We previously discussed the best roller coasters in Florida, proving that the state had a strong argument for the title of Unofficial Roller Coaster Capital of the United States. Today, we’ll evaluate the other primary contender, California.
Home to the world’s first theme park, Disneyland, California’s roots pre-date the industry. Walter Knott and his wife, Cordelia, built a berry farm in the area and then increased tourism with a ghost town. An amusement park arose from there, one that is still open to the public today. The joint presence of Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm gives the West Coast a strong claim to the roller coaster throne, but which Golden State attractions stand out? Here are the eight best roller coasters in California.
8. Xcelerator – Knott’s Berry Farm
Pronounce the name the way that it’s spelled, and you’ll have a strong idea about the core concept of Xcelerator. This attraction is a steel launched roller coaster akin to Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. Xcelerator was actually the first of its kind, even as Top Thrill Dragster got more hype over time. The Knott’s Berry Farm ride is longer and better, though.
Whereas Top Thrill Dragster basically launches you straight up and then the ride ends, XCelerator is a full-fledged roller coaster that starts with a bang. When the ride begins, you’ll go from zero to 82 miles per hour in roughly 2.3 seconds. Imagine that for a moment. You’re at a complete standstill but then you’re going over the speed limit only two seconds later! That’s why it’s called Xcelerator, and the ride delivers on its promise.
The roller coaster sends you 20 stories into the air and then drops you at a 90-degree angle afterward. You won’t have any time to catch your breath during the first 15 seconds of this impeccable thrill ride. The only reason this attraction isn’t ranked higher is its duration: Like Nic Cage, Xcelerator is gone in 60 seconds.
7. Tatsu – Six Flags Magic Mountain
Six Flags Magic Mountain is going to have a strong presence on this list. Its third best roller coaster is still one of the seven best in the Golden State. That goes a long way in explaining why any self-respecting theme park tourist should have a visit to this park on their bucket list.
Tatsu is a flying roller coaster, which means that you sit upright like in a recliner with your back parallel to the track. Since the introduction of Tatsu, many other flying roller coasters have been built, yet this one remains the tallest and fastest of its type in the world. It even has two other claims: the only zero-gravity roll for a flying coaster and the highest pretzel loop for one. It’s an engineering marvel that has stood the test of time. And fittingly, Tatsu translates as Flying Beast, which is precisely what it is.
6. GhostRider – Knott’s Berry Farm
One of the strengths of Knott’s Berry Farm is its theming. Living in the shadow of Disneyland, the park seems like the imitator. In reality, the Ghost Town section of the farm debuted in the 1930s (!), more than two decades prior to Disneyland.
Half a century later, GhostRider arrived at Ghost Town. It immediately became the longest wooden coaster in California, with a massive 4,533 feet of track. With such size and a top speed of 56 miles per hour, this ride lasts more than two and a half minutes. And to highlight the theming of a runaway mine cart, the colors represent the various metals found within. They are copper, silver, and gold, and Knott’s Berry Farm updates the look and style every few years to keep the theming fresh. The look reinforces the sensation that you’re on a rickety cart that could fall apart at any second as you zoom into the unknown.
5. The Joker – Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Vallejo, California tends to get lost in the shuffle a bit as a theme park destination. That may change in future years, as their 2016 addition, The Joker, is a true game-changer. Formerly a wooden track coaster known as Roar, this attraction completely changed its structure. It’s now a steel coaster hybrid. Park planners simply placed steel tracks on top of the existing wooden backbone.
The combination of steel and wood has become quite popular in recent years, and it’s the underlying architecture for two of the top five coasters in California right now. The hybrid ride experience isn’t quite as pure as standard steel coasters, and that’s a good thing. The ride is a bit rougher, fitting for something named after Batman’s greatest foe.
The second iteration of the attraction does include a slightly different track layout. It’s a taller structure with a steeper drop, giving The Joker an extra speed boost. It still “only” reaches a top speed of 53 miles per hour, but the erratic nature of the ride makes it feel faster.
Give Six Flags Discovery Kingdom credit. They re-imagined a stale coaster as something different and fairly original. Roar was just okay, but The Joker is one of the five best coasters in the state.
4. X2 – Six Flags Magic Mountain
Quick, name all the dimensions you know! There’s length, width, and depth, right? Well, according to the ride designers at Arrow Enterprises and Magic Mountain, you’re missing one. They claim that X2 is the world’s first 4D roller coaster, and even if you question their physics, you must admire their ambition.
