Colorado Adventure
Specific Type: Mine Train
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Phantasialand in Germany is filled full of roller coasters from the Vekoma Manufacturing company. Today, I want to share with you the story of a little slice of America right in the middle of a European park. When Phantasialand was looking for a new steel coaster in the late 1990s, they decided to go with Vekoma once again and the design and construction began. The park wasn’t sure what they wanted to theme the coaster at the beginning, but after weeks of thought, intuition of creating a western theme to the coaster was established. The park named the coaster Colorado Adventure after the great American state that was so famous for the Wild West time period. The coaster became a themed mine ride style coaster that opened to the public on May 11, 1996. The opening was special as Michael Jackson was on hand to dedicate the coaster.
The coaster trains are unique in that the first car of the train is designed as a locomotive and offers 2 seats inside the locomotive for guests. The rest of the car is a normal 3 row 6 person mine car style. The train also has 4 trains that can be used on the coaster at the same time which is also a rare occurrence in the coaster world. Over the course of the ride’s history, there have been numerous changes to the coaster because of noise complaints of local residents. There have been numerous tunnel additions and the noisy Smokey Mountain was removed for a future children’s ride. The coaster travels over 4,199 feet of track at speeds of up to 31 mph. The coaster reaches a height of 85 feet and is a very long coaster ride at almost 3 minutes. Many coaster enthusiasts believe this is one of the best mine trains in the world. Come along with us now as we give you a virtual ride on Colorado Adventure. As guests enter the ride area, you become astounded at the theming and scenery of the queue area and the wonderful wood station. As you snake your way to the front, the train pulls up and you step inside. You pull down the classic restraint and off you go on the journey. As you leave the station, the train veers to the left and hits the lift hill. At the top of the small lift hill, the train drops into a small bunny hill and into the first covered tunnel. The train takes a sharp left turn as the locomotive steams into a full rock tunnel and directly underneath the station. The train continues to veer in and out from underneath the station and through tunnels. At the exit of the underneath section, the train goes into an intense helix down to the left. The train exits and you see a lagoon to the right. The second lift hill takes you up a few feet and then into a complete dark tunnel. Inside the tunnel you go around and up and down in complete darkness and then exit under the station once again sustaining a gentle speed. The ride comes to a third lift hill that takes the train to its highest point. The train drops and banks left on a stone wall and helixes all the way around and into yet another tunnel. The train then crosses over a bunny air time hill, banks to the right and heads for the final brake run. |
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