Heading out to the largest parks, with massive roller coaster collections, sure is fun! Do you know what I also find fun? Heading out to out of the way, small amusement parks that only have a couple of coasters. In years past, I have been able to visit some of these types of parks and every single one of them has provided me with an experience and memories I won’t ever forget. And on Sunday, I was able to cross yet another small park off my bucket list in Camden Park, located in Huntington, W.Va.
For years I have been eyeing up this tiny park, but located 6.5 hours away, I knew it would be quite the trek. Last year, when I found out that the park is only an hour away from the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, W.Va., I told Sam we should combine the two into one trip. Sam is a huge fan of cryptids, especially the Mothman, so she loved the idea. On Saturday, while visiting Renee, Sam and I decided to finally make this trip happen. Yes, we did it on a whim. It’s not the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Camden Park and the Mothman Museum ended up being only two of the locations we’d end up visiting during the road trip, however. We also made our way to Hillbilly Hotdogs, the Mothman Statue, the Silver Bridge Disaster Memorial, Flatwoods Monster Museum, along with the five chairs hidden throughout the town of Sutton, The Spot restaurant, and finally, Blackwater Falls State Park.
Off-Track Bonus Content
During this road trip I filmed footage at every location and came up with the idea to share it with all of you as bonus content on the We Were Inverted YouTube channel. It should make for a fun addition for those of you who follow the channel and those passing by. I’m calling this content, “Off-Track,” since these will showcase our non-amusement park related fun. I already published the first of these videos on Hillbilly Hotdogs, which we visited just prior to Camden Park. Both videos can be found above.
Sadly this first installment in the Off-Track playlist is on the shorter side. I didn’t come up with the idea for Off-Track the end of the night on Day One of the trip. The content I filmed at Hillbilly Hotdogs was originally slated to appear at the beginning of the Camden Park vlog to serve as a recommendation for those headed to park. Speaking of recommendations, a huge thank you to Nathan Hall on Coaster Appreciation Society (CAS) for telling us about this unique and bizarre restaurant.
Taking Advantage of Starlight Admission
Since we had such a long drive ahead of us, we decided to leave at 8 a.m. and arrive at the park in time for their Starlight Admission rate. With the park closing at 7 p.m. on Sunday, starting at 4:30 p.m., tickets were marked down to $8.99 each, and $8 to park. Not a bad deal at all. As long as all the rides were up and running, I couldn’t see us missing out on anything we wanted to ride. Our focus would be on Big Dipper, Lil’ Dipper, Slingshot, Haunted House, and the Log Flume. Not only did we managed to ride all of them, we rode a few of them two and even three times. Here’s a look at the highlights.
Lil' Dipper
While only a junior-sized woodie, Lil’ Dipper was a ride I was very much looking forward to riding. It’s vastly different that any coaster I had ridden prior. It is also one of only three National Amusement Device (NAD) coasters left in operation today, with Big Dipper being yet another.
The trains on this coaster are some of the strangest I’ve encountered. The bench sits very low with buzz bars that don’t even come down over your lap. With my legs extended straight out in these spacious trains, I felt like only part of my lower legs were even under the bar. All that being said, I didn’t feel unsafe, even though the train did bump me around a little bit.
I ended up riding this twice trying to get a decent POV. My first video was all over the place as I moved all about in my seat. I killed the camera about halfway through knowing the footage was going to be trash.
After that ride, I went back up and placed my hand out onto the buzz bar as far as I could reach. Sadly, the large lip across the front of the train still impeded the view. I thought about trying a third time to see if I could reach all the way out onto the lip itself, but we ended up heading to the other rides instead.
I’m still going to post the POV on the We Were Inverted YouTube channel down the road as it’s not terrible. It’s just not the best it probably could’ve been had I tried again. I really need more practice wearing my GoPro’s hand mount. The chest mount has provided me with much better footage, but not every train is conducive to using it. Having to hold my hand out, however, is nowhere near as stable.
