We’ll start with some general tips and info. First, admission to the water park is included in your park tickets, and there is no separate gate. Once you’re through the main park entrance and across the train tracks, you simply go left for Silverwood or right for Boulder Beach. Second, both parks open at the same time – 11am. Closing time is different though – Boulder Beach closes its doors at 7pm each night, whereas the theme park stays open for at least a couple hours beyond this.
Third, we mentioned it already in our Silverwood trip planning guide, but unless the weather is lousy, our advice is to always start your day at the water park. And fourth, make sure you rent tubes if you plan to enjoy the Lazy River or the Rumble Falls tube slides; the park has a few “loaner tubes” to use, but they are few in number and you’ll end up waiting forever to use one. Having your own will save you a ton of time.
Now that you’re ready to start your day, let’s dive in (no pun intended) to the details. Here we attempt to give you our ratings for each attraction at Boulder Beach, using the same scale we did for our Silverwood Rides Guide. 0 to 10, with 0 being the lowest and 10 being highest. We hope this will help you to get the most out of your time in the water park. As you’ll see, there isn’t really anything at Boulder Beach that we rate poorly – every attraction is at least moderately good in its own right. There’s a broad spectrum of things to do, such that there is literally something for everyone in your group, no matter the age. Add to all this the amount of theming and landscaping that has been done at Boulder Beach, top it off with the surrounding northwest forest and mountains, and you’ve truly got one of the most beautiful water parks you’ll ever set foot in.
Avalanche Mountain – 8.5/10 – A family-rafting ride located at the far north section of the park. Slide with as large of a group as you can, as the more weight in your raft, the higher up the side of the slide you will go. You can find these types of slides at many other water parks, but what makes this stand out is the setting. Instead of a standard metal slide tower, the park opted to build a man-made mountain, and start the ride at the top. They’ve also added so many trees and bushes, you literally feel like you’re sliding through a small forest, before splashing down in a valley at the bottom. Major props to the park for taking something that could have been an eyesore and making it into something truly beautiful. This used to have an even stronger edge due to the dual loading station at the top, but we rarely see this being used anymore. We also knocked this down a few points in 2018 due to the new rafts which have made the ride noticeably slower, and have reduced the “air-time” that you used to get on this slide.
Ricochet Rapids – 8/10 – Located on the same “mountain” as Avalanche Mountain, this slide is mostly enclosed, whereas Avalanche Mountain is completely open. This slide features a drop into a giant funnel, which we would describe as a smaller version of a ProSlide Tornado feature. Aside from this fun feature (and it really is a blast!), the slide is relatively tame. We’ve always wished they had added a second funnel or other feature later on in the slide to keep the excitement going. We also wish the park had opted for another dual-loading station like with Avalanche Mountain. But those are minor complaints – this is a great slide! As with Avalanche Mountain, we maintain that the new rafts have also impacted the speed of this slide as well. We give Ricochet a slight edge though due to the drop into the funnel.
Riptide Racer – 10/10 – 6-lane mat racer slide, complete with racing timer to indicate who the winner is. In our opinion, this is a solid contender for the best attraction at the water park. We can ride it multiple times with our family without getting bored, as each time is just a little different and usually someone new wins. Amazingly, the racing timer is still functioning after almost 10 years – something that cannot be said for similar slides at other parks around the world. That’s one of those details that goes a long ways for us.
Elkhorn Creek Lazy River – 8.5/10 – 5-10 minute long lazy river which is landscaped to the extreme. Waterfalls, trees, bushes, flowers and more line this beautiful journey. There is also a wet bar located in the middle (adults only!), where you can grab a drink to enjoy. Tubes are not required, but usually make the trip more relaxing, so we recommend bringing one along. Our only complaint is that we wish it were longer!
Salmon Run – 8/10 – Part of the new Emerald Forest expansion for 2024, Salmon Run is a massive new kiddie area with eight slides and a splash pad, all themed to different kinds of local fish. An area like this is exactly what Boulder Beach needed for the younger crowd. And it’s placement right next to Eagle Hunt, and surrounded by private cabanas, makes it a prime area for families to hang out for the day. Our only small compliant, is that 7 of the 8 slides have a “max height” restriction. Unlike Polliwog Park, where everyone can get in on the water slide action, here the grown-ups will have to observe from the sidelines. Setting that aside, however, Salmon Run is fantastic.
Eagle Hunt – 10/10 – Custom dueling/racing water coaster themed to give riders the sensation that they are hunting like Eagles. There aren’t very many of these types of slides out there, so Eagle Hunt is a very unique experience to be sure. Just thrilling enough to give older kids the adrenaline rush they want, yet tame enough that anyone over 42 inches should easily be able to enjoy this fantastic slide. And the dueling/racing feature makes repeatability high. Fair warning – the line for this fills up fast and moves slowly. So be sure to arrive early, and hit this up first thing (and we mean FIRST thing) if it’s on your to-do list for the day!
Polliwog Park – 8/10 – Giant kids water play structure. Features six slides, a multitude of spray features, and a giant dump-bucket. Nothing too unique about this if you’ve seen these before, although this particular model is on the larger side of the scale. Even if you don’t have kids, we’d recommend checking it out!
Boulder Beach Bay – 7/10 – Standard wave pools. And yes, you read that right: pools. We give the park major props for doing what very few have ever even thought to do – add a second wave pool to help spread the crowds out a bit. This makes the experience much more enjoyable.
Rumble Falls – 6/10 – Tube slide tower with four tube slides – two fully enclosed, one completely open, and one half-enclosed/half-open. While each slide is fun, these are relatively short, tame slides compared with what else is in the park. If you choose not to rent your own tube, you’ll end up waiting in two lines – one to get a tube, and then one to slide. Our personal favorite is the fully enclosed light blue slide.
Velocity Peak – 9/10 – Off-the-shelf speed slide tower, common at many other water parks. All three of these are very fun, and worth your time. But if you’ve ridden them before at other parks, you won’t find anything new here.
Toddler Springs – 5/10 – Splash pad area for small kids with an almost zero-depth pool to play around in. The area features an abundance of sprayers, geysers, waterfalls, and fountains. This is excellent if you have small kids, and we often used to set up our ‘camp’ for the day right next to this as it allows the little ones to go play whenever they want to. However, the addition of Salmon Run all but makes this play area irrelevant. It’s still very nice to have something for little ones to do at this far end of the water park, but if you don’t have anyone under the age of 10 in your group, you can easily skip this.
Heading to Silverwood soon? Be sure to check out our Silverwood and Boulder Beach 2 Day Itinerary for a complete rundown of how to make the most of your time in the parks!
How would you rate the attractions at Boulder Beach differently? What are your favorites/least favorites? Let us know what you think 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.
