Elysburg, Pennsylvania – Saturday, July 14th, 2012
Camel
Two horses of varying degrees of condition.
If you caught the brass ring on a carousel you'd either get a free ride or a free souvenir.
Tall figure
Unpainted figure
Embellished veins on this screaming figure.
It was sometime around here that I quietly decided that Knoebels is my new favorite park in the world.
Not only does Knoebels have one of the best examples in each category of traditional wooden coasters, carousels, dark rides, bumper cars, flying scooters, and so on, but it also has so much more to discover for those willing to explore, like this museum. It's one of the few parks in the country that still understands the fine art of amusement.
This fella seems like he's seen prouder days.
This fella seems agitated.
Know your carousel terminology.
Reindeer figure
The eleventh president of the United States, Just Kidding Polk.
Knoebels Grand Carousel history
Slim racing figure
I highly recommend anyone take a couple minutes from their day at Knoebels and walk though their carousel museum.
Knoebel's Log Flume, thrilling more riders with its wooded location.
Black Diamond... sadly still with the black sheet metal exterior that I hoped would receive further decoration over the winter since it opened last fall.
In addition to the free carousel museum, Knoebels also has a free anthracite mining museum.
A 10 ton lump of coal being utilized as a seat.
Also a petrified tree stump.
Huge mural inside the museum.
"...Unless you can play a complete song." I wish more signs could be like this one.
Maybe not as good as the carousel museum, but still quite interesting for being free.
Knoebels lets you get up close with its museum artifacts.
Coal miner diorama
Nice review. I was there on a really nice Fall Sunday in 2012. Thanks for the photos of the Carousel Museum. I missed that when I was there, I’ll have to make sure I find it next time. I really enjoyed the park also. The sky ride wasn’t as happy as the one at Lake Compounce perhaps because it’s missing a Boulder Dash as you pointed out. My favorite thing was their Fascination, I wouldn’t mind crossing over to the other side mesmerized by the sound of those little rubber balls softly bouncing between the wood and plexiglass. I’m surprised you had no comment on the pricing structure the park uses. It’s fascinating in it’s own right. Free admission but All day wrist band for rides not including roller coasters, hand stamp for roller coasters, tickets for rides that do not accept wrist band or hand stamp, ticket for rides that do not accept the kind of ticket you purchased and cash only for attractions that do not accept either kind of ticket, wristband, or hand stamp. And tickets required for non-riders. I thought that was fun. I didn’t uncover the key for the snap on the flyers either but I did manage to just keep the flyer up flying high along the trees, which I preferred but never have seen anyone else do, I felt like was a defying some law of flyer physics. Those things are fun. I hope to go back there sometime.
Looks like you stayed in something like a Hyatt Place. Very simply put, the cost of consumer goods has fallen enough at this point that rooms like you’ll see at a Springhill Suites or Hyatt Place are actually affordable to the average person travelling. For a more basic room (and probably more chances for hookers/meth labs in adjoining rooms) there’s plenty of non-chain motels off the grid in cities like this who don’t do e-booking and might be cheaper, but they’re pits.
Realistically, if you’re in a position of travelling and can only afford $40 instead of $60, the place that’s charging $40 can be hell on earth and you’re not going to have an alternative.