September 24, 2025, 1:54 PM ·
As a theme park enthusiast, it’s rare for us to travel to a major American city that has a notable theme park that we haven’t visited. This past weekend, my wife and I took a weekend trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, where we visited a theme park that’s been on my bucket list for over a decade. Lagoon is one of the few large independently owned theme parks remaining in the United States and has been operating for over 129 years. Lagoon is located in Farmington, Utah, which is less than a 30-minute drive north of downtown Salt Lake City, and was originally used as a recreational area for train passengers traveling from Salt Lake to Ogden. When it first opened in 1896, the park featured restaurants and live music, but eventually expanding to include watersports and swimming on the park’s namesake “lagoon.” More traditional amusement park attractions were added during the early half of the 20th century including a historic carousel, miniature railway, and a wooden roller coaster (appropriately called Roller Coaster), built in 1921 which is one of the oldest continuously operating roller coasters in the world. Over the past 50 years, the park has continuously improved and expanded to include a water park (Lagoon-a-Beach), and one of the most unique roller coaster lineups you will find anywhere in the world.Lagoon’s biggest and most iconic attraction is Cannibal, an ART Engineering creation that is one of the most unique modern roller coasters I’ve ever experienced. As the name suggests, the coaster is themed around cannibals, and while it’s unclear whether riders are the protagonists or the victims, the park puts forth a solid effort with props, sound effects, and a massive mountain with an elevated lake and waterfall.The theming turns an already great roller coaster with an enclosed elevator lift within a huge tower, 116-degree drop (5th steepest in the world), and trademarked “Lagoon Roll” double inversion, into a world-class coaster that is amongst the top 20 roller coasters I’ve ever ridden. The coaster can accommodate up to 12 riders per car in 3 rows of 4 seats, and while the front row provides the most visual appeal, the middle and back rows really accentuate the feeling you get from the beyond-vertical drop. With just a lap bar keeping you in your seat, the fear factor going over the edge of that first drop is about as nerve-wracking as any coaster I’ve ever ridden. The train plunges 197 feet into a tunnel before the first inversion, a massive Immelmann. The train then quickly dives back towards the ground to regain speed to negotiate a dive loop that provides a ton of hang time. Next is a quick airtime hill and a small set of magnetic trims to control the train’s speed before a highly-banked left turn leading into the mid-course brakes. As if the first half of the coaster wasn’t good enough on its own, Cannibal delivers a second half layout that is breathtaking. After the MBCR dramatically slows the train, the track makes a tight left-hand turn and begins a slow-motion corkscrew. Just when you think the inversion is done, the track spirals the train in the opposite direction, completing the “Lagoon Roll.” This element itself is thrilling, but Lagoon ups the ante by positioning it over a pool of water, which undoubtedly becomes a reservoir for loose articles from guests who failed to heed the warnings at the coaster’s entrance (Lagoon offers free one-hour lockers adjacent to the queue entrance). After the Lagoon Roll, the train goes through a 450-degree helix around and through the mountain and past a massive waterfall that delivers a cooling mist before returning to the station. It’s an amazing experience, and even more impressive when you think that an intense thrill machine like Cannibal is located at an independent theme park.While Cannibal on its own is probably worth a trip to Lagoon, there are other top coasters and attractions that make this park deserving of a visit. Primordial is another ART Engineering creation that is cross between a roller coaster and a shooting gallery dark ride. The concept behind this coaster is very similar to Wonder Mountain’s Guardian, which we rode earlier this summer at Canada’s Wonderland. However, when we rode Toronto’s coaster earlier this summer, it was in rough shape with numerous seats unavailable, dim projections, and a scoring system that was far from accurate. I was skeptical that a smaller, independent park could do a better job than one of the largest regional parks in North America at maintaining such a high-tech attraction. Boy was I wrong, because our two rides on Primordial were nearly flawless, including the on-board soundtrack, targeting and scoring system, and the alternate conclusions to the ride. The queue actually features an animatronic and pre-show video providing some background to the ride.The loading platform features a conveyer belt system that allows riders with 3-D glasses in hand to quickly board the two rows of four seats that rotate towards the conveyor belt to allow for efficient boarding. This four-across layout is much better than the back-back orientation on Wonder Mountain’s Guardian. Once loaded, the cars rotate forward to go up the lift hill. There’s a brief outdoor coaster section just like Wonder Mountain’s Guardian, though noticeably more intense, before trains enter the dark ride section.This is where Primordial turns into a shooting gallery as you aim your blaster (mounted to the lap bar) at various targets projected on screens while the train slowly moves and rotates through the interior space. After the first series of screens, cars rotate to face backwards and go into a reverse coaster section featuring some impressive stone rings with lanterns to accentuate the speed and intensity of this section. The train then enters another series of shooting gallery scenes before a switch that alternates trains between two different finales. Because of the lower capacity and a height restriction that allows guests as short as 36 inches to ride with a supervising companion, the wait for this coaster was the longest we encountered during our visit, so we had initially intended to only ride