The Leavenworth Adventure Park is a small family entertainment center in Leavenworth, WA, and features the Tumwater Twister alpine roller coaster. We recently had an opportunity to experience this attraction. In this post we’ll share photos, some general info and tips about our experience, and our overall thoughts on Washington’s newest coaster.
The Leavenworth Adventure Park opened to guests in May of 2023, after over 5 years of planning and working through the various stages of city approvals. We won’t re-hash all the details, as you can read plenty of news articles to fill you in. Suffice to say, getting this small attraction the green light was in and of itself a microcosm of the “DisneylandForward” saga that recently wrapped up with the city of Anaheim! As with that, we’re glad this was eventually approved.
The park is located at the far southwest end of Leavenworth, at the intersection of Highway 2 and Icicle Road. Currently, the park is home to a seasonal rock climbing wall and mining sleuce, along with the main attraction – the Tumwater Twister alpine coaster – which operates year-round. Yes that’s right, you can ride this coaster even in the dead of winter with snow on the ground! If it’s raining, the park will attach rain shields to the sleds to help make the ride a little more enjoyable. But aside from lightning, there is virtually nothing else that will cause the ride to shut down. Indeed, it’s one of our favorite features of any alpine coaster. Original plans and concept art also called for a bungee trampoline, but this has either been delayed, or scrapped all together. Note that the park is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the offseason, but they do operate seven days a week during the summer months, and other peak holiday times. Be sure to plan ahead.
Upon arrival, we immediately went inside to queue up for check-in. We highly recommend booking ahead. While there is always the possibility of walk-up space, it’s better to have your time reserved, especially on weekends. We had booked our ride reservation for 5pm which was the final timeslot available for the day we visited. Be sure to fill out your waivers online ahead of time as well, as this can save you some time when you’re getting checked in. The park also offers a complimentary bag-check at the check-in desk, which we took full advantage of.
Once we were all set with our wristbands, we made our way upstairs to the second floor. The 5pm timeslot worked out well for us, as things were starting to wind down for the day, and the actual wait for the coaster itself wasn’t too bad. Speaking of, you’ll want to account for that wait time when making your plans. Not only do you have to check in at ground level to get your wristband, but once upstairs at the loading station, you can expect to wait for 20-30 minutes (sometimes more) before boarding your sled. For us, it was about 15 minutes on our first ride, and only about 5-10 on our second.
Empty sleds come into the station one at a time, with about 4 or 5 queued up for dispatch. After buckling in and giving the thumbs up, it’s time to ride. Three cable lifts pull your sled skyward to the very top of the hill. It’s a nice, leisurely ride up, about 2-3 minutes or so, and allows plenty of time to soak in the surrounding mountains. Upon reaching the summit, we were greeted by one final ride operator who instructed us to push our hand brake forward, and we were off!
The descent starts with a full 180-degree right turn at the top which reveals a beautiful vista of the entire Leavenworth valley below. The coaster doesn’t pick up too much speed here, so it’s a great chance to take in the view before the fun really starts. After a few seconds of leisurely mountain bliss, the coaster kicks into full gear, with dives, sharp turns, and helixes galore. Riders have the option to pull back on the hand brakes to slow down for a more leisurely ride if they so choose. Being the true ride warriors that we are, we left the brakes off the entire time!
Admittedly, we were expecting a much shorter ride, as it doesn’t look very long from the ground. But we were pleasantly surprised at how well the coaster utilizes the hill to its advantage, and makes the most of the terrain. To be sure, it’s not as long as many of the other alpine coasters found around the world, but at 2,870 feet, it’s also far from the shortest. It’s definitely long enough to feel like a satisfying ride, and we found ourselves laughing and smiling each time as we slammed into the final brake run.
One final tip as you re-enter the station to disembark: if you happen to get stuck behind a slow rider, tell the ride operator when you’re exiting, and you’ll be allowed to re-ride. A single ride is $20, and they don’t want people walking away feeling like they didn’t have a good experience. Fortunately for us, we did not have that problem, but it’s nice to know that it’s an option, should it happen to you. Along those same lines, if you are one who wants a slow, leisurely ride, be sure to tell the ride ops at the start. They’ll then be able to give adequate spacing between you and the next sled.
Riders exit on the top level of the building, where you can view your on-ride photos, or grab a snack from the concessions stand. There’s also lots of indoor seating here with great views of the final helix of the coaster. Once we had gotten our fill of coaster riding, we headed outside to relax in the courtyard area. This is home to the rock climbing wall (which was still closed for the winter), and the mining sluice (which we opted to skip on this visit). There’s also lots of space for kids to run around, as well as several gas fire pits and lawn chairs if you want to kick back, rest, and warm up a bit.
Overall, this is a fantastic addition to the city of Leavenworth. It’s the first major new attraction to be added to the town that we can remember, in all the years we’ve been visiting. And it’s great that it’s something that the whole family can enjoy. It fits Bavarian theme perfectly, and couldn’t have been a more perfect choice for the location of Washington’s first alpine coaster. We can’t wait to return, and hope this paves the way for more of these types of coasters in the PNW in the years to come!
Have you ridden the Tumwater Twister alpine coaster? What did you think? Did you opt for a slow ride or a fast-paced thrill ride? We love hearing from you, so let us know 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.
