7. Flying Turns

Image: Knoebels

Location: Knoebels Amusement Resort (Elysburg, Pennsylvania)
Opened: 2013

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, seaside amusement piers and family picnic parks began to add classic "leap-the-dips" style "scenic railroads" and other early versions of the wooden coaster. One example of such thrills in the era was the bobsled coaster, especially popular in the 1930s. On-board, a lift hill would carry riders to the top of a twisting trough, somewhat like a halved pipe. In this freewheeling ride arrangement, the weight of the loaded vehicle would dictate the path of the ride as the car swerves and slaloms up and down along the curved walls of the trough.

The last of the classic wooden bobsleds closed in 1974, but the ride style made a resurgence in the 1980s and '90s in steel form, including Kings Dominion's Avalanche, Six Flags Over Texas' La Vibora, and Cedar Point's Declassified Disaster: Disaster Transport. But one park was dedicated to reviving the lost craft of wooden bobsled coasters. In 2006, Knoebels – a beloved, classic family amusement park in eastern Pennsylvania – announced that it would build the first modern wooden bobsled, Flying Turns.

For literally years, Knoebels worked diligently to perfect the exact specifications required of a wooden version of the ride (an art last practiced in 1941). The results speak for themselves by way of the spectacular Flying Turns. Don't let its miniscule statistics fool you. Flying Turns is a destination for wooden coaster enthusiasts, providing what can truly be described as a one-of-a-kind ride experience, twisting and swaying through the beautiful wooden interior of this bobsled coaster. 

8. Wicker Man

Image: Alton Towers

Location: Alton Towers (Staffordshire, England)
Opened: 2018

Great Coasters International (or GCI) has been building wooden roller coasters since 1996, when their Wildcat debuted at Hersheypark. In the two decades since, more than two dozen GCI coasters have been built, each packed with personality. While Intamin and RMC test the limits of what wooden coasters can do, GCI is content sticking to what works. Their roller coasters are renowned for their lateral Gs and airtime, sending riders sailing through low-to-the-ground manuevers, slaloming and snaking along the terrain in relentlessly quick layouts.

GCIs aren't about intensity, they're about being nimble and aerodynamic; twisting and snaking and hopping over the landscape. Most any GCI creation exemplifies this unique role, including Prowler at Worlds of Fun, Wodan Timbur Coaster at Europa Park, Apocolypse at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Invadr at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Mystic Timbers at Kings Island, and the ill-fated Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa. For our highlight today, though, consider one of GCI's newest.

Image: Alton Towers

Alton Towers in the U.K. is a themed thrill park centered around a centuries-old historic estate and gardens – ingredients for a one-of-a-kind park, anyway. Then, add in the unique restrictions the park faces (including keeping all coasters hidden more or less beneath the treeline) and you arrive at some clever solutions for thrills. Naturally, GCI's terrain-hugging coaster is the perfect match for such a park, and overlaid with a theme based on the British 1973 horror mystery film The Wicker Man, it's the perfect candidate for our ranking.

The ride's ornate preshow sets the scene. Set to be sacrified to the burning, 60-foot wooden effigy, riders careen across the British countryside, dart through tunnels of light and smoke, and smash through the 6-story ram-headed centerpiece as it crackles, burns, and smokes. The coaster dips, dives, and intertwines within itself, turning GCI's out-and-back layout on its head to create a smouldering, steaming, coiled collection of lumber that creates a stunning family coaster.

9. Lightning Rod

Image: Marcus Dorsey, Flickr

Location: Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
Opened: 2016

Lightning Rod at Dollywood has been… well… a lightning rod for controversy.

When the ride opened in 2016, it was (and remains) the only launched wooden roller coaster ever. While the idea might conjure images of jackhammering and splintering wood, Lightning Rod is yet another RMC original utilizing that “Topper Track” that helps smooth out wooden roller coasters (perhaps too much, if you ask some enthusiasts).

Image: SmokyMountains.com

Lightning Rod’s launch – produced by linear synchronous motors lining the lift hill, like Cedar Point’s Maverick – accelerates the ride to 45 miles per hour, cresting it over the initial hill and sending it racing through a terrain-hugging, extreme course that includes an outside banked turn, a legendary “quadruple down” airtime maneuver, a 165 foot drop, and top speeds of 73 miles per hour – making it the fastest wooden roller coaster on Earth, too.

But innovation comes at a price – and we don’t just mean the ride’s $22 million price tag. Originally set to open in March 2016, the ride’s opening was frustratingly delayed until June. One week later, it closed again, opening sporadically for “technical rehearsal” throughout summer 2016 – the last thing either Dollywood or RMC would want for their summer blockbuster.

The ride similarly went down in early July 2018, missing the bulk of the park’s summer season. Though rumors suggested that the ride’s signature and allegedly troublesome launch would be replaced with a traditional chain lift, the ride re-opened unexpected in mid-October with a new zero-car on each train, some light reprofiling in one notorious spot, and a few LSM motors removed from the end of the launch. Whatever the case, those lucky enough to have ridden Lightning Rod proclaim it as one of the best roller coasters on Earth, period, and certainly an icon of wild wooden roller coasters.