Elitch Gardens Review

It’s time for me to get back to reviewing the last few amusement parks I visited, which means I must talk about the cesspool of disappointment that is Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado.

Elitch Gardens is by far the worst amusement park I have ever been to! They don’t have hardly any good rides, and you can bet several of them will be closed during all or part of your visit. My one-line review is “bad rides poorly run.” And while there are some excellent ride operators, park operations across the board are, let’s just say, leisurely.

Elitch Gardens

Elitch Gardens is a smaller amusement park. Certainly, it’s not on the scale of your average Six Flags or Cedar Fair park. It’s located right smack in downtown Denver, so it’s locked into a tight footprint with no room to expand.

Elitch used to be more of a “garden” in another Denver location with deep history, old-growth trees, and pretty avenues before it was moved to its downtown spot and expanded in the mid-’90s. Six Flags owned it at one point. But now it’s an overpriced mess of rickety coasters and average flat rides. Let’s take a look at the sorry lineup.

Roller Coasters

Elitch Gardens has six roller coasters, but good luck on finding them all open. I’ll go through them from worst to best.

Blazin’ Buckaroo

The Blazin’ Buckaroo is the park’s kiddie coaster, with a nice swooping track in the back of the Kiddieland section.

Boomerang

The Boomerang is one of those shuttle coasters you see at many parks. Only this one is smaller than most. I confess I never got around to riding it. The line was always so long for a smaller, worse version of a ride I’ve ridden many times before. And judging by: first, your average shuttle coaster and second, the other rides in this park, I’d bet good money it would shake the teeth right of your head.

Half Pipe

The Half Pipe looks interesting and definitely different than anything else I’ve ridden, featuring two spinning seat sections on top of a skateboard-like platform that traverses a sharp U-shaped track. But it was never open during my visits. It seems to have shut down for at least the last part of the 2021 operating season, as far as I can tell.

Twister II

Twister II, the park’s premier wooden coaster, at least has a decent layout. But the ride itself is SO JANKY, it feels like it will tear you apart. It was while riding this ride that made me wonder if harsh Colorado weather makes coaster maintenance that much harder. Because this 1995 coaster feels like it’s at least two decades older.

Mind Eraser

Looking at a map, I would say that Mind Eraser is the biggest ride in the park. Maybe this and Twister II. And honestly, I expected more out of this steel coaster. Instead, the suspended coaster is a real headbanger, very jerky, and pretty dull, especially at the end.

Plus, on my visit, I rode this one first at rope drop. (One of the few parks that walk you back to the rides – stand on the right to be walked back to Mind Eraser.) I was set to ride on the second train out, when the whole ride went down for a solid 45 minutes while a ride engineer hammered in a new belt buckle. The ride operator played trivia games during the wait, which was creative and brave of her, but it is very indicative of all the rides at Elitch Gardens. They go down all the time.

Sidewinder

It’s very telling that the best roller coaster at Elitch’s is basically a straight line with a loop in it. A scaffold props up this goofy coaster, so you have to climb a massive set of stairs to get up to the entrance!

The coaster is launched straight ahead, then dips down into a vertical loop, and straight again to another operator on the other side. After a bit of a wait, you head backward through the same loop and walk down all those stairs to the ground. It is so strange! But oddly, it’s a smooth, fun ride and honestly the best one in the park.

However, it seems to be only rarely open. I managed to catch it during the few hours it was staffed during my visit, and I count myself lucky to have ridden it at all.

Flat Rides

Besides six largely disappointing roller coasters, Elitch Gardens has several flat rides, some of which I actually got to ride. Here they are from worst to best.

Sling Shot & XLR8R

These are the two extra-fee attractions you can find at any amusement park, as ubiquitous as Dippin Dots or a 50’s diner. Arguably the most thrilling rides at the park, I on the one hand resent the added cost of them and on the other find them too terrifying to ride.

Sling Shot is a reverse bungee attraction that shoots you into the air, while XLR8R (i.e. “accelerator”) is a Skycoaster that drops you from 182 feet before you swing back and forth to a stop.

Observation Tower

The 250-foot tall Observation Tower might be really neat if it were ever open. Some sources say it’s permanently closed, while Elitch’s own website says it’s down for maintenance. I doubt it’s opened at all during the pandemic.

Carousel

Elitch Garden’s Carousel is a beautiful, historic model from 1920 with an authentic band organ. It’s housed in a pavilion at the end of Main Street and always seems mobbed with people.