this coaster once. Fortunately, we came back to Primordial at the end of the night and were able to grab a second ride on the coaster, which is when we realized there were 2 very different endings. The first ending we experienced had us shooting at targets to release a dragon before locking into a “slide track.” This is a coaster element we’ve never experienced before (similar to the tilt track on Escape from Gringott’s, except you actually slide to a lower level), and it was really interesting to feel the train slide down what felt like a 45-degree ramp. On our second ride, we were shooting at targets to free an owl before locking into a more traditional drop track. This is very similar to the drop track on Wonder Mountain’s Guardian (and others like Hagrid’s, Verbolten, and Thirteen), but because we didn’t realize there were two different possible endings, it was surprising to suddenly drop. It also helps that guests wear 3-D glasses during the ride, which makes it harder to see track elements in the dark interior spaces. While Primordial doesn’t offer the same thrill level as Cannibal, it is an incredibly unique experience and puts Wonder Mountain’s Guardian to shame in terms of overall quality, maintenance, and technical wizardry.While Lagoon’s two newest roller coasters are the park’s best, there are plenty of other supporting attractions. Wicked is a Zierer LSM launching coaster that features horizontal and vertical launches with a vertical drop after you crest the top of a tower. Maybe I expected more from Wicked after riding Cannibal and Primordial, but this coaster was a bit on the rough side and had an unimaginative layout following the tower. The only inversion is a zero-g roll and the rest of the compact layout consists of a bunch of tight turns and a tunnel. Wicked is also lacking in the theming department with just an obnoxiously loud buzzer sounding before the train hits the first launch track – the train launches horizontally before hitting a second set of vertical LSMs on the tower. That vertical launch is pretty interesting, but not nearly as cool as the beyond vertical launch track on Voltron.Bombora is a family coaster from ART Engineering and features an on-board soundtrack. The layout isn’t much different from most other smaller family coasters like Flight of the Hippogriff or Gadget’s Go Coaster, but the soundtrack is what sets this coaster apart and conveys the surf/ocean theme to go along with physical props in the station. As with other ART Engineering coasters, the seats are very comfortable for adults, which is great for families who want to have a shared experience.Colossus the Fire Dragon is part of a dying breed of coasters from Schwarzkopf. While the double-looping coaster looks like it was assembled last week after operating the prior month at a county fair, it packs a punch with one of the highest-banked turns I’ve ever seen on an older steel coaster. While the coaster is intense, it’s not rough, likely helped by the simple lap bar restraints.Jet Star 2 is another older Schwartzkopf that has that roaming-carnival coaster look to it with features similar to Whizzer at SFGAm (another coaster we experienced earlier this summer). Guests board bobsled style trains with a single seat belt securing 2 guests in each of the 2 seating areas. The coaster has a spiral lift just like Whizzer, but the layout of Jet Star 2 is far more compact and pretty rough in spots, not helped by a train design and seating position that can cause your knees/legs to bang against hard surfaces.Roller Coaster was fitted with Millennium Flyer trains in 2018, which is probably a big improvement over the original trains. However, the coaster is still a bit rough, and the overall layout doesn’t generate much in the way of airtime or other forces that you expect from a wooden coaster. It’s impressive that Lagoon has maintained this coaster for over 100 years, but the overall design and layout could be better.Bat is the park’s Vekoma family invert but unfortunately is one of the older designs with over-the-shoulder restraints. Because of the restraints and antiquated design, Bat is not very comfortable. There’s also not a lot of theming to the coaster aside from the sign and a handful of stalagmites near the entrance and finishing turn that frankly look more like piles of guano than a cave formation.There are two different wild mouse style coasters at Lagoon. Wild Mouse is a classic design from Mauer with tight turns and sudden drops. However, what sets this one apart is the themed tunnel near the end of the ride that gives this coaster more theming than other similar wild mouse coasters found at larger, corporate-owned parks.Spider is another Maurer wild mouse coaster, but this one has spinning cars where pairs of guests sit back-to-back. As with most coasters like this, your experience can be highly variable depending on how the weight is distributed in the car. There were a few spots where we spun extremely fast but others where it seemed like we should spin but didn’t spin at all. There is a giant spider near the entrance to this coaster and guests climb a spiral staircase inside a tower before reaching the loading platform. The medieval-style tower is an odd choice, but at least Lagoon gave this coaster some theming, which is far beyond what most parks do for this type of coaster.Aside from coasters, Lagoon has a diverse collection of flat rides, many of which we didn’t take time to experience because they were clones of rides we’ve ridden elsewhere. However, I did take a spin on Rock-O-Plane, which has to be one of the most unique flat rides I’ve seen. The ride looks like a small Ferris wheel, but instead of traditional gondolas, guests are secured into oblong steel cages. Whenever you see a cage around a passenger compartment, you can probably assume that is because you are going to go upside down. On Rock-O-Plane there are two ways you can turn yourself upside down: you can lean forwards and backwards , swinging yourself back and forth until you create enough momentum to flip over. Since it can take a few minutes to load all of the cages, you can get plenty of inversions while the ride is stopped for loading. However, there’s