Cliff's Amusement Park

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Saturday, August 21st, 2021

As an independent family-run park situated on a reasonably valuable plot of land in the middle of a mid-sized metro, Cliff’s Amusement Park seemed to rate as one of those parks more at risk of endangerment of permanently closing during the prolonged pandemic shutdowns. The park’s owners even hinted to as much to the local news, although such statements should obviously be viewed in their political context. Nevertheless, as soon as the park reopened and it seemed reasonably safe to travel again, Cliff’s Amusement Park jumped towards the top of my travel wish list. To the degree that travel in the time of COVID requires taking some risks, it was outweighed by the risk of potentially forever missing the parks that had any chance of permanent closure in the virus’ wake (which as of this writing there seem to have been surprisingly few).

Despite being my first time to Albuquerque, a feeling of familiarity washed over Cliff’s Amusement Park as soon as I arrived that I eventually traced back to its similarity to three other parks. Knott’s Berry Farm, with its strong emphasis on southwestern cultural identity, particularly through the very 1970’s-90’s themed style of fake adobe. Castle Park, as a compact locals’ park amidst medium-density urban sprawl that nevertheless has managed to cultivate plenty of mature greenery. And Indiana Beach, with its layered collection of rides mostly spanning from the 70’s to the 2000’s, including a Galaxi and an aggressive late-period CCI steel-structured wooden coaster that are the main draw for most out-of-state visitors. About the only thing missing is a compact dark ride situated on the upper level of some forgotten arcade or snack bar, although the attraction mix that is here is surprisingly robust given the park’s scant 9 acre size, much of which is dominated by its starring attraction.

New Mexico Rattler

This coaster is sneaky. At a glance, it appears to be another example of the typical mid-sized CCI wooden coaster. Yet its 2002 vintage as the final CCI makes it both something of the missing link between CCI and the Gravity Group, and not even entirely a CCI creation, owing to more than half the coaster made by Cliff’s themselves after the design company went under midway through construction.

Unlike most earlier CCI layouts, which tended to economize their designs by layering straight and curved segments to efficiently share superstructure (resulting in a fairly predictable if not still aggressive rhythm between dips and laterals), New Mexico Rattler features a more fluid layout filled with subtle S-bends and relatively complex curve geometries that would become more common features in wood coasters from later that decade. The result is a ride that retains the trademark CCI “bite,” but takes on a more slithering, serpentine style for added sophistication. Adding to the unpredictability is a surprisingly deep curving tunnel drop in the second half of the layout, with the entire coaster seemingly maintaining its speed and sense of scale until right up to the end.

Ultimately, New Mexico Rattler is still too limited by its footprint and lacking in any truly stunning “wow” factors to make a play for the title of the very best wooden coasters of its generation. But for being only 80′ tall and 2,750′ long, it certainly exceeds virtually any newer wooden coaster of similarly proportioned specifications, and is eclipsed only by the buzzbar insanity of Cornball Express among CCI’s steel-supported creations. A worthy destination coaster for those contemplating a visit to New Mexico, and if I had the time I would have been quite happy to ride it all day long.

Spin-O-Rama

Somehow this SBF Visa figure-eight spinning coaster situated in the shadow of New Mexico Rattler’s first turnaround garnered a much longer wait than the wooden coaster ever saw throughout the day. I’m glad I got here early enough before the queue nearly doubled into a likely 20-30 minute wait by the time I got off.

Galaxi

Running at Cliff’s since 1977, with its shaded lamps, atomic cupola, and orange-tastic color scheme, Galaxi certainly feels like it could have been teleported straight from the era. Fortunately this also applies to the maintenance, with the coaster running as smoothly as a Galaxi design is capable of. While not as elegant as the Schwarzkopf Wildcat models, there’s something about following up a seemingly non-stop triple helix with yet another double helix that I can admire about committing to the bit. At some point in recent history the three, two-car trains were all shortened to a single vehicle. At least they were still cycling on a regular interval to make the best of what turned out to be a 20 minute wait.

Rocky Mountain Rapids

Compared to the rest of Cliff’s, this is the one ride that doesn’t feel like it makes the best use of its limited space. This is a perfectly serviceable if unambitious log flume, mostly consisting of a ground-level circuit around a large-ish reservoir before a simple lift, turn, and drop finale. At least the splashdown offers a cooling spray without being obnoxiously wet about it, which is ultimately the most essential criteria of these rides.

Other Rides

Cliff’s flat ride collection is reasonably strong, with many of the attractions tucked neatly next to or even inside the New Mexico Rattler’s layout. Among the offering include classics such as a Tilt-a-Whirl, Music Express, and increasingly rare Falling Star, a somewhat uncommon Down Draft, a Larson Fire Ball Looper, a 115-foot Wind Rider swing ride, and a 120-foot ARM drop tower. If I had more time I’d have been happy to have given any of these a spin (or drop), though as it worked out I only attempted the aptly-named Cliff Hanger drop tower, primarily for the views and novelty of being positioned within the New Mexico Rattler’s helix finale.

Conclusion

At Cliff’s you’re here for a good time, not a long time. Although depending on your tolerance for late-period CCI lateral forces, you could certainly still fill as much time under the bright blue New Mexican sky as you’d please.