The main appeal of this ride is you can't really see how run down it is, but you sense it in the…read moreair. The miners have definitely seen better days. It doesn't move quickly but was a little scary (for my 9 and 12 year old) because of the darkness and screeching noises. Best part is the swirling pink tunnel and the complete lack of a line.

Another only at Knoebels rides the Black Diamond is a unique experience. Sure it's not scary but it…read morehas a nice theme and the props are done right. It also honors the biggest and arguably most dangerous industry in the area coal mining with a section dedicated to what can happen to a town in the coal region. The people of Wildwood should be proud of what happened to their Gold Nugget.

So this is my first time going Here and I was actually pleasantly surprised the four big coasters…read morethat they had over. There were actually pretty decent and I thought that I would definitely come back again. I also like the fact that you can pay for ride and so you don't have to go on all the rights and the wait time for each of the rides wasn't that long either I was able to get on the ride pretty quickly and I didn't have to wait in line too long. I didn't try any of the food so I wouldn't know how the food was there, but I would definitely go back for the rides and I thought that they were pretty decent. They had different different types of regularfair type rides that are pretty traditional, but then they also had the big coasters for big coasters that I would go back for.

The Haunted House at Knoebels is a fantastically fun attraction. It is not too intense fro young…read moreriders and adults will find it cheesy in all the right ways. The jump scares and bizarre decorations had us giggling throughout the ride. It may not be, let's say, the most technologically advanced ride, but you don't need to do a lot to scare people, and they have done a lot with just a little and that's just great.

Peaceful place to camp and enjoy with family and friends great food great rides cheap place to go…read morewith the family

You can't beat free admission and free parking. You also can't beat a $5 slice of pizza or…read morecheeseburger at a legit theme park. It's no wonder why this place draws crowds. Tucked deep in Pennsylvania coal country (i.e. the middle to nowhere) you can find the rollercoasters rising out of the hills and this cute little park that time has luckily spared. There's something for everyone here, and with rides and games being pay as you go you can have as action packed or as relaxed of a day as you choose. There's even a large pool in the park for the hottest of summer days. I can see why this place has its diehard fans. With ample camping and rentals around the perimeter you can turn a trip here into a full vacation easily.

The Scenic Skyway is a scenic and relaxing way to spend some time at Knoebels. Leaving, you get…read moregreat views of the mountains. Coming back, you get great views of the park. Because of this, this is something you must do at least once when visiting Knoebels.

Impulse is a fun ride. Like its western cousin Wicked in Utah's Lagoon, it features a full course…read moreof hills, inversions, and turns. However, it is missing the launch at the beginning that Lagoon's Wicked has. With that said, it is still a good, fun ride, it could just be a little better with if it had that launch.

As someone who loves roller coasters, this is definitely a good one…read more Knobles is a good park and is mostly old, wooden, and small rides. Impulse is a great ride as knobles needs at least 1 metal roller coaster. The experience is phenomenal I get into a tight, but comfortable seat, there are 2 carts running at a time and each cart fits 8 people 4 front 4 back This is great for friends so they can all fit. Not to mention it's better than other coasters because you have a 50 -50 chance to be in the front, a lot of people prefer the front for better experience This ride is super smooth, and intense not to mention the 88 degree drop. WOWZERS Anyone who loves roller coasters should go on impulse

The Bumper Cars, also known as the Dodgems or Skooters, are a Knoebels staple. Everyone has a…read moredifferent opinion of what the best ride is at Knoebels. Many will say the Phoenix; others will say the Train, there are countless possible answers. I would argue that this is the parks well known but best dark horse ride. The bumper cars are like many of the older rides at Knoebels: not perfect, edgy, and full of individual personality. Two different styles of cars are in-use (older medal vs newer plastic), with the medal ones being the standard operating cars. These cars are edgy, you might get one that is fast and maneuverable, but the next one is slow and sluggish, it's part of the experience. I've had a car break at the start of the ride, it happens. As for the individual ride, it can vary per the group. Floor is configured as an oval, one way, and no head on's allowed. Many kids have issues controlling the cars as they do not drive yet. Often, the ride has to be briefly stopped due to people being unable to understand directions. Cars can hit very hard and pick up some decent speed, and it can be a physical experience. Overall, worth the price of the ride for the fun experience. The Bumper Cars are one of the best rides in the park without question.