a handle inside of each cage that applies a brake, so when the ride is spinning you can lock your cage into position and flip upside down as the ride rotates. Personally, trying to flip the cage using momentum was a lot of work, so I preferred using the brake technique. Riders can also just sit and spin like a traditional Ferris wheel, and not do anything as the weight distribution will keep the cage upright as the ride spins. Another unique flat ride is Parrot Trooper, which is another Ferris wheel-style attraction, though the wheel spins at an angle instead of along a horizontal axis. I’ve ridden rides like this before, but they’re becoming more rare mostly because they can take a long time to load (like Rock-O-Plane, each carriage loads separately, and operators have to load opposite carriages to keep the ride balanced). Despite taking a while to load, the actual ride cycle was pretty long (almost 2 minutes), and felt really fast for a ride that little kids can ride (any guest under 46 inches can ride with a companion). Lagoon also has a traditional Sky Ride where riders’ feet dangle above the midway, thus the very clear signage that guests face a significant fine and expulsion for dropping anything from the Sky Ride.Dracula’s Castle is one of Lagoon’s two classic dark rides.Guests squeeze into vehicles that look like mini cars with hoods that close over your legs. It’s an interesting seating position for a dark ride but doesn’t significantly affect the overall experience. Dracula’s Castle is very much like a seaside park dark ride with traditional scares. However, I felt that the lighting was a bit too bright in this ride that gave away some of the secrets of the special effects. Terroride is the other dark ride, and in our experience was far superior with a much darker interior and better-timed effects. While you wait in line for this ride, you hear the blaring train horn that is part of the final sequence, but even though we knew it was coming, it still startled us.There’s a surprising number of attractions at Lagoon, and because we visited on a Friday night during the park’s Frightmares Halloween event, we didn’t have time to explore the back section of the park that contains a new-for-2025 Steampunk themed land called The District. We also weren’t able to fully appreciate Pioneer Village, which is an area with buildings and exhibits exploring the history of Utah and the old west. There’s even a Rock Chapel that was moved to Lagoon from Coalville, UT and has served as not just a church, but also a fort, courthouse, and school. I wish we had some more time to explore this area, but with the park open from just 5-11 on the day we visited, we ran out of time to see everything.In addition to having just six hours to experience Lagoon on a Friday night, we also wanted to check out Frightmares, which has been operating for 30 years. The Halloween event offers five haunted houses, four shows, only two of which operate on Friday night (the other two are geared towards kids and run on weekend afternoons), an upcharge séance-themed show experience, and special attractions and activities for children (like a treat trail, pumpkin patch, and straw maze). The park is also decked out in Halloween decorations including more punny tombstones than you can count.My wife is not too fond of haunted houses, so she took in the two shows (Nightmare Cabaret and Hackenslash), while I went through the haunted houses, though I ran out of time to get through all five. According to Stefany, both shows had high production quality and talented performers. Hackenslash is shown on an outdoor stage and features a highly diverse dance soundtrack that toggles between songs just as you get into the groove. Nightmare Cabaret is a more traditional theatrical performance with singing and dancing. The haunted houses that I toured were all very good, but the lines were moving very slowly, primarily because of the way they were pulsing guests. Employees at the entrance to each house would count the number of guests in the next group and provide the rules and instructions before letting guests enter. I somehow managed to be counted in the group in front of me on the first house I experienced, but the other three, I was held at the entrance and pulsed through the house by myself. Even if you’re a huge haunted attraction fan like I am, it’s incredibly awkward going through a haunted house by yourself, and I don’t understand why I was not grouped with other guests just for the sake of efficiency. Nonetheless, I was impressed with all four houses that I went through including Fun House of Fear, with rooms and hallways featuring various phobias, Nightmare Midway, the obligatory clown/circus house,Frightening Frisco, a western themed maze, and Malevolent Mansion, a traditional haunted house, complete with an entrance sign that might remind you a famous dark ride.I missed out on Nightwalk, which appeared to have a demon/devil theme. Of the houses, I thought Malevolent Mansion was the best and had some impressive effects. However, I was surprised that every house had a good mix of animatronics, actors, and lighting effects as well as elevated platforms to unsettle your steps. Lagoon’s haunted houses are all on par with what you would find at Six Flags/Cedar Fair parks and are all included with park admission.Overall, I was really impressed with Lagoon. Aside from the inefficient pulsing of guests through the haunted houses, park operations were excellent. The crews on the major coasters were all very fast and efficient, including Cannibal which was operating with a single rider line (Wicked also had a single rider line, but it was closed when we rode that coaster). Lagoon has a great collection of coasters and other rides that make it one of the best independent theme parks we’ve ever visited – right up there with Hersheypark, Kennywood, and Holiday World. Cannibal is an elite coaster and Primordial is an excellent coaster/dark ride hybrid. I’d even say that Lagoon is probably better than some larger corporate-owned parks, and makes Salt Lake City a worthy destination for coaster and theme park fans.
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