Silverwood, Puyallup State Fair, & Wild Waves

[johnjniehaus]

I made a friend during the ACE Spring Con at KI who lives in Seattle so I decided to travel out to see him and to go to the amusement parks in Washington State and of course Silverwood. One of our other ACE friends flew out as well so we had a grand group of 3. On the first day we did a half day at Wild Waves and then went to the State Fair for the remainder of the day. The second day we drove 5 hours to Silverwood and spent the entire day at that park finishing up at the indoor raptors reef water park at the Triple Play Resort. 

Wild Waves: I really had bad expectations about this park as I'd never heard much about it and my friend who lives in Seattle had never actually been to it despite it being his home park. When we arrived, we immediately went to the back of the park to try to snag the Klondike Gold Rusher wild mouse credit but it was not scheduled to open until after lunch. So our first ride was the Kiddy Coaster. Very enjoyable powered children's ride. We then did the Ferris wheel which is the common Eli Bridge model found at most amusement parks. Next we headed up the hill past an abandoned wheel of fortune trabaunt to their wooden rollercoaster Timberhawk Ride of Prey which is a rare S&S wooden coaster. I was definitely expecting it to be a rough ride but surprisingly it ran very smoothly and had some punchy laterals and a minor pop of two of airtime. Next we hit their Zamperla disko which was one of the more intense ones I've ridden. Up next was their Arrow Looper which features a vertical loop and two corkscrews. Despite it being a very short ride, the paint job looked really cool and it rode very smooth for an aging arrow coaster. We then decided to walk around a gift shop where we bought shirts that were on sale for $8 instead of the regular $20 (it was the final operating weekend for the park and I think they wanted to clear the inventory). We then went back up to the Klondike Gold Rusher which was now running and had a rather long line. We waited it out and enjoyed the laterals on the nearly trim-less ride. The final ride we rode was Timberaxe which is a very unique flat ride in the park as it swings back and forth and flips you upside down at the top. Honestly, it was probably the best ride in the park. After we were finished my friend upgraded his ticket to a season pass as he was surprised by how much he enjoyed the wooden coaster and Timberaxe (besides he doesn't have anywhere else to go to ride a couple coasters after work). 

Puyallup State Fair: So my friend's husband got us free admission to the state fair through his work so thankfully we didn't have to pay for admission. We also snagged a street parking spot and avoided the expensive fair parking. We kinda screwed up and bought single tickets to start out because we thought the lines would be so long that we wouldn't get our money's worth out of an unlimited ride wristband. However, we quickly realized that we'd messed up so we did purchase wristbands after our first batch of tickets disappeared almost instantly! I ended up dropping $65 on the wristband and $15 on tickets for a grand total of $80. The Puyallup Fair is definitely not cheap. Anyway, we managed to ride 4 rollercoasters including the wacky mouse kiddy coaster which was my first wacky worm clone. We also did the Zamperla spinning wild mouse which was one of the most boring rides I've ever been on due to the excessive trims. The Schwarzkopf wildcat was a rare credit I didn't have as I never rode the one at CP despite it being there when I was a kid. I definitely enjoyed the laterals and zippy drops on the wildcat and was surprised by how tall and large the ride actually was. They seem much smaller in the pictures. Finally I got a front row and back row ride on the Classic Coaster which delivers the best airtime of any coaster other than the Pheonix at Knoebels. Classic Coaster was amazing in the back row and I hit the lap bar so many times. We made sure to ride the Skyride which was a von roll relocated from the Seattle world's fair. It still has the smaller round 2 person buckets like the KI skyride had and not the squarish 4 person buckets used by CP, BGW, and SFGAv. As for the flats, they had a very good lineup. We rode two dark rides (haunted house and ghost pirates), the zipper (which I got 20 flips on), Tilt-a-Whirl, a huss Enterprise (getting harder to find these days), the starship 2000, a super orbiter, the tornado, giant slide, and an extremely rare Hexentanz (one of only two left in the world). They also had many flats we didn't ride such as multiple falling stars, kamikaze, scrambler , wave Swinger, swinging ship, s&s Drop Tower, and so many others. The fair also had quite a collection of food items including dole whip and these wonderful raspberry scones. 

Silverwood: after a 5 hour drive we arrived at the park and immediately knocked out the two children's coasters (Tiny Toot and Krazy Koaster). We then hit the Big Eli Ferris Wheel which.was larger than any of the other ones I've seen having 16 seats instead of 12. We then rode the arrow dynamics log flume which was surrounded by beautiful trees. Stunt Pilot was the first major coaster and while it was not as good as Jersey Devil it was a solid #2 in the park for me. Both my friends ranked it as their #1 in the park. Fun, whippy, and good inversions there was nothing not to like about stunt Pilot which we rode 3x during the day. Up next was Timber Terror which is an out and back CCI with some RMC experimental track woven in. It ran very smooth and was a very solid classic experience. We then rode Tremors! which became my favorite coaster in the park for its unpredictable layout, 4 tunnels, and combination of strong airtime and crazy lateral turns. It ran great due to the RMC track dispersed through the layout. It was everything I want out of a CCI and it easily ranks in my top 10 Woodies. After lunch, we rode Aftershock which I'd carefully planned to be my 300th rollercoaster credit. We rode once in the middle and then also in the front row and the front inside seats are definitely smoother than the outside seats towards the back. My friends both thought the ride was too rough/intense. I enjoyed Aftershock and thought if one can forgive an occasional head banging moment, it was a very good, intense ride. Spin Cycle was next wish was not my personal favorite. I felt like the spin was too fast for the speed of the swing and I just didn't feel very well after riding. Maybe I shouldn't have done two rides on Aftershock and then spin Cycle after lunch or maybe I was dehydrated. Regardless I took some time to sit in the shade before we got a second ride on tremors! and made our way over towards thunder canyon. Thunder Canyon was a big surprise was I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a really fun river rapids ride with some surprisingly good drops and rapids sections. It also had a decently long tunnel near the end which was a wonderful element. Up next was Corkscrew which I thought ran a bit rough but it's a wonderful piece of history (being the first modern looping coaster) and is nestled into the perfect spot in the park. We then rode the Tilt-a-Whirl and got some of the huckleberry ice cream. Silverwood has insanely cheap ice cream. Their "four scoops" is the equivalent to about 12 scoops and it only cost $8. After finishing the ice cream we rode the train which had actors and train robbers along the route. It also went through some good terrain in the back of the park. Our final ride of the day was on the carousel which was nothing special but is always a classic attraction. We then hit the gift shop before heading to our hotel (Triple Play Resort)for the evening. 

[johnjniehaus]

Wild Waves Photos 

[johnjniehaus]

Puyallup State Fair Photos 

[johnjniehaus]

Silverwood Photos