Six Flags Magic Mountain

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Growing up in Southern California, I am very lucky to have several theme parks and water parks all within about 2 hours from anywhere that you are (LA traffic depending of course). Here's a short list of what we have readily available to us:

Six Flags Magic Mountain Entry

Theme Parks:
-Disneyland
-Disney's California Adventure
-Knotts Berry Farm
-Six Flags Magic Mountain
-Universal Studios Hollywood.
-Sea World
-Lego Land California

Water Parks:
-Sea World Aquatica San Diego
-The Wave Waterpark
-Raging Waters San Dimas
-Pharaoh's
-Knott's Soak City Orange County
-Knott's Soak City Palm Springs
-Six Flags Hurricane
-Lego Land California Water park

And of course plenty of Zoo's to live up to your hearts content. However of all the years that I had lived there, I had only been to 1/2 of them.

Hurricane Harbor

While I had been to Six Flags Magic Mountain on a few occasions, I had not been into their water park. After working for Six Flags Great Americas Hurricane Harbor, I tried to see some similarities, but unlike other Hurricane Harbor clones, there was not much of anything that was the same. One of the first things that I noticed is it was a small park land wise, and they had to be very creative with their use of space. The 3 main features of the park were an activity pool with a few basketball hoops and slides, a lazy river, and a

Hurricane Harbor Wave Pool

wave pool. The standout features in the park however were the slide towers and coasters that surrounded you. It was a truly encompassing feeling.

After a day in the water park, I headed into the dry park to ride some coasters. With only 2 hours left in the operating day, I had to make my choices wisely. I made sure to catch a ride on Apocalypse (Formerly Terminator Salvation),  and is a great GCI wooden coaster. With Millennium flyer trains and plenty of twists and dips, it is a memorable coaster.... especially the full speed station fly-through.

Tatsu Track at Night

was then off to the parks signature flying coaster that dominates the treetops of the mountain, Tatsu. When considering all of my coasters it consistently sits in my top 3, if not number 1. Its height combined with its smooth track and elements make it amazing. Also it has one of the largest pretzel loops at 124 feet, and makes for an incredible ride experience.



I ended the day on Full Throttle, the parks brand new coaster. During its marketing, it was branded as the YOLO coaster. Boasting about the worlds tallest loop (160 feet) and worlds first top hat element, it promised to be an unforgettable ride experience. One of

Full Throttle Launch

best features of the ride was there were only lap restraints, which is quite rare for an inverted coaster. Once I was seating in the back car, there was a short amount of anticipation that built up before the coaster rocketed to 70mph and straight into the massive loop. The sheer size of it was incredible, and the launch speed had been calibrated perfectly that the coaster almost slows to a stop at the top and you are left hanging for what seems like forever. You then plummet back to the earth into a few turns before a dive loop, coming to a stop in a tunnel. After a few lighting and sound effects, you are sent backwards, halfway through the dive loop, and accelerated back out and over the top hat, and then slowing to a stop before reentering the station.

My Full Throttle Ride Photo

Overall, the ride was better than anticipated, but did not live up to the hype. The strong points were the smooth launches and fantastic hang time combined with the lap bar only restraints. However where the coaster fell short was in the very short layout, and the top hat that went straight into the brake run. It was fun, but would not be worth a very long wait of over 45 minutes.

View of the Coasters from the P-Lot

While I didn't get to ride all of the coasters, Six Flags Magic Mountain still proves to be a great park for any level of coaster enthusiast. The rides deliver thrills rather than fears, and always leave you wanting more. 

If you didn't get enough here, there's a few more photos in the #LyfInFocus-Six Flags Magic Mountain album.

Be Sure to check out my next post: So-Cal Water Park's!