Thunder Canyon

Thunder Canyon
1986

Thunder Canyon is Cedar Point's River Rapids ride that is located at the end of the Frontier Trail.

In 1977 Cedar Point expanded the Corkscrew Midway with Witches' Wheel. Gemini opened in 1978 as the world's tallest and fastest racing roller coaster in the world world. 1979 saw Cedar Point add a new children's area, a new WildCat, and Wave Swinger. Oceana opened in 1980 as Cedar Point's marine life complex. Ocean Motion started sailing the high seas in 1981. 1982 brought White Water landing. When White Water Landing opened it was the tallest and longest Hydro Flume I the world. Demon Drop opened in 1983 as Cedar Point's first free fall ride. Avalanche Run opened in 1985 as Cedar Point's Bobsled Roller Coaster. Avalanche Run was advertised to be more thrilling than Gemini, it was not and the ride failed to meet expectations.

Thunder Canyon is a great ride for the families. The Flume for the ride is at an angle and flows down hill. The ride features no big drops.

Thunder Canyon was built by Intamin AG of Switzerland. Over the years Intamin has built several other rides for Cedar Point including: Jr. Gemini, their first coaster (1979), Avalanche Run (1985-1989), Millennium Force (2000), Wicked Twister (2002), Top Thrill Dragster (2003), Maverick (2007), and Shoot the Rapids (2010-2015). Over the years the Intamin rides have been some of the most popular rides in the park.

Thunder Canyon's flume is 1,600 feet long. The ride takes 900,000 gallons of water to fill the ride.

Thunder Canyon ride facts:
Opened: 1986
Designed: Intamin AG
Cost: 3.5 Million Dollars
Thunder Canyon covers 4 acres of land.

Thunder Canyon uses Water from Lake Erie. The water is stored in a reservoir that is located in the lake.

Thunder Canyon receives fresh water daily from Lake Erie. It takes about 20-25 minutes for the flume to get filled. The water is dumped back into the lake after the ride closes each night.

Ride Expereience

The Thunder Canyon ride experience begins with guest entering the rides line. The line is located on the left side of The Glass Blowing Experience.

While walking in the line for Thunder Canyon, riders pass a lot of beautiful scenery and some cool waterfalls. The ride places you back into the days of the old west.

Thunder Canyon is usually always a walk on because the ride has really good capacity. The longest line is usually 15 minutes and that is on very busy days.

Thunder Canyon features 12 passenger rafts. Riders are held into place using a seatbelt.

Riders on Thunder Canyon are loaded into boats using a giant moving turn table.

The turntable turns at a very slow speed. It helps keep the ride always moving.

After leaving the station Riders are lifted up a small lift hill that takes riders into the flume.

The lift then places the raft inside the ride's flume.

Thunder Canyon simulates what it is like to go white water rating thru the mountains.

The rafts are lifted and tossed all thru the flume. As the rafts go thru the ride they slowly rotate.

The rafts on Thunder Canyon are free floating. They are not on a track. They are guided by gravity and water current. The heavier the rafts weigh, the more the raft gets tossed around.

During Several points in the ride, the rafts are sent under some waterfalls, completely drenching riders!

Thunder Canyon's grand finale sends riders under multiple water falls.

After the canyons, the ride heads back to the loading deck. In this section, the flume gets more narrow as it gets closer to the deck.

After leaving the loading deck, guest walk down a watery path to the Frontier Trail.

Thunder Canyon has trees all the way around the ride. It gives riders the illusion of being in a forest.

Thunder Canyon has always been a very popular water ride at Cedar point. Today it continues to be a favorite among families.

Thunder Canyon is a great thrill ride that will entertain the entire family!

After Thunder Canyon, Cedar Point continued to a add rides that would balance out Cedar Point's line up of attractions. Cedar Point would add: Iron Dragon (1987), Soak City Water Park (1988-2016), Disaster Transport (1990-2012), Mean Streak (1991 - 2016), Challenge Park (1992-2016), Snake River Falls (1993), Raptor (1994), Mantis (1996-2014), Power Tower (1998), Camp Snoopy (1999), Millennium Force (2000), Wicked Twister (2002), Top Thrill Dragster (2003), maXair(2005), Skyhawk (2006), Maverick (2007), Planet Snoopy (2008), Shoot The Rapids (2010-2015), WindSeeker(2011), GateKeeper (2013), Pipe Scream(2014), Wilderness Run (2014), Rougarou (2015), Valravn (2016), Cedar Point Shores Water Park (2017), and Steel Vengeance (2018), Forbidden Frontier (2019), and Cedar Point's 150th Anniversary Celebration (2020). All of these new attractions have brought Cedar Point new innovation and new technology that have made Cedar Point the Roller Coaster Capital of the World!