• Boulder Dash @ Lake Compounce | Coaster Reviews

  Written by The Coaster Critic 7 Comments
  Last Updated: August 21, 2006

  Famed Mountain Coaster Doesn’t Disappoint
  The hype for this ride was huge. Almost too huge. But after three rides on this baby I was able to form an opinion. While I’m not the biggest wooden coaster fan, I am a huge fan of terrain coasters (and mountains for that matter). So, I was itching to get up to Connecticut and check this coaster out. While overall it didn’t disappoint, it was a bit rougher than I expected. Also, I’m glad I rode it several times because I wasn’t completely blown away on my first ride. My ride in the last seat of the last car was very rough. I was jolted so violently at one point that the lap bar came down another notch. It was relentless and thrilling, but as others have pointed out you can get a different ride depending on where you sit and the time of the day.

  The climb up the lift is great as you’re immersed into green foliage and exposed rock. Kudos to Lake Compounce for not clear cutting the mountain when they built Boulder Dash. The drop is a fast, swooping drop reminiscent of almost every B&M invert or floorless coaster. I would’ve preferred a more intimidating and steeper straight drop, but it was still fun. From there on, the ride is nothing but speed and airtime as you charge back up the mountain on a pretty long trip out to the turnaround by the lake. Boulder Dash offers an excellent ride. It’s relentless and it feels about as fast as a woodie should be able to go even if it isn’t the wooden coaster speed record holder. My favorite part by far is the turn around at the lake. It’s sick! And along with some intense g-forces, the speed just seems to increase that much more. It’s almost like you hit the launch magnets from Volcano. Awesome!

  I was at the park on a Wednesday and the wait was never longer than 15 minutes. Also, the ride operator had some personality and tried to get riders fired up. Both were positives. So why not a 10? It just wasn’t there for me. The rough rides and the fact that I had to deliberate between a 9 and a 10 are enough. A 10 should grab you and tell you “I’m a 10!”. There should be no question. It did however, climb my top ten defeating perennial favorites like Hulk and Volcano. At the time of this writing (Summer 2005), it sits at number 5 as my highest ranked woodie ever. Boulder Dash was great and it was a coaster that I’m glad I traveled seven hours for. Get to ‘The Lake‘ and you won’t regret it. Just know that you’re about to ride a beast. Final Rating – 9.5 (Excellent-Approaching Superior)

  See the rest of the rating scale here. Also, check out this roller coaster video of Boulder Dash.
  

  

  Related Posts:

  1. Lake Compounce Book Review
  2. Sold: Kennywood, Idlewild, & Lake Compounce
  3. OCC MotoCoaster @ Darien Lake | Coaster Reviews

  Subscribe via RSS

  There are currently no tags for this post.

  Digg itStumble del.icio.usredditYahooGoogle

7 Comments

1. #1 Ben says:
   December 1st, 2007 at 9:24 am

   I just wanted to point out that you rode Boulder Dash in its worst season. In 2006 they began a major overhaul of the track and in 2007 it will have been completed. 2005 was a very rough year for Boulder Dash, so if you ever find yourself in the area, i suggest you visit Lake Compounce in 2007!

   Reply
2. #2 Ben says:
   December 1st, 2007 at 9:26 am

   I had mistaken my years. I meant to say that 05/06 were its worst years. 07 was the first year it opened with the refurbished track and it will be finished for the 2008 season.

   Reply
3. #3 The Coaster Critic says:
   December 3rd, 2007 at 5:53 am

   With the re-tracking you mentioned Boulder Dash just might earn that ‘10′. It’s good to hear that Lake Compounce believes in maintaining their rides.

   Thanks for stopping by Ben.

   Reply
4. #4 Erika says:
   July 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

   i live is southington which is like half of the amusment park. i go there very often with my freinds and have a seasons pass. we love ging on the thrilling ride boulder dash. sometimes in the night when like nobody is there we go on again and agian. the reason we do this is because we love taking differnet poses in the pictures. in the night it is also scarier because its all dark in the mountains. i love how it streches almost throught the whole park so you can see everything on the ride. and yes the did make it soo the ride is less bumpy. the only thing is if you go on the weekends at like noon the ride id totally packed!!! so you can tell its a crowed favorite. we thank you for making it the 6th best wooden coaster in the world.

   Reply
5. #5 DG says:
   May 28th, 2009 at 2:42 pm

   I only rode this once, basically testing it to see if it was Ok for my young son to ride. I love the setting, tearing through the woods at high speed, but the ride was pretty rough, not as bad as the Cyclone in Six Flags New England, but rough enough to somewhat ruin the ride. It was too much of a brain-rattler to let my kid go on for now.

   I can’t remember if I was sitting in the back, so next time maybe I’ll try for a seat closer to the front and see if that helps.

   Reply
6. #6 MillenniumFan says:
   July 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pm

   This is one of my all-time favorites, made even better by the track modifications they made recently.

   Reply
7. #7 Quil says:
   January 12th, 2010 at 4:58 pm

   You can tell this was written a while ago, even whithout the date.

   Reply