My one experience with it was that after a long, frustrating day at the park, I went to take a picture of the carousel all lit up at night. Right as I raised my camera for the shot, all the lights on it went off. By that point, it felt like getting kicked while you are down. Usually, parks leave their lights on until guests have left. Not Elitch!

Tea Cups

I’m fond of a good Tea Cups ride, and this one is fine. It’s a little smaller than most but at least it’s shaded. You can find it near Kiddieland.

Tilt-A-Whirl

The Tilt-A-Whirl is just your basic Tilt-A-Whirl (they don’t even bother to change the names here.) I declined to ride it since I’d been on several already this summer. You can find it back by the entrance to Twister II.

Shipwreck Falls

Elitch Gardens has the two basic water rides that almost all theme parks have – a shoot-the-chute and a river rapids ride. Shipwreck Falls is Elitch’s shoot-the-chute, and not a particularly tall one at that. It’s basically only good for cooling off on a hot day.

Sea Dragon

The Sea Dragon is a swinging boat ride situated over the splashdown pool of Shipwreck Falls. As such, there is a section of Sea Dragon’s line that gets soaked every time a boat goes down the falls! There’s also a section of the line that is full of bees, at least during my late-summer visit. If you make it through the line unscathed, you can enjoy a gently thrilling swing on the Sea Dragon.

Troika

I like a good Troika ride, but I didn’t ride this one since it was in pieces during my visit. I was able to see it running later in the season but didn’t get in a ride. It’s practically underneath the tracks of the Sidewinder.

Spider

I imagine the Spider is a decent ride – I never got to ride it. I’d been on several already at other parks and the line for this one was always very long. When you’re low on good rides and/or rides that are open at all, even the mediocre rides get mobbed with long lines.

Turn of the Century

Turn of the Century is Elitch Garden’s swings ride. It’s a small example of its kind, but it’s nicely situated on its own little island in the middle of the park. It also has a beautiful Gustav Klimt design to it that makes it unique.

Disaster Canyon

Elitch Garden’s other water ride is the Disaster Canyon river rapids ride. It wasn’t open during my trip and there is a suspicious lack of videos online for anyone who’s ridden it in the last 10 years. Is it ever open? Elitch’s website indicates that it is from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

I don’t expect Disaster Canyon is a good example of its type, but it seems to have a reasonably good sense of place. By that, I mean it looks like you feel at least a little separated from the rest of the park when you’re in it. I can’t find a video online to prove it though.

Big Wheel

The Big Wheel is Elitch Garden’s centrally-located Ferris wheel. It’s prominently featured at the end of Main Street and is where you’re held before the park opens officially. (To the right you are walked back to Mind Eraser, to the left I assume is Twister II.)

Big Wheel is a gondola-style Ferris wheel which means solo riders aren’t allowed. I was able to return to Elitch during Halloween as a guest and ride it then and there are some excellent views towards the mountain and over the city.

DragonWing

DragonWing is a newer ride, sort of like the swings but with big wings you can lever back and forth to achieve some lift. The ride vehicles are very heavy though, so you can’t get much outward swing going. It also loads abysmally slowly. Once you’re up there it’s a nice view but barely thrilling.

Brain Drain

Brain Drain is one of those coaster-in-a-loop rides that you find in smaller parks. The train rocks back and forth until it achieves several full loops, then does it again in the other direction. Sitting on the ends is the way to go here unless you want to face other people.

Like all the rides in the park, it loads slowly. And I found the bin system holds it up – you place your things on the other side of the ride, so you have to awkwardly climb through your seat, stow your stuff, and climb back in, which is even harder on the inclined end seats. The line is in the full sun as well. There’s scaffolding for a canopy there but no canvas.

The ride itself is decently fun, but not worth any kind of wait. You can turn your head to the side and watch Denver do flips, which you don’t normally get to do on a quicker roller coaster loop.

Meow Wolf’s Kaleidoscape

Getting to an actually good ride is Kaleidoscape, a dark ride installation by nearby Meow Wolf. It’s a trippy rework of a shooter ride. But in here you shoot at things to make animations happen (I think), not to get a score. I’d rather ride it through without shooting, just so I can pay attention more to everything that’s going on. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, though, or a computerized voice will tell you to put your phone away.

Star Flyer

Star Flyer looks like it would be a properly thrilling high swings ride. It’s 200 feet tall with paired seats suspended with chains and it lights up very prettily at night. I say I assume it’s a thrilling ride because it was never open long enough for me to ride it! It seems to close very frequently for high winds. It also closed for rain, lightning, and just plain closed during my visits, so good luck on finding it open. When it is, at least there is a shaded pavilion for the line.

