Six Flags - Magic Mountain

After cooking ourselves in Death Valley we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel during our visit to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA just outside Los Angeles. We spent two half days at the park and one full day, open to close.

Six Flags Magic Mountain has the world record for number of roller coasters in one park with a total of 19! This does not include other thrill rides but does include the less fun, kiddie coasters. Of the 19 coasters in the park we went on 15 of them. The other 4 were in the "kid zone" which we steered clear of. One of the great things about this park is that almost all the coasters are different styles from each other.

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, CA

It was pretty clear which was our favorite. Twisted Colossus is the world's longest hybrid coaster. That's a wooden frame with a steel track. This is an updated coaster, the original, Colossus, was a straight up wooden coaster and thrilled park guests for 36 years before the update. It starts you out with a 116 feet 80 degree drop which is terrifying as you can't see the track as you start at the top of the hill. There are 18 "air-time" hills and over 5000 feet of track. The ride is now 4 minutes long with several inversions including a zero G roll (the track twists 360 degrees). The "Top Gun Stall" is an inversion that slows down the car while upside down allowing the guests to view the train they're racing below them giving the appearance of being able to "high five" the other train. All this on a WOODEN COASTER! We rode this coaster well over 10 times. Luckily with 3 cars always running the line moves fast. We even waited to sit in the front most of the time. Totally worth it.

The layout of Twisted Colossus and some of the amazing points during the ride. Six Flags Magic Mountain

Facts and Stats on the Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain. 

Riddler's Revenge is a stand-up coaster boasting the longest, highest and fastest stand-up in the world topping out at 65 miles an hour with a pair of corkscrews to whip you through at 4.2 G's.

Tried to get a picture of the stand-up seats on Riddler's Revenge. This gives you a bit of an idea. Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA

Tatsu, which which is close to the top of favorites for me, is a flying coaster. Once you're strapped in the seats raise so you're parallel with the floor giving the elusion of flying. The twists and turns don't stop and the horseshoe will blow your mind! Unfortunately both times we did this ride the photo system was down so you can't see our amazing faces.

Here you can see Tatsu riders facing down taking on the horseshoe portion of the ride. That part was CRAZY!
You can also see the track for the New Revolution here as well. and the loop for Full Throttle in the background.

Viper tops out at 70 miles an hour and with 7 loops, tight ones too!!, you won't know which way is up afterwards. Right next to Viper is X2. This coaster is insane, or ordinary coasters the train stays in line with the track... not so on X2. I've never been on one like this before. First off you're facing backwards, but, your seats rotate 360 degrees. Oh, and there's a freaking amazing soundtrack that plays next to your head as you make your way through some intense face first drops, inversions and a pair of "raven turns" (which is a half loop that changes it's mind and becomes a sheer drop) all the while zooming around at over 75 miles an hour literally flipping all over the place!

One of the insanely tight loops on Viper. You can just see the beginning of the track for X2 on the left. Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA

Full Throttle was a blast. I definitely would have done this a few more times if the lines weren't as long. Full Throttle is (currently) the fastest and tallest looping coaster in the world. You're go from 0 to 70 in a matter of seconds thanks to some awesome magnet technology and take on a 160 foot loop, the tallest in the world. It's pretty intense as the train slows to an almost stop nearing the top of the loop. You'll then zoom through a few more twists and turns before entering a tunnel coming to a complete stop. This was a COMPLETE surprise for me as it then chucks you in reverse and sends you careening backwards up the inversion you just took on mere moments ago. As gravity gets the better of the train it'll send you once more going forwards through the tunnel and hold on!! The tunnel propels you forwards again at 70 miles to make it up and OVER the 160 loop you did in the beginning. Unreal and totally amazing!

Here is it! The tallest, fastest loop in the world. Full Throttle, Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA

Green Lantern will mess you up! This is another coaster with seats that rotate 360 degrees. It's called a vertical track and honestly by the end of it I had no idea which way was up. They say that no two rides are the same which I believe. We were places in a car with two tiny girls sitting back to back with us so with our weight we spent most of the ride upside down.

Because this picture needed to happen. Obviously.
Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA

Probably the most noticeable ride in the park is actually two in one. SUPERMAN: Escape From Krypton will send you from 0 to 100 miles an hour in 7 seconds. Backwards. it will hurl you 114 feet in the air on over 1,300 feet of track only to have you pause at the top and come speeding straight down towards the earth with the sound of a jet plane. It's awesome.  On the rides vertical section you'll also find LEX LUTHOR: Drop of Doom. I did not like this ride. It's the anticipation of the drop at the top and they keep you waiting for far too long. The 415 foot drop was easily the longest 90 seconds of my life and I'll never do it again. Geoff loved it. I think there's something wrong with him. Plummeting to the earth at 85 miles an hour from 415 feet up was a bit much for me apparently.

And this... is SUPERMAN: Escape from Krypton along with the LEX LUTHOR: Drop of Doom. Two rides on one structure. Six Flags Magic Mountain, CA

I won't go over every single ride we went on or this post will be forever long. But I will tell you about their newest ride which is actually an old ride re-invented. The New Revolution is a virtual reality coaster so you wear a VR viewer while strapped into the coaster bringing a whole new feeling to a movie or video game. Now... this i the parks newest ride and as such it has acquired some long ass lines. The first time we stood in line it was over an hour and the ride broke down... I said all the bad words. The second time (on our last day) we stood in line for over 2 and a half hours!!! ugh. Unfortunately it was the only ride left on our list to do and it was our last day so we stood there and it really made the ride not worth it. We chatted with others in line and ate dinner while standing there but it was just WAY too long. The ride itself is pretty cool but a bit of back story would have been nice as you had a mission to complete and we had no idea what we were doing. As you twist and turn and loop around the track, inside your viewer you're taking on an alien invasion and need to shoot down the enemy. Neat, but it only lasted a little over a minute and we were jaded after waiting for so long. Many other Six Flags parks have VR Coasters now opening as well... not sure we'll waste our time with those if the lines are more than 30 mins long.

It's been a blasty blast Six Flags Magic Mountain! From here you can see: Scream, SUPERMAN: Escape from Krypton, Goliath and Twisted Colossus. SO MANY COASTERS!!

We finished off our time at Six Flags with another run on Tatsu before heading to the van for a 24 hour drive home to Seattle. Geoff had a class to attend and since we weren't really that far away it was just easier to head home together. We took turns driving and napping and arrived home exhausted. It was nice to be home and re-organize things, take out some of what we didn't need and get a few replacement parts for some things we've broken along the way (poor solar shower... totally ran over it...). We met up with some friends for dinner, always awesome to see you Kris, Mo, Ashli and Joe!!

We're finishing up at home and are now headed for Utah. We'll spend some time in the Southwest before heading to Texas and then Alabama to visit with my dad, Mike, and Elise. That's the next le of our trip and we're excited to get back on the road.

Till next time - Fair winds my friends!

Marsha (Geoff too)