During our Columbus Day weekend trip to the Adirondacks to enjoy the foliage, Lex and I stopped in at The Great Escape:
For Columbus Day weekend, Lex and I and a group of friends rented out a house in the Lake George Area to get our fix of the Adirondack fall foliage. The focus of this trip was definitely more geared towards the local hiking, but Lex and I still carved out a few hours to spend at Six Flags Great Escape. I think the key terms to notice in the park title is “Six Flags”. Unfortunately, even though this is by no means a typical Six Flags park, it still suffers from the lack of theme and identity that pretty much all Six Flags parks do… and don’t even get me started about the operations.
We happened to come during Fright Fest, and although that means big crowds at most other Six Flags parks, I feel like Great Escape never really gets too packed.
The park entrance is relatively quaint with a thin walkway with shops on either side. Our first ride happens to be right at the very front of the park.
What an uncanny resemblance. Sasquatch is Great Escape’s S&S Drop Tower that was relocated from Six Flags New Orleans in 2008 after Hurricane Katrina.
The 19-story tall attraction finally reopened in May of 2009 under the name Sasquatch.
Sasquatch adds some much needed height to the Great Escape’s skyline. It is the tallest attraction at the park by far.
Turning the corner, you notice the park’s Vekoma Boomerang, cleverly named Boomerang: Coast to Coaster. If you have been on one, you have pretty much been on them all, but Lex needed the credit so we suffered through it’s grueling 90-second ride cycle after about a 10-minute wait.
The 3 inversions that you are sent through both forward and backwards.
I am pretty indifferent about the color scheme this Boomerang features, but it’s not like that makes a difference of how it rides anyway.
For a brief second, you may think you are in Orlando (but not really). This is actually a brief reminder of the history that the park has to offer. Originally opened in 1954 by Charles Wood, Storytown USA featured a theme that pertained to nursery rhymes and Mother Goose. Eventually the Great Escape was bought out by Premier Parks in 1996, which later changed their company name to Six Flags.
The park does offer a relatively nice kids section if you are traveling with young ones. Lex and I had to stop in to see if their were credits to be had.
Indeed there was! Oh boy look at that monster.
Frankie’s Mine Train had the worst thing a coaster weirdo can ever see… a height restriction. Maybe sometime down the line I will be able to get all of these credits.
Screamin’ Eagles, a classic Flying Scooters ride, came to the Great Escape in 2013. It seemed to be a crowd favorite since the queue was almost always full which probably entails a 15 to 20-minute wait.
I was a huge fan of how these flyer’s looked. The eagle decals look awesome if I may say so myself.
Blizzard is an Indoor Scrambler, which are rides I always tend to enjoy. Unfortunately we decided to skip over Blizzard due to time constraints. To anyone who has been on it, is there a cool light/audio package inside?
Combo shot of Flying Trapeze, Boomerang, and Sasquatch. Lex waited a while for Flying Trapeze to start…uh…flying, but this is a Six Flags park so fast operations aren’t something you should ever expect.
Alpine Boblsed has quite the history. Built originally in 1984 as “Saravejo Bobsled” at Six Flags Great Adventure, the ride was eventually moved four years later to Six Flags Great America and opened as “Rolling Thunder” in 1989.
After six years of operation at Six Flags Great America, it was dismantled and left in the parking lot outside for a year before it was finally relocated to the Great Escape in 1998.
Alpine Bobsled stands at a not-so-imposing 64-feet tall but the uniqueness of the ride makes up for it. Can you believe that there are only 3 Intamin AG Swiss Bob Model’s left in the world?
Out of all the locations Alpine Bobsled has been, I think the foliage of the Adirondacks fits it best. The trees have grown in nicely around the ride in the years it has been here.
I’ve always been fascinated by Bobsled coasters because they are definitely really tough to engineer. Every single aspect of the ride must be calculated perfectly.
Alpine Bobsled, although unique, is a rather dull ride. The capacity of this ride is not the best so this could easily be the longest wait of your day at the park. We waited about 20 minutes.
This entertained Lexie and I way more than it should have. I applaud the efforts to get into Fright Fest mode.
The back of the park features the park’s newest ride - Extreme Supernova.
Unfortunately it wasn’t open while we were at the park, but we did get to see it cycle a few times. The ride could not be less imposing, but I still would have loved to ride it.