Tower of Doom

Tower of Doom is Elitch Garden’s drop tower ride and stands 210 feet tall. It only holds eight riders at a time, so lines move slowly, as they always do here at Elitch. There is a single rider’s line, however, and the ride operator was good to chat with. Tower of Doom wasn’t open for most of the day during my visit but it managed to open up by the evening and I had a good view of the sunset at the top.

I wonder how many of Elitch’s rides are closed due to weather conditions and how much is due to low staffing. As it is, when a ride does open, practically everyone in the park rushes to it since it might close again at any minute! It’s a frustrating way to experience a park.

Hollywood & Vine

Honestly, one of my favorite rides at Elitch Gardens is the Hollywood & Vine! This is a spinner like the G-Force at Adventureland in Iowa. Maybe because it was my last ride of the night and they were trying to get everyone through before closing, but the ride operation was snappy and the ride itself was fast, then even faster! I enjoyed it a lot.

I mean, basically, there were only four rides that I actually liked at Elitch Gardens: Sidewinder, Hollywood & Vine, Kaleidoscape, and Tower of Doom. A few others, like Star Flyer and the Observation Tower, might have made it into the running if they had actually been open.

Kid’s Rides

There is a whole KiddieLand section of the park with thirteen rides just for children. The Blazin’ Buckaroo kid’s coaster and a Rockin’ Tug might be the most thrilling. Otherwise, there is Al’s Big Rig Trucking Co. ride in a tractor-trailer cab, a Balloon Race spinner, a Crazy Bus magic carpet-style ride; Ding Dong Dock for boats in a circle; EG Express mini train; a playground called the Goofy Gazebo; the Jumping Jack mini drop tower; KidSpin mini teacup ride; Mike’s Bikes that go in a circle; Mouse House kid-sized bumper cars; and Sunflower Swings kid’s swings ride.

Eiltch Garden Water Park

There is a water park side to Elitch Gardens that I didn’t even visit. It’s open from Memorial Day-Labor Day, weather permitting. The water park is included in a day’s admission, but you’ll need to rent your own tubes. $7 gets you a single tube (for the day, I would assume), and $11 for a double. I’m unclear if you need these for the rides or just for the lazy river and wave pool. Some slides clearly provide their own rafts.

Under “thrilling slides,” Elitch Gardens includes Tube Top, an enclosed 4-person tube slide with small funnels and big dips. SlideZilla is another 4-person that features a big hangtime wall. RipQurl is one of those toilet-bowl slides, for two at a time. The Mega Wedgie tower includes three body slides: Colossal is enclosed, while Epic & Ultimate are open speed slides. Then Gangplanks are two open tube slides while Cannonball Falls are two enclosed tube slides.

The family slides include a big family raft ride called Splashdown, the Commotion Ocean wave pool, Castaway Creek lazy river, and Barefootin’ Bay kids area.

Loose Articles Policy

There is generally a bin system for any loose items you may have with you. Generally, that means it’s a leave-at-your-own-risk situation but I never had a problem. There are lockers around the park if you want to be extra secure, at the entrance and back near Twister II. There’s another set of lockers at the bathhouse in the water park side.

Food & Shopping

Amazing, one thing Elitch Gardens does really well is food. There are the usual Dippin Dots locations and funnel cake stands but central to the park is a large food hall with several options, including healthy ones. Inside, you can get salads and wraps, grilled chicken sandwiches, BBQ, burgers & fries, pizza, and chicken fingers. There aren’t nearly enough places to sit, however. Elsewhere in the park, you can find burgers, pretzels & beer, pizza, turkey legs, ice cream, all the normal stuff. Providing they’re all open, of course. I waited 20 minutes for a Kona Ice truck to “be back in 15” before I realized there was another one in KiddieLand.

One unique thing about Elitch Gardens is its large entry pavilion. They hold everyone outside while they scan your ticket and send you through security at the doors. But once inside, there are a few food stands and one large gift shop. I assume this and the food hall are designed to keep as many visitors as possible out of the unpredictable Colorado weather.

There are more shopping and dining options along a short main street area with a pretty string-light canopy. It also looks like there might be a theater here, but it was never open. I assume it’s been closed since Covid.

