The Great Escape announces Canyon Blaster

Here is an article also with a little video on the story.

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/headlines/?ArID=13023&SecID=33

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Army Rangers lead the way

It's about time Six Flags started using all those rides they bought from Opryland way back when.

NYSuperman - how's the construction coming along?

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John
Albany Entertainment
http://albany.n3.net
Great Escape Online Guide Coming Soon!

Well, we knew it was coming. The track has been lying there on the ground since October of last year... I'm just glad they got the approval, however I am disappointed that they had to REMOVE two rides in order to put in just one ride.

The old Ghost Town train ride was excellent before it was modified. Went through a really cool tunnel, and travelled away from the park feeling like a ride in and of itself.
As for the Tornado... well, let's hope that it's put into some sort of temporary storage for either other parks to enjoy, or future re-assembly in a different section (possibly themed differently?).

I hope this is the start of a huge list of expansion for the park.
From what the article said... it's the parks 49th anniversary... next year in 2004, marks the 50th operating year and I'm sure they're going to do something special!

The land has been prepped and the site is now ready for installation.

Well at least they are getting something. I like mine trains and hopefully this will be a good ride. If they place it off into the woods where I think they will it should be great. I am ticked that they are removing the Tornado though. I never got a chance to ride it while I was there and really want to. Hopefully they will reassemble it somewhere.

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Have you hugged a Beemer today?

Is the layout going to be the same as it was at opryland,or are they going to modify it? When it was rockin rollercoaster at opryland it was a great coaster,my favorite but its been years since ive rode it (obviously)! lol

Does anyone have any pics of this coaster when it was in Opryland?

How about an overhead view?

I have yet to see what the layout is like.

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"Life is like a roller coaster; there are ups and downs and it's over all too fast."

Fight Back at: www.realizethis.com

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"The Canyon Blaster is the park's sixth roller coaster, catapulting it into a whole new stratum of excitement and entertainment."

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We can now add a new offense to Six Flags' growing list of crimes against the amusement community: "unauthorized use of a thesaurus." I mean really, I've heard some BS in my time, but this is almost too ridiculous even for Six Flags. Regardless, I am happy to see one of the smaller SF parks finally recieve some attention. And I'd be willing to bet they're getting something good for the big 5-0.

~me

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peace, love, coasters.
*** This post was edited by nelson324 2/5/2003 11:23:24 PM ***

Lol nelson 324. I was thinking the same thing.

I see a Batman clone in Jungleland for GE's future. :-)

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"Life is like a roller coaster; there are ups and downs and it's over all too fast."

Fight Back at: www.realizethis.com

id love to see a pair of S&S Towers go in. I think for the 50th anniversary the park will most likely recieve a new coaster for once. (maybe the impulse that was talked about before) and the new entrance plaza.

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John
Albany Entertainment
http://albany.n3.net
Great Escape Online Guide Coming Soon!

I thought the new entrance plaza WAS going to be new this year, John...

Isn't The Great Escape supposed to have general capital improvements this year too besides the coaster, such as the entrance plaza, the pedestrian bridge, and fixing that horrid parking lot??

No, not this year.

What's wrong with the parking lot? It's free...

Well, aside from being free... I don't think I'd pay for it if they DID start charging, considering it's not paved... a lot of it feels like you're parking in the fields, and in some situations... on a slope!

The SFGE site is down.

Here's a map, though not accurate in the least, but with the general layout.

There are no other pictures of the Rock 'n Roller Coaster showing the layout, that I've been able to find, except for a couple where it's covered by trees. Just those from books and postcards showing a close up of the train and small section of track at the final downward helix.

Terraserver has aerial photos, but they're in black and white and not clear enough. It says they were taken March '97, which was the parks last operating year.
Mapquest's aerial photos were in color, and more clear, but I'm not when they were taken. They've recently replaced the two most zoomed in pics with new ones (of 'Shopryland'), but if you zoom out, it's still Opryland. Luckily I saved the old close ups. They looked to me like things were already being removed, or else it just looked baren because it was fall or winter, or since they're taken so high up. It's hard to tell. Destruction didn't begin until late Jan '98.

I'm sure some older aerial photos would be vailable somewhere. Anyone know?

*** This post was edited by Raptor Pilot 2/6/2003 4:44:47 PM ***

As if I wasn't depressed enough they took out the Tornado. It should have been refurbished not removed! Now they took out the Ghost Town Train for this ride too? Six Flags is taking the character out of the park and going to make it another SFconcrete carnival.

This ride better be damn good to have taken out the other two. I am worried it is another one of the "let's just stick it in this park" rides like Nightmare at bonecracking Cave. (That coaster stunk at SFDL and is actually more painful at Great Escape!)

Charley Woods, where are you? :*(

Any word on if this ride will have tunnels?

I go to the great escape every weeekend and have been on the canyon blaster a few times this year. Their is nothing exciting about it. The line is never very long if u decide to ride it take your little sister.The commercial on tv is also fake it shows a totaly different coaster.But Iv'e done some reasearch at the park. Their looking into a medium sized coaster a drop tower and a chut the chutes ride. I can promisse the chute the chutes ride its in storage their. Their is also rumours of a parking garage a bridge across the rhode and flagging of the park for the 50th anivversary. Their is also a hight restriction of 180 feet in lake george. The town give's the park a hard time and the town always shuts the park down. Ps Don't believe the rumour about them getting a superman *** This post was edited by coaster master 9/4/2003 7:36:48 PM ***

no tunnels no speed