Lucky for us, the back of the park also features the best roller coaster in the park - Comet.
Comet is an ACE Roller Coaster because it originally was opened in 1948 at Crystal Beach in Ontario. If you’re an enthusiast, then you know that one of the most infamous roller coasters every devised was the Crystal Beach Cyclone, which closed in 1946. Two years later, Comet was constructed using a lot of the Cyclone’s old structure.
Once Crystal Beach went under in 1989, Comet sat dormant for half of a decade. It wasn’t until 1994 when Comet would see it’s first riders in America at Great Escape.
Comet is an incredible ride. It’s not the tallest or fastest, but it packs a lot into a relatively small footprint.
How many hills can you count in this picture? Seven? It is just airhill after airhill.
The Comet looks incredible with the scenic backdrop. It makes Comet’s 95-foot lift look that much more dooming.
Lex and I braved Comet 3 or 4 times with a 5-minute wait at most. It truly is a masterpiece. It is extremely difficult to find a ride as old as Comet that can still ride as well as it does - the only other wooden coaster that comes to mind is Phoenix at Knoebels. It’s definitely not glass smooth, but that is not what you should be expecting on a ride like this. Comet packs a punch and it is easily the best roller coaster at the Great Escape.
The latticework on old hybrid coasters are always something I find to be a work of art.
Comet taking one of the last of it’s many air hills.
As we continued to meander through the park, we finally reach Canyon Blaster, an Arrow Mine Train coaster.
Call me a sucker, but I am a huge fan of this ride since there is actually some attempt at a theme… at a Six Flags park… this is a very rare occurrence. Well done Great Escape.
Even though we all know this is just an Arrow Mine Train, doesn’t it look THAT much better because of the foliage and this random cabin or am I just crazy?
Canyon Blaster, much like the rest of the coasters at the park, has had two previous homes before coming to the Great Escape: Opryland USA and Old Indiana Fun-n-Water Park.
The main part of the ride is the final helix, as seen here. This is where Canyon Blaster hits it’s max speed of 45 mph. The ride itself is fun, but not much more than that. It is a little bit more thrilling than your typical Arrow Mine Train so it is worth the 10-minute wait.
Look at the beautifully placed horse and broken mining cart. I think Six Flags is really starting to get this whole “theming” concept.
Directly next to Canyon Blaster is the old building that used to house Nightmare at Crack Axle Canyon, which was an Indoor Schwarzkopf Jet Star Model. It closed in 2008, but the building is still being used for Fright Fest attractions. I never got the chance to ride this on previous visits to Great Escape.
The Fright Fest fog was in full swing in this part of the park, so the park’s log flume, Desperado Plunge, looked intimidating. It was about 60-degrees on the day we visited so this ride was not operating.
Oh we are definitely in Orlando now.
The Great Escape has a HUSS Condor flat ride that was unfortunately not operating during our visit. It’s a shame because these are fun rides.
Great Escape also has a generic Arrow Looper, Steamin’ Demon.
It features the very typical “lift, turn, drop, loop, turn, double corkscrew, turn, brakes” layout.
Arrow coasters love posing for corkscrew pictures, Steamin’ Demon is no exception.
Look at that beautiful set of gears.
As you can see, there was not much of a wait for Steamin’ Demon. Lex and I walked on to the front row at one point in the day.
If only these corkscrews rode as good as they look.
A shot of Sasquatch before we head back to the cabin, just for good measure.
One last picture that Lex insisted we take. Posing for pictures while a random person takes your picture is just brutal, isn’t it?
Overall, Lex and I had fun during our quick little trip to the Great Escape. Would I pay regular admission price of $56? Absolutely not. No matter how you cut it, this is still a Six Flags park. The operations are poor, the theme is lackluster, and even the coasters are weak besides Comet. The one thing that Great Escape has that most other Six Flags parks don’t possess is charm, which is evident by the continuous reminders of the park’s history as Storytown USA.
With all that said, it is an extremely easy park to make a quick pit-stop in since it is right off of I-87. If you are a Six Flags season pass holder, make the stop for Comet. If your only option is to pay full price, I would take a hike up Crane Mountain or a scenic drive up Prospect Mountain 100 out of 100 times.
For more information on the Great Escape, visit their website by clicking here.
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I am a huge travel and roller coaster enthusiast. I have ridden 459 unique coasters across North America 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. 
