the biggest fan of things that’s spin but we do what we have to do.

Sidewinder was running now so it’s time to go over there for that and whoever came up with the design to climb up six flights of stairs and then stand on a platform with no cover in the blazing sun, I hate you. Even if this ride was good the style of roller coaster leaves no reride ability because you’re not gonna want to climb up the stairs over and over again. I was excited to ride it as it was a new style coaster that I’ve never been on but as a ride, it’s just whatever.

At this point I was sick of going back-and-forth on a coaster doing the same thing in reverse so I went over to the Meow Wolf ride Kaleidoscape. It was a little confusing because the guns didn’t really seem like they were doing anything and there’s no way to track points so I didn’t really know what I was doing, but the ride itself was pretty good and very Meow Wolf so I enjoyed it and it didn’t hurt me which was a plus.

I did think the next ride, however would hurt me, Mind Eraser. My first experience with an SLC was at Six Flags New England with the same name and paint job as this one. I think I was able to handle this one pretty well when you ride enough of them, you kinda can predict what’s coming and you can adjust your body and move with it so it didn’t rattle me too bad.

With all the coasters ridden and with no sign of Twister opening it was time to head out and enjoy the rest of the day pain-free or so I thought. I left the park with an ice cream as a reward for the pain i just suffered. Don’t get me wrong. I like the look of Elitch, the entrance makes you feel like you’re on a pier in California and it has a cute Main Street USA type vibe. However, the coaster selection is not good as most of you probably know. I picked up Lindsey and headed over to the Wild Animal Sanctuary. It’s about a 3 mile walk on raised walkways, surrounded by lions, tigers, bears, (oh my) wolves, and foxes among others. I think on a cooler day it would’ve been a much more pleasurable experience, but my neck was very badly sunburned by the end of it and it was incredibly incredibly hot 99° and the walkways were made of metal so if you stood in a place too long you could feel the heat coming through your shoes. Overall the place does a lot of good work and they have a couple other sanctuaries located in Colorado but make sure you go on a day that’s cooler because you’re not gonna enjoy it and the animals are gonna be tired and not want to be very active as most of the animals we saw were sleeping After the sanctuary we were both pretty over it so we went back to the hotel showered went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory where we ate way too much and called it a day.

I would include pictures from the sanctuary here but I didn’t take any because most of the animals were so far away nothing would have come out well so here’s a picture of my cat instead.

Day 4 started out with a trip to the Pearl Street mall in Boulder to walk around and look at the shops. Lindsey got some stuff for her family, and I took a picture of this bear named Truffles, outside of the Rocky Mountain chocolate shop. He was exactly how I felt after getting sunburnt in 99° weather a day prior, Truffles is a mood just accept it. This day we really didn’t know what we were going to do so I figured if you don’t really know what to do you go ride roller coasters so we headed up to Estes Park a cute little town right near an entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park and home to the Stanley Hotel from The Shining miniseries and the inspiration for Stephen King to write the book.

There is a mountain coaster and an SBF spinner in Estes Park and I intended on riding both of them. We started at the Mustang Mountain coaster, which is the main reason why they need to allow bigger space between riders as my ride was ruined by slow riders. The guy in front of me and his daughter specifically told the ride operator we’re going to go slow so you might wanna give this guy a little more space and they did but it didn’t matter because boy did I catch up to him quick and it was just a very slow ride riding the brakes down the track. This coaster isn’t even really that high up on a mountain or anything so you don’t even get any good views so overall Mustang Mountain Coaster not the best even if I would’ve gone faster still not as good as Rocky Mountain Coaster or the one at Glenwood Caverns but I’ll take another +1.

Not that much longer later I was on Gold Rush at Fun City for the last cred on the trip and a little foreshadowing of what was waiting back for me at home.

We drove down to Dick’s Rock Shop and some other stores before grabbing some Indian food and seeing these Deer just roaming around casually.

The following day we would be back in the area visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park driving Mountain Mama up the side of the mountain in one of the scariest drives of my life before rushing back for our reservation at Casa Bonita. I think the ride from Denver to Glenwood was just so nice the national park felt a bit underwhelming. I feel like if we started at the national park we would’ve enjoyed it more but I’m still glad we got to see it.

CASA BONITA

I booked this reservation before our flights and hotel. So if you want to go book in advance as they do not take walk ups. I went into it just knowing the South Park episode and that it was remodeled after the pandemic by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I was absolutely blown away walking into it for the first time. It felt like being in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot. There was live music, the beautiful pool for the cliff divers and so much amazing detail. We sat down and ate our meal. Lindsey got tacos and I got enchiladas and the food was pretty good especially the margarita. The overall experience was $40 per person plus the two margaritas and a gratuity included in the purchase so the experience came to around $130 for just the two of us. After dinner we walked around saw the puppet show, walked through Black Barts Cave, looked at the museum, shopped and got soaked when a cliff diver did a cannonball instead of the usual dive routine. Overall there’s a reason they call it the Disneyland of Mexican restaurants. It’s overpriced it’s well themed and majestic and that’s why you go. Definitely recommend despite the cost and I would 100% go again if I was in the area and it was a great way to end the trip.

The next day we had an all day travel day said goodbye to Mountain Mama got our last Dutch bros and flew from Denver to Chicago had a 3 hour layover then on to Providence.

Our trip was over but I still had a coaster to get back at home.

Before heading to Denver I was looking around on coaster count at the nearby option and noticed a new coaster 40ish miles away from me in Hanover, MA. It was at a place called Starland Sportsplex and Fun Park. It was your typical fun center with mini golf and arcade and some small rides including you guessed it and SBF spinner. +1 as of my writing of this report this is my most recent coaster #436.

Thank you all for reading. Im happy to be back on CF and hopefully without any big breaks again. This year so far has really helped me rekindle my love of traveling and seeing the country one coaster at a time. Roller coasters are a part of me I’ll always hold close as it’s helped me go places I never thought I would go, overcome fears and has allowed me to see some truly wonderful things and I can’t wait to see where I coast off to next. Well I guess I know but I’ll share some details soon. Thanks everyone!


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