DENVER — In our exclusive new series Adventures with Alan, we'll travel across Southern Colorado week-by-week to show you thrills and chills, hidden gems, and well-known spots.
Home to Colorado's only theme and water park combo, our adventure this week takes us to Elitch Gardens to check out some of the park's most exciting and heart-pumping attractions.
Our visit to the park takes place on a hot, summer day.
Arriving before the gates open, we meet up with Jolie Dubois and her intern Jayden. Dubois serves as the Communications Manager at Elitch's.
She takes us to our first stop, a roller coaster called Boomerang.
Featuring six fast-packed inversions, it's the park's tallest and loopiest coaster.
The boomerang packs a punch, taking riders forwards and backward through a series of twists, turns, and inversions.
"The fun fact about that ride is it has the highest roller coaster point here in the park at 125 feet tall," said Dubois.
Next, she takes us to the Tower of Doom.
At 200 feet, it's the tallest thrill ride in the park.
The ride offers incredible views of the city and mountains on the way up, and on the way down, you'll plummet to the ground at 60 mph.
It's so nice, we have to do it twice!
After the second ride, we take a moment to catch our breath on the ferris wheel.
The iconic Big Wheel as it's called is located towards the front of the park, and gives guests a more relaxed way to soak in the surrounding scenery.
It's more than 100 feet tall and has been with the park since Elitch Gardens moved downtown in 1994.
Not done with the thrills yet, we also take a ride on the Star Flyer.
This extreme swing ride opened in 2017, and takes riders up a 170-foot tower, spinning at nearly 50 mph.
With feet dangling in the air and your hair blowing in the wind, it's a total rush.
Safely back on Earth, we head over to the water park.
Hot summer days can draw big crowds looking to cool down in the wave pool or the lazy river.
Dubois tells me that the theme park and water park are now open daily through August.
The best part is that the water park comes free with paid theme park admission
"You know what's really unique about Elitch Gardens is that we're two parks in one, so guests can enjoy the theme park, the water park, and then back to the theme park if they want to dry off a little bit," said Dubois.
For more information and to purchase tickets to the park, visit www.elitchgardens.com.
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