Michigan's Adventure - 8-21-2011

The Basics: First visit to this park. Weather, Perfect 75 degrees slight wind, sunny with passing clouds. 4 hour drive to the park from the Toledo area. Arrived at the park about 10:50am, got into the park at 11. Met up with my son's/girlfriends family, to meet them and spend a day at the park with them.

My first impressions, Shivering Timbers looks beautiful driving into the parking lot, and the park is in a nice private location, away from everything. I have heard that the park is refered to as 'Little Cedar Point', and standing in front of Coasters Dine-in, with corkscrews next to it gave me a Cedar Point flash back.

The park is kept up really nice, the landscaping is wonderful. It is a small park, but has big thrills.

We hit Sea Dragon (Ocean Motion) first, it was there, I wish Ocean Motion would free swing like that ride does. Then off to Wolverine Wildcat. Very nice slow wooden coaster, but has speed where it needs it. Came off the ride with a smile on my face. No back trauma from the ride like other wooden coasters we know of (Mean Streak)

Now off the Shivering Timbers, I know its wooden, I am not a fan, but with all the talk with visitors at Cedar Point who have ridden it, it is a must ride, I had to try it. Well, it did impress me tremendously. I have never gotten so much air time on any coaster, much less a wooden coaster. It just kept going, and going, and going. It wasn't physically painful to ride, actually I get more pain riding Gemini. The speed was amazing, and the hills just kept coming. I loved the end helix, but it did shake my brain some. Almost came off with a headache. I was on a coaster high for about 15 minutes, which hasn't happened in a long time.

We hit scrambler, thunderbolt, and tilt-a-whirl, some other small rides, then to (little) Big Dipper, just to try every roller coaster there. It hurt my side. We were able to get in a round of mini-golf, which so far is the hardest golf course I have played anywhere. Hit the Swan boat, because you have to ride all rides possible that have been at two parks. Then off to Thunderhawk.

I think Thunderhawk fits the park nicely. It had the longest wait of the day of about 25 minutes. It felt smoother than I remember at Geauga lake, and the extra padding on the shoulder harnesses were nice.

Finished off the day riding Mad Mouse, and shopping. Headed home around 7:30pm, long drive home, got home around 11:15pm

Overall, a very lovely park. The 4 hour trip may keep me from going back any time soon. But I was glad I was able to try it out this year.

We all had a very good time at the Park

Thanks PB-Reader for that great trip report about my 2nd home park, CP being the 1st. Michigan's Adventure is a nice break from Cedar Point and they've been consistantly improving ever since Cedar Fair took it over. My only complaint is that the park is growing faster in attendace than the rides can handle capacity. That park was never designed for a million people per year, but it appears they're headed that way. I wish they could add a train to Wolverine Wildcat, for one.

Nice TR! I really didnt get to do as much as you on my visit because it rained alot. However, Timbers itself is worth the trip. The park does have a nicer family atmostsphere to it. However, its layout leaves a bit much to be desired. I really thought that walking all the way around the lake took bit of time, instead of making the park a loop, but maybe for a different time since they still have room to do something in the train area.

MagnunBarrel,

We did noticed the long walk over to Thunderhawk, and it was too cold to even try the waterpark. But being our first visit, we mainly focused on the lake, and the view, so it didn't seem that far. We then took the train back to the other side, which looked like it could be a really short walk if there was a path back there.