Entertainment & Events

Speaking of entertainment – there wasn’t any during my initial visit to the park. I was able to return during Halloween and there are a few entertainment bits then. The website lists a nightly fireworks show, but I sure didn’t see one when I was there. I also see evidence of a “Luminova Holidays” Christmas lights event, but it sounds like it didn’t happen this year, at least.

Fright Fest at Elitch Gardens

Let’s talk about Halloween at Elitch Gardens. The park is decorated with some spooky decorations and there are some little bits of entertainment here and there. I saw a kid-friendly magician at the base of the Big Wheel, and an “H. Lecter’s Butcher Shop” set up under a tent that might have been part of a show, or maybe it was just a photo op. After 6 pm, they close KiddieLand and scare actors start roaming the park.

The biggest deal at Elitch’s Halloween is the haunted houses. But unlike Kings Island’s scare mazes, you have to pay extra at Elitch! And the line to get in was enormous. In 2021 there were three extra-fee areas. No Vacancy (“where check out time is never”) and Big Top Freaks are $20 each to experience. And a new Seance interactive show is an extra $15. Provided you can even do all three experiences in one night, that’s an extra $55 on top of your admission ticket!

There are/were some deals to be had online if you plan ahead. Buying the two haunted houses online costs $35 total instead of $40. Or you could buy a combo admission + haunted houses package for $75, which also saves you a little. If you already have your admission, you can buy a VIP pass for $50 that allows you to bypass the long lines for the haunted houses. A $70 X-Scream pass includes VIP access to the houses, plus Rapid Ride access. None of these options seem to include the $15 Seance.

Tickets

To visit Elitch Gardens (if you actually want to) costs $65 at the gate, currently $45 in the pre-season. (The charge to my card last fall was $74…maybe I prepaid for parking.) A season pass to disappointment costs $185 regularly, but it’s on sale right now for $75, which is a bit easier to swallow and includes a great elastic passholder wristband and parking fees. Payment plans are available.

Ticket add-ons include a dining plan for $18/day and the Rapid Ride Pass for $50/day, which gives line-skipping access at Star Flyer, Brain Drain, Twister II, Mind Eraser, Boomerang, Half Pipe, Disaster Canyon, Shipwreck Falls, Meow Wolf’s Kaleidoscape and Splashdown (when the water park is open). Considering that half of those rides were closed during my visit, I’m not sure it’s the best value. You can add an all-season dining plan to your annual pass, but Rapid Ride will always be a daily fee.

Parking

In addition to your admission, it costs $20 to park ($25 if you pay cash!) or you can take a light rail or bus directly to the park. Elitch Gardens is right in downtown Denver, so if you’re parked nearby, it might be easier to walk in or take a bus. The light rail station is right in the parking lot with access to Elitch on one side and Ball Arena (for hockey) on the other.

In other amenities, there’s no Elitch Gardens phone app, and I honestly don’t remember if there was in-park wifi. I don’t think so.

Hours

Elitch Gardens reopens on April 30, 2022, with annual passholder days the weekend before, on the 23rd & 24th. The park is open weekends until the last week of May and will stay open daily until mid-August. The last day of the season is October 30, after Fright Fest is over.

Hours vary greatly, opening anywhere from 9 am to 6 pm and closing anytime from 4 pm to 11 pm. The most common hours are 10:30 am-8 pm during the week in the summer and 10:30 am-9 pm on summer weekends. Make sure to check hours before your visit.

I found that at 10 am, they let you in and hold you at the end of main street until they walk you back to the main rides at 10:30. Again, congregate to the right for Mind Eraser, to the left for Twister II.

The Future of Elitch Gardens

One of the reasons Elitch Gardens might be in serious decline is that in 2018, it was announced that the area would be redeveloped into “The River Mile” neighborhood with riverside parks and living spaces. The website currently says “For over 20 years, Elitch Gardens Amusement Park has been one of the most popular recreational attractions in the city – and so it will continue to be. The park will operate in its current location for the foreseeable future. And when the time comes for Elitch’s to move, Revesco Properties will ensure that it has a new and even larger future home.”

As of my visit in 2021, there didn’t seem to be any development on The River Mile project, so I don’t know if it’s still happening. If it does, it could be the death knell of a terrible park or the chance to start over, again, somewhere new. It’d be sad for the history of the park to be lost. I’d love to see a return to the smaller, more park-like setting that it used to be with more vintage and classic rides. Either that or an actually thrilling park more fit for the adventurous mile-high city, unlike the janky mess it’s got now.

Here’s hoping that the future is a brighter one. (And still includes Meow Wolf!)