The fan favorite Tremors roller coaster at Silverwood Theme Park is getting some significant upgrades in 2025. In this post, we’ll cover the official park announcement, share some history and background, as well as our thoughts and comments on this long-awaited, and very welcome news!
Tremors was built back in 1999, and was Silverwood’s second major wooden roller coaster. We dive into a lot of the backstory of this ride in our Tremors Ride Review, so we won’t re-hash all of that here. Suffice to say, the ride was a massive hit. At a time when the coaster wars were just heating up, and parks were trying to out-do one another with the next biggest, tallest, or fastest ride, Silverwood bucked the trend and opted for a ride that would provide thrills in a different way – by sending riders underground four times.
Gary Norton shared some of the “why” behind this in his interview with us back in 2013, and even more so in his autobiography American Theme Park. His experience flying various airplanes – including stunt planes – had taught him that you don’t realize how fast you are going until you’re just a few feet off the ground. Applying that principle to a roller coaster proved to be a stroke of genius. Indeed, Tremors may not be the fastest coaster on the planet, but when you’re screaming through those four tunnels, it sure does feel like it.
Looking back, the addition of this coaster marked a turning point for the park as a whole. Tremors put Silverwood on the map, making it a true destination for families and coaster enthusiasts in the region, and across the country. In fact, 1999 was the first year that we visited the park together, and we’ve not missed a single summer since then.
Mike and Chris’s On-Ride Photo from Tremors in 1999
From the beginning, we’ve always had one major complaint about Tremors – single train operations. Most of the time, the ride never demanded more than a 30 minute wait, but the wait was always painfully slow, creeping along at what felt like a snail’s pace. After the first couple of years passed by, another minor quibble popped up in terms of the train itself. Many CCI coasters had converted over to the much more popular and comfortable Millennium Flyer trains from GCI. We held out hope that Silverwood would jump on the trend – perhaps making the conversion at the same time as adding a second train. But neither of those hopes materialized.
Fast forward even farther, and Tremors began to show signs of age. Every wooden coaster – no matter how great it is – suffers from this problem. Even Ghostrider at Knott’s Berry Farm – considered by many to be the king of wooden coasters for quite some time – eventually got to the point that it was virtually unbearable to ride. Enter: Rocky Mountain Construction, and it’s proprietary Topper Track and I-Box track. Both of these provided parks with options for refurbishing, improving, and even re-imagining classic wooden coasters. Tremors was the first coaster to receive Topper Track back in 2010 – and was added to the far turnaround by the log flume. The difference was literally night and day, and reminded us of how great the ride was in it’s early days. We hoped against hope, that the rest of the ride would soon get an overlay.
Alas, Topper Track never seemed to catch on with other parks, and was quickly overshadowed by I-Box track – a revolutionary all-steel track designed for integration into wooden coaster structures. This was used to create entirely new re-profiled “hybrid coasters” – wooden framed rides with steel track. These were designed featuring steeper drops, crazier twists, and mind-boggling inversions. It was a great way to take a classic old coaster with a relatively tame layout, and turn it into a completely new monster. See Cedar Point’s conversion of Mean Streak into Steel Vengeance, for perhaps the best example of this application.
While this works well on much older wooden coasters, it’s not the right application in every instance. Tremors, for example, already has a near perfect layout, and wouldn’t lend itself as well to a hybrid conversion. RMC clearly saw this potential and began offering a new option – 208 ReTraK, which is essentially I-Box that’s added to a coaster’s existing ride profile.
Silverwood jumped on this option in 2021 and began adding 208 ReTraK to the roughest sections of both Tremors and Timber Terror worst sections – starting with the massive helix out of the Tremor’s second tunnel. It was eventually added to the first set of “airtime” hills, the final turnaround out of the 4th tunnel, and over at Timber Terror it was added to both helixes. Each addition of 208 Retrak reinforced the stark difference between the refurbished sections of the rides, and the areas that still retained traditional wooden track. We could only hope for more to be added in future years.
And that brings us to Silverwood’s big announcement for 2025. Here’s the press release in its entirety, followed by the announcement video:
The anticipation has been growing as word and images of a trackless wooden coaster at Silverwood Theme Park spread across the Inland Northwest. On Thursday, the park officially announced the details behind the construction. Summer 2025 will officially be the season to rediscover the legend of Tremors.
Since Tremor’s opening in 1999, it has been one of the top-rated wooden coasters in the country. And now, in 2025, Tremors is undergoing a seismic upgrade! Guests will now enjoy brand-new Millennium Flyer trains that are sleek, stylish, and ready to shake, rattle, and roll riders through every twist and drop. Plus, Silverwood has added a second train to boost throughput so that coaster enthusiasts can ride again, again, and again. Hold on tight because there’s more. Developed right next door in Hayden, Idaho, by Rocky Mountain Construction, is 208 ReTraK, a cutting-edge steel track, which will rumble beneath the train, giving guests a smoother, quieter ride.
Silverwood’s Director of Marketing and Entertainment, Jordan Carter, says, “Silverwood is committed to enhancing the guest experience, and we are thrilled to announce that this seismic upgrade on Tremors will give our guests more opportunities to enjoy an increased throughput and smoother ride for years to come.”
For years, thrill-seekers have braved the underground monster that shook riders to their core. After leaving the loading station and climbing the first hill, they find themselves 100 feet in the air, making the first drop of 103 feet into the first of four underground tunnels, reaching a top speed of 63 MPH. But that was just the beginning. Get ready, because the beast is being reawakened this summer.
As the saying goes – patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. It’s a rare treat when three of your long-time wishes come true all at once, and yet here we are! A second train, Millennium Flyer trains, and 208 ReTraK replacing all remaining traditional wooden track on Tremors. These changes will no doubt elevate Tremors to the top wooden coaster in the park, and goes to show what Silverwood is willing to do to keep its premier roller coaster running in top shape. Could we possibly ask for anything more?
Well, as it turns out, we did. Last year we noticed (and commented) on how rough the first drop of Timber Terror was, and apparently we weren’t the only ones who noticed. Although all the attention is currently on Tremors, Silverwood confirmed in the podcast that the entire first drop on Timber Terror is getting 208 ReTraK as well. And although Timber Terror isn’t getting all the other fancy upgrades (maybe that’s being saved for 2026???), this will be a small but very impactful change that we’re extremely excited for.
If you’re as big of nerds as we are, then we’d highly recommend checking out the latest “Silverwood Show” podcast episode, where they dive even deeper into all the juicy details behind these changes. The episode is only an hour long, but if you want to skip ahead to all the details on the announcement, that starts about 27 mins in. Here’s a link to the iHeartRadio location, but you can access this wherever you normally get your podcasts: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-silverwood-show-215027271/
Suffice to say, 2025 is a great year to be a wooden coaster fan visiting Silverwood. We can’t wait to check out these upgrades, and look forward to sharing our thoughts with all of you after we’ve had a chance to ride again, again, and again!
Planning a trip to Silverwood this year? Be sure to check out our Silverwood Trip Planning Guide to get some great ideas on how to plan your trip. Also, our Silverwood Rides and Attractions Guide and Boulder Beach Attractions Guide have even more details on which rides, slides, and shows to hit up while you're there!
Are you looking forward to these changes to Tremors for 2025? When did you first ride the coaster, and what was your impression at the time? We love hearing from you - so please share your thoughts in the comments below!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
