The Joker Coming to Life at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

© Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Things have been fairly quiet since the announcement of The Joker at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which will be a Rocky Mountain conversion of their Roar wooden roller coaster.  The theme park has been working on the project straight through, however, and sharing small updates as they come.  I figured it was a good time to catch up on the progress!

Above is a photo of the ride's purple and green track, which of course is meant to be representative of the ride's Joker theme.  The track started to show up at the park as it was fabricated, through the structure was not yet ready for it - hence the parking lot storage.

© Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

In order to convert Roar into The Joker, much of the support structure was saved but the top layer of wooden track was removed.  This photo shows the lift hill and first drop in the middle of that work, with the old track removed and the supports being readied for the new steel running rails.  The Joker will hit a maximum height of 100 feet, and run 3,200 feet long.

More recently, some of the first track pieces were set on the structure and the theme park released this video to celebrate:

When complete riders will encounter 15 different moments of air-time on The Joker and three inversions - the first of which is a new element called a "step up under flip" that takes place directly after the first drop.  The other two inversions are a 180 degree stall and a zero g barrel roll.  The Joker will be a twisted mess of purple and green track when complete, and we can't wait!