Negative-G Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Water and Theme Park 2016 Page Eight

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The X-Coaster roller coaster at Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Water and Theme Park, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Bond and I visited X-Coaster several times during our stay at Magic Springs and each time we stayed on it more than once. In fact we once rode it eight times without getting off and as you can see here our heads did not explode like the past ride operator said they would. Despite not going all "Scanners" on it we absolutely had a blast on it. With such a small footprint and big thrills there are more than a few parks I could see a ride like this fitting into very well.

The Big Bad John roller coaster at Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Water and Theme Park, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Big Bad John is a coaster that has a lot of miles behind it. It began in 1971 as one of the two tracks that used make up the River King Mine Train at Six Flags St. Louis. After 1987 it closed and was sold to Dollywood where it opened up in 1989 as Thunder Express. Dollywood kept it until 1998 after which it was replaced by the Tennessee Tornado. It took until 2002 for it to reopen at Magic Springs.

I have to say that I prefer Big Bad John over the River King Mine Train because Big Bad John is completely hidden by the woods .

Big Bad John takes you way out into the woods and completely removes you from the park. Magic Springs had to really work to work this coaster into the parks already hilly terrain. They hired Great Coasters International to work the structure, terrain and footers in order to make it fit.

As a result of trees whizzing by, a coaster being worked into hilly terrain and just a great coaster I would have to say that Big Bad John is one of my favorite mine train coasters behind Thunderation at Silver Dollar City and Road Runner Express at Six Flags Fiesta Texas which we visited later in this trip.