Get ready for some of the best rides of your life on these scream-worthy Pennsylvania roller coasters! Most are Golden Ticket award winners and all are guaranteed to leave you breathless! With more roller coasters rated in the top 100 than any other state or nation, Pennsylvania just might be “coaster central” offering some of the best roller coasters on the east coast!
1. The Steel Curtain
Kennywood, West Mifflin
Type: Steel
Height: 220 feet
Speed: 76 mph
Length: 4,000 feet
Inversions: 9
Ride Duration: 2 minutes
Adrenaline seekers rejoice and hop aboard Kennywood and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ latest collaboration: The Steel Curtain, the tallest roller coaster in Pennsylvania. At a maximum height of 220 feet, the coaster’s colossal steel structure is an incredible addition to the world of roller coasters and a high-energy entry point welcoming guests to Steelers Country. Riders speed through 4,000 feet of track at 76 miles per hour while navigating through nine inversions (a North American record for most inversions) — including the world’s tallest at 197 feet above the ground! No wonder The Steel Curtain was rated one of the world’s best steel coasters in 2022 by Amusement Today!
2. Leap-the-Dips
Lakemont Park, Altoona
Type: Wood – Side friction
Height: 41 feet
Speed: 10 mph
Length: 1,452 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute
Dedicated roller coaster enthusiasts (and even those who aren’t) will want to journey to Lakemont Park in Altoona this summer for the park’s Leap-the-Dips coaster. Built in 1902, Leap-the-Dips is the world’s oldest roller coaster, America's last side friction roller coaster still in operation, and a National Historic Landmark. Delighting riders for more than 120 years, the coaster’s figure-eight design offers plenty of thrills with the bumps and sounds that only a classic wooden coaster can provide!
3. Skyrush
Hersheypark, Hershey
Type: Steel
Height: 200 feet
Speed: 75 mph
Length: 3,600 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute, 3 seconds
Known as the tallest and fastest roller coaster at Hersheypark, Skyrush is not for the faint of heart! First, you’re propelled up 200 feet of track in just 10 seconds. Next, you crest the hill and plunge down the nearly vertical 85 degrees at 75 mph with forces equal to five Gs. The “ejector airtime” will surely give you the thrill like no other. If that doesn’t get your adrenaline pumping, the next series of four fast, high-banked turns and five airtime hills will, especially for those sitting in the “wing seats.” These seats extend over the edge of the track, are floorless, and are guaranteed to leave you screaming as you realize you’re essentially hanging in mid-air.
4. Thunderbolt
Kennywood, West Mifflin
Type: Wooden
Height: 70 feet
Speed: 55 mph
Length: 3,250 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute, 48 seconds
As you climb aboard Kennywood’s Thunderbolt, you might be tempted to expect the usual coaster ride where you exit the station, climb up the steepest hill, then zoom down to gain momentum for the rest of the ride’s tricks and turns. Not this time! Instead of going up, you’re immediately plunging down into a deep ravine. Roaring up the ravine’s other side, the ride makes a sharp right-hand turn and then you’re climbing one of a series of hills — each larger than the one before and saving the best for last with a nearly 100-foot drop before coming to a stop on one of Amusement Today’s best wooden roller coasters of the world in 2022!
5. Steel Force
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Allentown
Type: Steel
Height: 205 feet
Speed: 75 mph
Length: 5,600 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 3 minutes
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is where you’ll find one of the best steel roller coasters in the world as you feel the “force” through Steel Force’s white-knuckle maze with a 205-foot drop, two mystifying tunnels, and dips and turns with speeds reaching 75 miles per hour. At three minutes, Steel Force has the longest ride of any coaster in the region.
6. Phantom’s Revenge
Kennywood, West Mifflin
Type: Steel
Height: 160 feet
Speed: 85 mph
Length: 3,365 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute, 45 seconds
Rated one of the world’s best steel rollers coasters in 2022 by Amusement Today, climb aboard Phantom’s Revenge (if you dare!) and get ready to go faster than you’re legally allowed on any Pennsylvania highway! But first, prepare to climb, and climb, and then climb some more past the treetops until you’re perched 160 feet in the air with a true bird’s eye view of the park and surrounding area. Next, you’re screaming down and around the track at 85 mph, hurtling through other rides in some “headchopper” moments, thrown into laterals, and plummeting down into one of the park’s steep ravines, all while enjoying some serious airtime on the ride’s many hills and wondering if your adrenaline rush will ever wear off on the fastest roller coaster in Pennsylvania!
7. Fahrenheit
Hersheypark, Hershey
Height: 121 feet
Speed: 58 mph
Length: 2,700 feet
Inversions: 6
Ride Duration: 1 minute, 25 seconds
Fahrenheit’s claim to fame is the 97-degree first drop. The looping roller coaster ascends 90 degrees, 121-foot lift before plummeting down for a memorable drop. Ready for more? The coaster’s packed layout features six inversions and plenty of airtime. The Norwegian Loop, Cobra Roll, and Double Corkscrew will keep your head spinning for days!
8. Hydra The Revenge
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Allentown
Type: Steel
Height: 105 feet
Speed: 53 mph
Length: 3,198 feet
Inversions: 7
Ride Duration: 2 minutes, 35 seconds
The floor drops, the front gate opens, and the ride is deceptively slow for the first several feet and you begin to wonder, just what is so scream-worthy about Hydra The Revenge. Then Suddenly, you’re launched through a 360-degree Jojo Roll. Then, with just enough time to calm your nerves and close your mouth, you’re climbing a 95-foot hill and six more crazy rolls — passing only inches above the boulder-strewn ground. How are your screaming abilities and coaster mettle, now? Congratulations for surviving Hydra’s more than half mile of coiling steel!
