Adventureland
Adventureland in Altoona, just outside Des Moines, has been open since 1974 and is Iowa's largest amusement park. Monster is the steel coaster with the beyond-vertical drop, Outlaw and Tornado are the wooden coasters, and Phoenix, Storm Chaser and Draken Falls add more variety, with a large section of family rides. In the autumn it runs Halloween haunts on select dates.
Summer weekends and the weeks around the Fourth of July are the busiest. Weekdays early and late in the season are usually much quieter. Check the live queue times before you go and use the crowd calendar to find a good day.
Adventureland live queue times Six Flags Great America
Six Flags Great America sits in Gurnee, Illinois, between Chicago and Milwaukee. The coaster line-up includes Maxx Force (with one of the world's fastest inversions), X Flight wing coaster, Goliath (a Rocky Mountain Construction wooden coaster), Raging Bull, American Eagle duelling wooden coaster, and Batman: The Ride. A Hurricane Harbor water park is included during summer.
Illinois and Wisconsin school holidays, Chicago-area weekend visits, and the popular Fright Fest event drive Six Flags Great America's busiest periods. Weekdays in May, June, September and October are dramatically quieter. Check live wait times for Maxx Force and Goliath on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a lower-crowd midweek date for shorter queues.
Six Flags Great America live queue times 