It has been a month since our trip to Iowa’s largest amusement park, but here is our complete report of Adventureland!
From the moment you arrive, it is very easy to distinguish that Adventureland can be deemed as a “classic” amusement park. It is also easy to see that the front entrance is eerily similar to the entrance to Disneyland with the train station on the hill.
The main street features a Chance carousel that sets a nice tone for the park entry.
Taking a look back down main street offers a nice view of the Iowa sky.
Adventureland owns approximately 180 acres of family fun, not all of which is solely for the theme park. Regardless it is a small to moderately-sized amusement park.
No matter what we had heard about Adventureland previously, a large part of why we were here was because of the park’s 2016 addition: Monster.
Monster is a Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster that offers 5 inversions across it’s 2500-feet of track. Another extremely unique aspect of the Monster is that the park’s Sky Ride goes right through the center of the attraction!
The line was no more than 20 minutes in the morning and might have hit 30 minutes tops throughout the day.
One of the best things about Monster is the lap-bar restraints. The vehicles feature 2 rows of 4.
A bunch of happy riders plummeting down the 133-foot first drop that offers plenty of airtime, no matter which seat you are in.
You are then thrown through the extremely twisted layout which also offers some absolutely insane hangtime. The apex of the loop is very wide and taken relatively slow, so there is an awesome second or two of hangtime.
The beyond vertical drop of Monster is a great kick-off to its twisted layout.
Did we mention that the Sky Ride offers the best views of Monster? The clearance is insane!
Monster is a really, really good coaster. There is very little not to like as far as ride experience goes and it offers unique elements. It is by far the best attraction at Adventureland.
Tornado was up next, a William Cobb wooden roller coaster that was built in 1978.
I read good things about Tornado, but it was very mediocre.
Not much to comment on. It was relatively smooth, but it did not offer any worth while airtime.
Right next to Tornado is a ride I was surprisingly excited for.
The Dragon is an extremely rare Hopkins looper, which are rather infamous among roller coaster enthusiasts for their awkward looking tracking and transitions (see Texas Tornado).
Believe it or not, we actually enjoyed Dragon! Maybe we just caught it on a good day, but I did not experience anything too rough and it was actually a pretty intense coaster!
Speed hill! Yeah… so this is right before the lift hill. No airtime to note here.
One of the areas in Adventureland is “Outlaw Gulch.” The park’s CCI Wooden Coaster, appropriately named Outlaw, lives in this area of the park.
Outlaw is a decent little coaster. Again, it does not offer any airtime or laterals, but it is enjoyable enough for a ride or two.
Outlaw is a visually appealing coaster, at least. It also offers some nice views of Adventureland’s waterpark, which resides right beside it.
I have seen a few of these attractions, but I have never actually committed to going on one. While we did not take a ride on Saw Mill Splash, it did have a decent looking station. For the record, these are Whitewater Spinning Rapids Rides (had to look that one up).
Sidewinder is a fun thrill ride by Moser Rides.
Working our way back towards the front of the park, you get some nice scenic views of the park.
This area of the park offers a plethora of classic flat rides.
There is rarely a ride in a park that offers better overall views then a ferris wheel.
Adventureland’s A-Train works its way around the perimeter of the left side of the park.
Monster, Storm Chaser, and Space Shot dominate the skyline.
Galleon is your typical pirate ship flat ride.
Just your standard Top Spin, right?
Wrong. Splash Over is a single-row, extremely crazy flat ride. Seriously, this is by far the most intense Top Spin I have ever experienced. Lex and I were hysterical the entire cycle because of how comically insane the ride is.
The train allowed us to get a look at Adventureland’s Inverter attraction. It looks to have seen better days in the past.
Right next to Inverter is Adventureland’s paratrooper flat ride.
Looking to get a few more photos, we hopped on the Sky Ride for some incredible views.
Main Street was quiet, which was probably a side effect of the heat and the fact that the Iowa State Fair was in town.
Watching the Monster run through it’s layout from the Sky Ride is awesome. I wish we had the chance to check out the ride at night!
The twisted mess of vibrant green track is a wonderful sight to see.
Adventureland’s Mondial Windseeker model, Storm Chaser, is the tallest ride in the park at a height of 260 feet.
Storm Chaser did not open until about noon. Once it did, we were on the ride within one or two ride cycles. These are fun rides because they are incredibly tall and offer great views of the flat Iowa landscape.
The final coaster credit we had to get at Adventureland was the Underground.
Dark rides usually excite me (especially roller coasters), but the Underground was laughably bad. The ride meandered from scene to scene and provided an extremely vague story line. I much prefer Fire in the Hole or Black Diamond to this attraction.
At this point, Lex and I were ready to head over to the Iowa State Fair. As we walked back towards the front of the park, we checked out the park’s arcade.
It was here that we noticed Bingo. Obviously we played around since I cannot recall the last time I have seen Bingo at an amusement park!
Here is one last look at the front entrance of Adventureland before we left for dinner and ultimately spent our night at the state fair.
In all, we spent about 6 total hours at the park, which was more then enough time to hit every major attraction. The crowds were minimal, though I have read elsewhere that it is actually more crowded during state fair times! The best way I can describe Adventureland is that it is stuck in a different time period. This is sometimes a good thing (see Knoebels), but in this case, we left relatively uninspired. Outside of Monster, there is nothing about the park that would be bringing us back. I also cannot find a way to justify the $42 admission other then the fact that it applies to both the theme park and water park. If the park continues to make additions like the Monster and updates a few of the outdated attractions, Adventureland will be back on our radar.
For more park information, visit the Adventureland website.
I am a huge travel and roller coaster enthusiast. I have ridden 504 unique coasters across the world and do not plan on stopping anytime soon. I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and am now working with a creative firm in Orlando, Florida. 