9. Ravine Flyer II
Waldameer & WaterWorld, Erie
Type: Wood-Steel Hybrid
Height: 85 feet
Speed: 60 mph
Length: 3,000 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds
Ravine Flyer II made quite the debut in 2008, winning Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket award for the world’s Best New Ride and currently ranked the seventh best wooden roller coaster in the world in 2022! It’s no wonder, since this hybrid coaster has almost everything adrenaline aficionados crave: speed, hills with plenty of out-of-your-seat airtime, great track-banking curves and turns — and, if that’s not enough — six darkened tunnels and a 165-foot-long arched bridge that sends you flying over a four-lane highway below and guaranteed to get you smiling and screaming,
10. Phoenix
Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg
Type: Wooden
Height: 78 feet
Speed: 45 mph
Length: 3,200 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 2 minutes
Don’t be fooled and think the Phoenix is a tame ride. It’s anything but — offering some of the best airtime you’ll find on any coaster — one of the reasons Amusement Today awarded the 2022 Golden Ticket Award to the Phoenix as the world’s best wooden roller coaster! With its “double out and back” layout, this classic Philadelphia Toboggan Coaster shoots up and then plunges down hills of different sizes, whips through horseshoe curves, and offers the sensation of almost continuous airtime, delivering a ride that’s definitely scream-worthy! (Knoebels also once again won the Golden Ticket Award for the best amusement park food in the world in 2022.)
11. Storm Runner
Hersheypark, Hershey
Type: Steel
Height: 180 feet
Speed: 72 mph
Length: 2,600 feet
Inversions: 3
Ride Duration: 1 minute
Are you ready for speed? The Storm Runner will launch you from 0-72 mph in two seconds flat. Before you even know what happened, you are shot up the 150-foot-tall “top hat” element providing some airtime and then straight down 180 feet. Next, the coaster climbs and rolls left into the “Cobra Loop” followed by several other rolls before slamming on the magnetic breaks and jerking the riders forward at a complete stop. Breathless? So are we!
12. Candymonium
Hersheypark, Hershey
Type: Steel
Height: 210 feet
Speed: 76 mph
Length: 4,636 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 2 minutes 26 seconds
Candymonium, Hersheypark’s tallest, fastest, longest, and sweetest coaster, offers memorable thrills around every turn! No wonder it was rated one of Amusement Today’s best steel coasters in the world for 2022. Your ride starts with a 210-foot ascent up the tallest hill in Hersheypark before plummeting through seven camelback hills serving up the most airtime of any ride in the park. However, the thrills are just beginning when Candymonium crosses paths with the large coaster, Skyrush, before finishing with a panoramic banked curve around the iconic Kisses Fountain.
13. Lightning Racer
Hersheypark, Hershey
Type: Wood
Height: 90 feet
Speed: 50 mph
Length: 3,400 feet (each side)
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute 20 seconds
Climb aboard Lightning Racer for a race to the finish in this, the first wooden racing/dueling coaster in the U.S! Rated one of Amusement Today’s top wooden coasters in the world for 2022, the coaster features two staggered lifts and a thrilling element of competition to determine will thunder or lightning be crowned the winner is this classic face-off?
14. Jack Rabbit
Kennywood, West Mifflin
Type: Wood
Height: 40 feet (excluding the 70-foot drop)
Speed: 45 mph
Length: 2,132 feet
Inversions: 0
Ride Duration: 1 minute 36 seconds
For more than a century, Jack Rabbit has been delighting coaster fans with its 70-foot double-dip drop that is still a relatively rare feature in the world of roller coasters. Now in its 103rd year, Jack Rabbit takes full advantage of the natural ravine on which it was built. No wonder Amusement Today rated Jack Rabbit the 12th best roller coaster in the world in 2022! Not bad for this century-old treasure and one of the oldest roller coasters in the world still in operation!
15. Wildcat’s Revenge
Hersheypark, Hershey
Type: Wood & Steel
Height: 140 feet
Speed: 62 mph
Length: 3,510 feet
Inversions: 4
Ride Duration: 2 minutes 36 seconds
It may not be the tallest roller coaster or the fastest, but Wildcat’s Revenge is going to be one of the scariest roller coasters in Pennsylvania when its cars start rolling in summer 2023. The all-new, wood-steel combo coaster features four exhilarating inversions, including the largest underflip on this planet! The coaster’s three custom trains first climb a 140-foot hill before hitting maximum speeds of 62 mph. Hold on tight, because you’ll dive into an 82-degree drop and invert 4 times for one of the best thrilling and adrenaline-pumping rides of your life!
Coaster lingo for the budding enthusiasts:
G-force: An abbreviation for gravitational force a measurement of the type of acceleration that causes a perception of weight.
Negative g-force (aka airtime): Is experienced when you accelerate downwards faster than the rate of natural freefall, often resulting in a feeling of weightlessness.
Golden Ticket: Each year, the Golden Ticket Awards ranks the best steel and wooden roller coasters in the world. The awards are presented by Amusement Today, a monthly periodical featuring news on amusement parks and rides. They rely on a panel of voters from all around the world consisting of experienced park enthusiasts.
Inversion: A roller coaster element in which the track turns riders upside-down and then returns them to an upright position.
Jojo roll: The Jojo roll at Dorney Park is the first-ever pre-lift hill inversion where riders twist upside-down after exiting the launch station.
Want more coaster action? Check out the 40+ roller coasters at Pennsylvania’s Amusement Parks Association website, which are geared to all ages and thrill levels. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram to stay up-to-date on even more great ideas and places to visit around our state. Don’t forget to never miss an update and sign up for our monthly Happy Thoughts e-newsletter.