How do you make Fun City of Estes Park even more fun? Add The Gold Rush, a figure eight spinning roller coaster at the highest altitude in the country, 7,545 feet above sea level.
That beats Glenwood Caverns Amusement Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, with the current highest altitude, by 385 feet.
Plans are for the new ride to be spinning riders as they zoom around a track by Memorial Day 2025, at Fun City.
The venue for this attraction is spectacular, with the mountains of the Continental Divide as a backdrop and close to two entrances to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Owners Greg Davis and Kevin Braun will be the first riders on the Gold Rush figure-8 roller coaster before it opens to the public. Davis says this specific twirling roller coaster was chosen because it fit the footprint available at the park. Braun said the plan for the future is to “stay on track” – no pun intended – providing fun for everyone.
The new coaster, purchased from SBF Visa Group in Veneto, Italy, is being shipped from Italy the second week of April. Installation by a subcontractor should take about a week.
Credit: Cathy Creagh / Estes Valley Voice
McLain Construction, an Estes Park firm, has the job of preparing the site for the new installation, which included removing the bumper cars attraction, creating a concrete pad for the new coaster, removing some old buildings on the property, and performing a face-lift for the park by adding some decorative walls and shade sails.
Fun City, which has been selling fun since 1969, was started by Lynn Kinnie with the giant slide 56 years ago. Davis and Braun have owned the iconic amusement park since 2017.
The park features nine activities plus an arcade. In addition to the new Gold Rush roller coaster, attractions include go-karts – which are the most popular ride – bumper boats, miniature golf, the Gel Blaster Arena – which is something like a hybrid of paint-ball games plus laser tag – a bungee trampoline, water-walking balls, gem panning, and the Giant Rainbow Slide, a 45-foot high fiberglass slide that can carry a person down the slope at 37.5 mph.
The park plans to open this season for weekends May 4-5 and May 10-11, depending on weather, and then be open daily starting May 17 until the day after Labor Day, Sept. 2. Prices will remain the same as last year, except for the Gel Blaster Arena which will be $3 lower.
The park, located at 455 Prospect Village Dr., runs with a staff of about 30 employees, including high school and college students as well as international employees through the J-1 visa program.
Many of us were wondering what all that construction work was about – thanks for this article! When was this approved by the TOEP, I wonder, as I had not seen any news of this prior to this article.
The trade-off of bumper cars for a new ride seems to be a good thing, rather than trying to jam an additional attraction into the limited area of the Fun City site. However, I hope the owners are prepared for and will be able to pay the new 20% tax on goods imported from Italy. That’s going to be a large chunk of change.