Aerial Antics: Adventureland Iowa

Adventureland amusement park, located just outside of Des Moines, Iowa, opened in the mid 1970s and has thrived ever since. Not one of the huge corporate parks we are all so familiar with, Adventureland has been family owned for it's entire existence.

During it's design, the park adapted many aspects of Disneyland in California for use, part of which is especially evident in the park's entrance area:

We have the train crossing with station, tunnels under the tracks to enter the park, a large plaza thereafter, and finally a detailed Main Street entrance area to the park!

The park does have some unique rides in it's arsenal of thrills. Above we see The Underground, a dark ride/wooden roller coaster hybrid added to the park in 1996. It was designed and built by Custom Coasters, and if I remember correctly utilized an old amphitheater as the base for the ride.

The park is also home to the Raging River, an Intamin river rapids ride that was added to the park in 1983. This makes it one of the older ones still operating, as the first one ever opened in 1980 at AstroWorld in Texas.

Two coasters in one shot! The wooden ride is called the Tornado, designed by William Cobb and opened back in 1978. The interesting steel coaster is Dragon and was designed by Hopkins and added in 1991.

The Underground was actually Adventureland's second time working with Custom Coasters, the first partnership in 1993 resulted in the ride above, named Outlaw. Hard to tell from the photo but the ride sits on a hillside which allows it to have some neat elevation changes. May not be the biggest or fastest ride, but I've heard it packs a punch.

Also in the photo is one of the park's newer rides, Saw Mill Splash, a White Water West spinning rapids ride added in 2002.

To check out the aerials from Bing click here.