Best of the West: Knott's Berry Farm and Buffalo Bill's Casino Trip Report!

Howdy :}


Time for the Thrillography covered wagon to cross into the sepia splendor that is Knott's Berry Farm once again! Not since 2014 have the wagon wheels of this blog grazed the dusty trails of California's original theme park!

Welcome to Snozzberry Farm!

First ride of the day was actually the amazingly redesigned Ghostrider. I didn't take any pictures of it in the morning, however, so here's a picture of Silver Bullet.

Picture it: the park was so dead that Xcelerator was a walk-on.

In the front seat.

With one-train operation.

I don't know what I like best about this picture: The look on that woman's face, the man holding her boob, or the girl on the left taking a picture of me taking a picture of the ride. 

Xcelerator resides among a peculiar handful of coasters whose operations (virtually) do not benefit from the use of a second train. Because Xcelerator takes off from the station (unlike most other later models), a train behind it can barely unload before the dispatched train has hit the final brakes. 

Other major coasters in this category include Tennessee Tornado (for its exceedingly quick ride experience, 28-passenger trains, and modest popularity), and extraordinarily slow-loading coasters like small stand-up coasters and single station Vekoma and B&M flyers.

Coast Rider makes me giggle. Because of the fun layout and because of the name. Ghostrider.....Coast Rider.....I know I'm not alone in believing that Knott's Berry Farm needs a BREAKFAST-THEMED AREA WITH A ROLLER COASTER CALLED TOAST RIDER, GUYS.***


***IT CAN HAVE PURPLE TRAINS BECAUSE THE TOAST IS COVERED IN BOYSENBERRY JAM, GUYS.

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

Bye.

Hello. :}

Now that Revolution is restored, Monter isn't the only good Schwarzkopf in SoCal anymore.

But it certainly still runs with the best of Schwarzkopf's creations. :}

I often forget that KBF has a Ferris Wheel. The light package is unlike any other Eli Bridge wheel I've seen. 

Sean and I rode on the same side of our Sierra Sidewinder car whilst having empty seats on the other side. It's too bad we weren't hooked up to a turbine generator cuz we probably spun enough to power all of Lower Manhattan for the rest of the foreseeable future.

Speaking of turbines, Montezooma's Revenge is just as popular as any ride in the park today, frequently firing off with the same frequency and ridership as Xcelerator. 

Hopefully local devotion to the little Deutsch munchkin will keep it around for a long time. Cedar Fair's renewed interest in old German rides implies a positive forecast. 

"Please ride me! I am the only Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop in the U.S.A. and the only one in the Western Hemisphere that still operates in its original location!"

Hopefully the care given to other older Knott's rides, such as the Timber Mountain Log Ride and the Calico Mine Ride, is also a optimistic indication of Montezooma's future.

You know it's a slow day when Knott's runs the unique but low capacity Galloping Goose instead of their usual locomotive.

Go ahead and add Pony Express to that list of coasters that can't really function all that well with a 2nd train. Who woulda thought that Montezooma's Revenge would be setting a precedent for one-train operation on the park's launched coasters.

This gargoyle fountain is one of the only noticeable traces of Knott's Scary Farm during the day.

A closer look at the Galloping Goose. Looks like some kind of hillbilly welder's dreamchild. 

Calico is still a great old dark ride! Knott's other dark ride, Voyage to the Iron Reef, was down all day. Next time!

Sean likes banner-sized shots. Here you go, Sean.

Classic Knotts. B}

Things may have started out quiet at Knott's this morning, but crowds have really picked up now.

Loggin'

Well it's been 4 hours and we have done everything numerous times. Time to call it a day. :}

I love this mural but it makes me wish I hadn't missed out on some of these cool old rides!

Took some Ghostrider pics as we were leaving.

They aren't good but they're what I got. #dealwithit ;}

Fast-forward to a few days later: Sean and I are after some night rides on the amazing legacy Arrow Dynamics hyper coaster, Desperado!

We made it!

I'm so excited I could pee.

Here comes our chariot!

Desperado is so good. It's hella aggressive with its crazy layout and classic Arrow transitions but nothing short of addictive. 

Desperado is as amazing as Buffalo Bill's Casino is bizarre and decrepit.

Like, I've been around the block a few times, but a carpeted log flume station will never not be one of the most outlandish things I've ever seen. 

Another excellent Arrow installation, Buffalo Bill's log flume threads the large rock that occupies Desperado's helix. 

After a satisfying drop, there's still about 80% of the ride left...

...which consists of a tame but remarkable drift through the casino.

Buffalo Bill's, Whiskey Pete's, and Primm Valley opened on the Nevada / California state border in 1994, just a half hour outside of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. The little flotilla of casino resorts in the unincorporated region of Primm (referred to simply as "State Line" until 1996) were highly ambitious and seemingly poised for world domination. 

Unfortunately, having the world's tallest roller coaster wrapped around 3 intricate, neo-Vegas quality resorts was not enough to draw people away from Vegas in the long run. The Primm Valley Resorts were initailly successful, but that success has long since dwindled.

Evidence of attempts at creating amusement buzz for the resort serve as reminders of what might've been; laser targets are left abandoned on scenery from when the log flume was briefly converted into a shooting dark ride. Just to the right of Desperado's entrance is still the threshold to the original prototype S&S Turbo Drop, which ran some time between the mid-90s and early 2000s.

"Alex you are over-analyzing the situation. Just sit back and enjoy the damn log ride."

Still, the resort has fared better than many other mid-90s attempts at making the Las Vegas region more family-friendly and amusement-oriented (MGM Grand Adventures, Speed: The Ride, and the original Wet 'n' Wild to name a few).

For 22 years now the Primm Valley resorts have managed to hold on, but holding on is all they seem to be capable of doing. Everything in the casinos is lost in a time warp because there's no money to update things. For better or for worse, the resorts' distinct 90s-ness is incidentally well preserved.

Desperado is such a remarkable ride. It's hard to believe that this once world-record-breaking coaster leads such meagre existence. Its siblings at Cedar Point and Blackpool Pleasure Beach enjoy a tremendous amount of ridership to this day, while Buffalo Bill's can only afford to run Desperado on weekends.

This ride would be a star attraction at any amusement park in the world, but here it can't fill a train on a Saturday night. 

What I'm saying is come to Vegas and enjoy The Strip but also go to Primm Valley and ride this epic, historic coaster. Just be sure to call ahead first to make sure the ride isn't down due to high winds. ;}

Still another reminder of the resort's struggle is the monorail, which was intended to connect all three casinos but was never completed (the connection between Buffalo Bill's and Whiskey Pete's was apparently abandoned shortly after the resort opened). Primm Valley Casino provided monorail service between Buffalo and Whisky, but at some point the Whisky - Primm line was shut down, and now the whole thing is dormant as of last year. Somewhere along the way, faux railroad ties were attached to various segments of abandoned monorail track and are visible from Desperado and the log flume.

I remember when this resort opened; it was featured on one of the many roller coaster videotapes that I would watch religiously. The resort had attracted a lot of attention at the time, due largely to Desperado. Alas, what was once an oasis is now a ghost town. 

This was a magical (if eerie) night on one of the southwest's best roller coasters, but now it's time for this tumbleweed to tumble back on over to Vegas.

Happy trails, lonesome cowboy.

Thrillography's wild western adventures have only just begun! Next time we'll enjoy a sampling of some of SoCal's various oddball credits, followed by Part 2 of seasonal merriment at Disneyland!

Until next time, pard'ner. ;}