Come for a great time but try not to stay for the whiplash!…read more Often quoted as "the best bumper cars in America", this statement is fairly legit for those that I have been on throughout the northeast. These are a classic mainstay and part of the unique charm of Knoebels in general. I'll never forget the older gentleman who worked here for years and is glorified in a painting on the wall yelling "NO HEAD-ON COLLISIONS!" I believe he has passed away considering he was probably in his 70's back in the 1990's. RIP Awesome Bumper Car Man Whoever is working here, they are still sassy as hell no matter who it is and you'll hear someone get yelled at no less than three times throughout a ride. But this is for good reason and the heeded warnings are important because you will legit get injured if you decide to take your buddy on at full speed, head-on. Don't think about trying it because your neck will hurt for weeks AND you'll probably get kicked out of the park. The smell of these cars while running, the loud bangs and the sparks flying on the ceiling make it a must see attraction every single visit. These can't be missed and at under $2 per ride, it's probably the best value in the park besides the Grand Carousel. The line is rarely longer than 2-3 cycles of riders and the ride seems fairly long, like close to five minutes.

Welcome to one of the few arcade's left in Eastern/Central Pennsylvania. While arcades were once…read morecommon with virtually every mall having one, most have closed including Boardwalk Boulevard, Pocket Change, and Tilt. This arcade is located within Knoebles, so there is no admission fee. Playland is an interesting arcade that has modernized to keep with the times. Building is not fancy but is decently large. This is NOT a retro arcade, so you will not see games like X-Men, Simpsons, or Centipede. They have a wide array of new $1 a play games along with other recent games such as Dance Dance Revolution. Playland has many new ticket games with the usual array of prizes available. Some older ticket games include Skee ball and Pop-A-Ball poker. A few pinball machines are located in the back of the building. It's easy to walk into Playland and spend $5 quickly. As a child of the 80's it's nice to see at least one arcade can continue to thrive. There's no right time to visit as it's always crowded, so if you're at Knoebles, make sure to stop!

Fun arcade in the middle of Knoebels. The main draw for me is that in addition to video games and…read moreticket games, they also usually have three or four pinball machines!

Holy airtime! If you go, make sure to sit in the back seat…read morefor the best experience of this historic wooden coaster.

In the 1980s, when the Knoebels family announced they were resurrecting a dead roller coaster from…read moreTexas, a wooden relic called The Rocket, there were skeptics. "Wooden coasters don't rise from the dead," they said. "Once they're gone, they're gone," they said. "Extreme coasters with ever-growing numbers of loops are the future!" But Knoebels, being run by either visionaries or lunatics (or both), instead dug up the corpse, hauled it across the country beam-by-beam, and brought it back to life. They named it The Phoenix, because what else do you call a miracle? And what a resurrection it was. The Phoenix is a wooden coaster as God intended. No over-the-shoulder restraints, no plastic prison to hold you down. Just a single, beautiful buzz bar, a safety system designed under the assumption that riders are either thrill-seekers or daredevils, and that both deserve respect. The bar does not staple you to your seat. It merely suggests that you stay. And so, if you are fortunate enough to ride in the back row, and you should ride in the back row, you will experience what can only be described as flight. The first drop pulls you down like a siren's call, but it is the return trip, the final act of this wooden symphony, where The Phoenix truly earns its legend. The bunny hills do not simply lift you from your seat. They rip you from gravity itself. Your body becomes a loose suggestion, held in place only by momentum and the faint hope that this ancient engineering will continue to defy physics for just a little longer. You will scream. You will laugh. You will ascend. There are flashier roller coasters in the world. Taller ones. Faster ones. Louder ones. But none of them feel like this. The Phoenix doesn't consistently place in the top three (and often win) the Golden Ticket Award for best wooden coaster because of it's speed or height. It is a coaster built entirely of transcendence. So if you ever find yourself in Elysburg, PA, among the trees and the laughter and the smell of frying dough, do yourself a favor: go ride The Phoenix. And for those brief, breathtaking moments when you are no longer touching your seat, remember this: sometimes, dead things do come back. And sometimes, they are better than ever.

