3. Gold Striker – California’s Great America

Most of the great rides on this list are either steel roller coasters or the one combo of steel and wood. In terms of best wooden roller coaster in California, there’s a clear winner. Gold Striker debuted in California’s Great America in 2013, and it had a strong selling point. The start of this ride includes a 174-foot tunnel that disorients riders with its immediacy.

Like GhostRider, Gold Striker has an Old West theme. When park planners think of wood, their minds tend to wander to the gold rush era, I guess. Anyway, it’s a similar ride to GhostRider in terms of length and speed. Gold Striker reaches a top speed of 54 miles per hour and has a duration of 2:30. The reason why Gold Striker ranks so much higher is its track layout. It offers several bunny hops and a surprise 80-degree turn. It also offers several glorious views of the rest of California’s Great America, one of the prettiest parks on the West Coast.

2. California Screamin’ – Disney California Adventure

When Disney Imagineers strategized about their second Disneyland gate, they took stock of what the world’s first theme park had but also what it lacked. The consensus opinion was that as great as Space Mountain was, it went 30 miles per hour. It was also an indoors coaster.

The theme of Disney California Adventure was self-evident. It would celebrate the massive Golden State, and it needed attractions that weren’t confined indoors. That’s how California Screamin’ came into being as the first outdoor roller coaster at Disneyland Resort.

Imagineers weren’t about to mess up this rare opportunity, either. They constructed a steel roller coaster capable of going 55 miles per hour, almost double Space Mountain. They also added a couple of genius tricks, ones I’ve previously recounted in Behind the Ride. The best of them is the decision to construct a giant loop in the middle of the park. Originally a Mickey Mouse face and later a Paradise Pier sign, it is the only inversion at Disneyland and a true wienie. That’s Disney’s Imagineering term for an architectural design that draws attention to the park.

Disney doesn’t do a lot of pure adrenaline rides – California Screamin’ is arguably the only one in either park – but they built what was the best roller coaster in California for 14 years. That’s when the current number one arrived and claimed the throne.

1. Twisted Colossus – Six Flags Magic Mountain

In the roller coaster industry, everything old can become new again. Park planners simply have to commit to positive change. Like The Joker, Twisted Colossus was originally a different coaster, a wooden one simply named Colossus. It debuted in 1978 and quickly became one of the favorite roller coasters in the United States.

In 2014, Six Flags Magic Mountain closed one of its most beloved attractions, some 36 years after its arrival. While theme park tourists fretted over the loss of a true classic, park planners quietly planned for a Colossus for a new generation.

This version would keep the wooden structure but add steel tracks. Colossus V2.0 wouldn’t retain the dual coaster design of the original. Instead, it would join those individual tracks into a single massive track almost exactly 5,000 feet in length. The joining actually enabled a split design. The first half of the ride is the blue portion, while the back half is the green portion. In a clever throwback, the two sections allow for occasional meetings of ride carts, creating a brief period of racing, just as was true of Colossus.

Make no mistake, though. Twisted Colossus isn’t a retrofit of an archaic design. It’s not just modern but even forward-thinking. The listed height of Twisted Colossus is only 121 feet, yet its 80-degree plummet is so dramatic that it registers as 128 feet down. You’ll do two inversions along the way, speeding through the double-track at 57 miles per hour. Best of all, the journey takes a whopping 3:40 to complete. That’s the beauty of turning two coaster tracks into one. The ride seems to last forever.

Twisted Colossus is a series of bold, inventive ideas with a sum somehow greater than the parts. It is currently the apex predator of California roller coasters. But if I had to pick, I’d still say that Florida has a better, deeper roster of roller coasters.