The coaster cart for X2 is such a spectacle that it awes anyone who sees it in action. Per Magic Mountain logic, 4D is when each rider rotates differently, independent of the other people connected. X2 operates like a flying roller coaster, but it adds that additional element of extra spin for the individual coaster sections.
In simplest terms, X2 has two sets of rails. The outer group carries all the weight of the coaster carts. The inner group of rails rotates the carts on their own axes, creating a unique secondary spin in addition to the regular coaster trajectory. X2 offers a ride within a ride. This type of motion isn’t for everyone, as it’s like a mini-Mad Tea Party contained within a regular roller coaster ride.
X2 is legitimately one of the ultimate thrill rides; it’s also not for everybody. In terms of engineering marvels, it is the greatest achievement on this list. Graded solely as a roller coaster, it falls a bit behind the top three simply due to its intensity.
3. Gold Striker – California’s Great America
Most of the great rides on this list are either steel roller coasters or the one combo of steel and wood. In terms of best wooden roller coaster in California, there’s a clear winner. Gold Striker debuted in California’s Great America in 2013, and it had a strong selling point. The start of this ride includes a 174-foot tunnel that disorients riders with its immediacy.
Like GhostRider, Gold Striker has an Old West theme. When park planners think of wood, their minds tend to wander to the gold rush era, I guess. Anyway, it’s a similar ride to GhostRider in terms of length and speed. Gold Striker reaches a top speed of 54 miles per hour and has a duration of 2:30. The reason why Gold Striker ranks so much higher is its track layout. It offers several bunny hops and a surprise 80-degree turn. It also offers several glorious views of the rest of California’s Great America, one of the prettiest parks on the West Coast.
2. California Screamin’ – Disney California Adventure
When Disney Imagineers strategized about their second Disneyland gate, they took stock of what the world’s first theme park had but also what it lacked. The consensus opinion was that as great as Space Mountain was, it went 30 miles per hour. It was also an indoors coaster.
The theme of Disney California Adventure was self-evident. It would celebrate the massive Golden State, and it needed attractions that weren’t confined indoors. That’s how California Screamin’ came into being as the first outdoor roller coaster at Disneyland Resort.
Imagineers weren’t about to mess up this rare opportunity, either. They constructed a steel roller coaster capable of going 55 miles per hour, almost double Space Mountain. They also added a couple of genius tricks, ones I’ve previously recounted in Behind the Ride. The best of them is the decision to construct a giant loop in the middle of the park. Originally a Mickey Mouse face and later a Paradise Pier sign, it is the only inversion at Disneyland and a true wienie. That’s Disney’s Imagineering term for an architectural design that draws attention to the park.
Disney doesn’t do a lot of pure adrenaline rides – California Screamin’ is arguably the only one in either park – but they built what was the best roller coaster in California for 14 years. That’s when the current number one arrived and claimed the throne.
1. Twisted Colossus – Six Flags Magic Mountain
In the roller coaster industry, everything old can become new again. Park planners simply have to commit to positive change. Like The Joker, Twisted Colossus was originally a different coaster, a wooden one simply named Colossus. It debuted in 1978 and quickly became one of the favorite roller coasters in the United States.
In 2014, Six Flags Magic Mountain closed one of its most beloved attractions, some 36 years after its arrival. While theme park tourists fretted over the loss of a true classic, park planners quietly planned for a Colossus for a new generation.
This version would keep the wooden structure but add steel tracks. Colossus V2.0 wouldn’t retain the dual coaster design of the original. Instead, it would join those individual tracks into a single massive track almost exactly 5,000 feet in length. The joining actually enabled a split design. The first half of the ride is the blue portion, while the back half is the green portion. In a clever throwback, the two sections allow for occasional meetings of ride carts, creating a brief period of racing, just as was true of Colossus.
Make no mistake, though. Twisted Colossus isn’t a retrofit of an archaic design. It’s not just modern but even forward-thinking. The listed height of Twisted Colossus is only 121 feet, yet its 80-degree plummet is so dramatic that it registers as 128 feet down. You’ll do two inversions along the way, speeding through the double-track at 57 miles per hour. Best of all, the journey takes a whopping 3:40 to complete. That’s the beauty of turning two coaster tracks into one. The ride seems to last forever.
Twisted Colossus is a series of bold, inventive ideas with a sum somehow greater than the parts. It is currently the apex predator of California roller coasters. But if I had to pick, I’d still say that Florida has a better, deeper roster of roller coasters.