Wuh-ho, ladies-n-gentlemen! After riding this coaster I can safely say it is the best twister…read morecoaster I've ever been on! And that's a statment the Rollercoaster Queen doesn't make too lightly. For those of you who are wondering what twisters are, they're a relatively new breed of wooden rollercoasters. Recent technological advances have allowed for higher hills and more sharply banked turns and twists, hence the name (and name of this particular coaster) "Twister." I mean, you know it's gonna be one hell of a thrill ride when the coaster has not one, but two lift hills! This beast is over 3900 feet long, reaches a height of 101 feet, and has a bowl so twisted, you'd think you're looking at spaghetti gone haywire. It was designed completely in house by the folks at Knoebel's and was built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company, who've put their name on many, many famous coasters. So we're gonna take a couple of rides, first in the front for the view and then in the back for the G-forces. Ready? The Twister does a bit of a drop out of the station and then clips along towards the initial lift hill. This lift hill is actually within the rest of the coaster's structure. This one does a rather rapid ascent and for me that's the only negative. Me, I love it when coasters ascend their lift hills slowly. Builds up anticipation, y'know. So the lift chain releases and we drop slightly into a very rapid "S" curve before we hit the second lift hill. The lift chain engages and if we look ahead, we see nothing but sky. But if we look to the sides we get a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. As we crest the hill, we take a look of the foothills. We do a short drop and then into another "S" curve before we take the big drop. Ah, the big drop! We get maybe a nanosecond to take in the view of the twists, turns, and bowls of The Twister! We plunge Earthwards under the bowl before going back up again, then a 180 into a boomerang before we go into the bowl itself. We're on the outer part of the bowl as we do a high-banked curve. We're going almost too fast to see it, but we're now on the inner bowl with even more sharply banked curves. The a twist into a high-banked boomerang, an airtime hill, then we plunge into the short tunnel for another hidden airtime hill. Finally we do another curve as we hit the brake run into the station. So as we get off the ride, I hope you've caught your breath, your heartrate returns to normal, and your innards have caught up with you. 'Cos we're gonna ride again!

I've been to about 20 amusement parks throughout my life, mostly on the east coast and a little…read morefurther south to King's Dominion and those in FL. Although I'm a bit biased because I grew up just a few towns over from Knoebels, it is still the best park in America hands down for not only the free admission but because they have gems like the Twister that make you want to come back over and over again. The Twister has to easily be on the top 10 wooden coaster list in all of America, if not cracking the top 5. The BEST I've ever been on, even though it is a hybrid coaster, would be El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure. The Phoenix was obviously ranked for many years and for good reason but now Knoebels has TWO of the top coasters in the entire country and can be ridden any day you'd like for only $5 for BOTH! Who offers up that kind of deal anywhere else?? I've posted a few "different" pictures, one of the golden bolt when the coaster was finished in 1999 and the lovely train that goes under the two large lift hills and back into the woods. I don't have enough gumption to pull out my camera going down the lift hills so you get to enjoy those instead. The only complaint about the ride itself is the headaches it can cause from all the jarring, especially if you ride it more than once in a row. One time, I rode 3x in a span of 20 min because the lines were so short on a fall day and that was not smart given how I felt afterwards. The bouncing around happens throughout the ride, beginning in the decent down a small hill out of the station. EVERYTHING else, and I mean everything....is great about the Twister. From the first teaser hill (sorry for ruining it) to the "double helix" twist you engage in while making circles around the queue line. It's so genuine and original, I can't think of another single coaster I've been on that compares to the Twister. It's in a category all on its own and the thrills don't end. Coaster enthusiasts need to head to rural PA for a day to experience this as well as the Phoenix....and I can't stress enough, it'll only cost you $5 and the gas to get there.