Haunted House
This Pretzel Dark Ride was yet another ride in the park’s line up I was looking forward to experiencing. I’ve always been a sucker for old school haunts and dark rides going back to my childhood days visiting Wildwood, N.J. With this being one of only two Pretzel Dark Rides left in the United States, the other being Devil’s Den at Conneaut Lake Park, I just had to ride it. I’ve done Devil’s Den and at the time, it was listed as a credit on the Roller Coaster Database (RCDB). It was since removed, but I didn’t pull it from my credit list. Since it’s still there, I’m counting Haunted House as a credit as well.
Overall, I found this to be a better ride than Devil’s Den. The Den is infamous for its gum wall, but I feel that Camden’s Haunted House features better exterior and interior theming. If you get a chance, be sure to ride both, especially Devil’s Den as it seems like that park’s rides aren’t long for this world.
Big Dipper
Now for the big boy in the park. Big Dipper totally surprised both Sam and I. This 64 year old woodie looks like it could be one of two things, or maybe even both – rickety and/or rough. Surprisingly, it was neither! The Century Flyer trains are spacious and comfortable, with nice padded seats and even a strip of padding in front of your kneecaps just in case. The buzz bars don’t come down far at all and allow you to experience the moments of floater and even extreme ejector. Did I get your attention with the word ejector?
On our first of three rides on Big Dipper, Sam and I were treated to a ride in the back seat. All seemed normal going up the lift and doing the small dip before the first turn around. Then it happened. The first large drop on the coaster tossed Sam and I up suddenly and with tremendous force. We were both shocked and laughing about it as soon as our butts hit the seat. We couldn’t believe it. When we returned to the station, we were still talking about it. One of the ride ops even said that we rode in the “ejector seat,” overhearing us. He wasn’t kidding!
We ended up getting two more rides on Big Dipper before the park closed, in Rows 1 and 2. We experienced some floater airtime here and there in the second row, but none of that ejector. In the front I can’t really comment. I was holding on to the front of the train tightly for a POV video, trying to be as still as possible.
I can’t wait to post Big Dipper’s POV on YouTube for everyone. For now, however, I placed a small clip from the POV into the vlog, along with POV’s from the other rides. All of them will be making their way onto the channel in the weeks to come.
Final Ride Counts
Big Dipper (3)
Haunted House (2)
Lil’ Dipper (2: Patrick, 1: Sam)
Log Flume (1)
Slingshot (1)
Support Small Parks
Like so many other small parks I’ve visited prior, Camden Park just hits different. Although I had seen it pictures, I knew as soon as we saw the park’s sign from the road, that I would be in for another unique experience. The old school rides, low prices, and smaller crowds let us relax and focus on the fun to be had. While we were able to ride everything we wanted arriving later in the day, I almost wish we had arrived sooner. There were a few rides that I would have liked to ride, now in hindsight, such as the Miniature Train and Skyliner. A round of mini-golf wouldn’t have been bad either.
You know what that means? I guess I’ll have to go back again some day. I’m sure Greg and some of the other crew members wouldn’t mind experiencing the park too. As for everyone else, if you get a chance to visit Camden Park, I say go for it. The park is a little less than three hours from both Kentucky Kingdom and Kings Island for those who might want to add it into their own road trips. And if you’re looking for some other fun stuff to do while in the area, don’t forget about the Off-Track bonus content coming to the site’s YouTube channel. A lot of the initial Off-Track videos will feature the tourist traps we visited during this trip into West Virginia.
Camden Park Photo Gallery - August 7, 2022
If you would like to use any of the images in the gallery above for your commercial and/or non-commercial projects, feel free to do so. I ask that you credit We Were Inverted whenever they’re used. I also ask that you do not alter the image or remove the watermarks. If you need any images/video resized or without the watermarks, please contact me directly.
CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): Big Dipper, Haunted House, Lil' Dipper, Slingshot
Sam
Admiral
New Credit(s): Big Dipper, Haunted House, Lil' Dipper, Slingshot
