Sidewinder is a
steel roller coaster
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated whee ...
located at
Elitch Gardens
Elitch Gardens was a family-owned seasonal amusement park, theater, and botanic garden in the West Highland neighborhood in northwest Denver, Colorado, United States, at 38th and Tennyson streets. For more than a century Elitch's was one of the m ...
in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
This is a fairly simple coaster that takes rides through one loop. Instead of starting from the ground, riders have to ascend stairs fifty feet up to the loading station. The train is launched down a hill, goes into the loop, then ascends a slope opposite of the station with a braking section. The train repeats the layout backwards, and returns to the station.
Before being operated at Elitch Gardens this roller coaster was at the Magic Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park as the Roaring Tornado. The coaster operated at the original Elitch Gardens from 1990 to 1994, then was relocated to the current Elitch Gardens in 1995.
It is one of only three Arrow Dynamics launched loop coasters to be operating around the world, the others being Diamond Back at
Frontier City
Frontier City is a western-themed amusement park in Oklahoma City. It is owned by EPR and operated by Six Flags. The park originally opened in 1958. Frontier City is the third-oldest Six Flags park behind Six Flags New England and Six Flags Grea ...
, and the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
at
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. It operates as a secure facility, and has introduced epayments via smartphones for admission charges, replacin ...
.
The ride has received new paint for the 2010 season, and is now more of a lime green than the darker shade it has been since being repainted from its original white.
References
{{SFEG Coasters
Elitch Gardens Theme Park
Roller coasters in Colorado
Roller coasters introduced in 1995
Roller coasters operated by Herschend Family Entertainment