Kennywood Trip Photos
If you should ever travel through Pennyslvania, and stumble upon the City of Pittsburgh, you may find yourself at a little amusement park known as Kennywood. Its a small little amusement park, with 8 roller coasters, and plenty of historic and unique attractions, Kennywood is a park that charms.
I had the opprotunity to visit Kennywood 4 times over the years, with my most recent visit being with my Dad and Stephinie on 10/12/2025. We left for Kennywood from their home in Cleveland at 10:45, and we drove the 2 hours to Kennywood. We would get to the park at 1pm, and while it was a dreary day, we were not detered. Kennywood had an..interesting choice for security, with a bag check before the metal detectors. This bag check also was an ID check, if you were under 18 you needed an adult to go into the park with. I was stopped with my Dad by two girls, who asked if we could get them in. We said no, because I am not going to get kicked out from Kennywood for that. Its not Kennywood's fault, rules are rules, but I was annoyed by them asking to tag along.
Once we made it in, we went straight to Steel Curtain, which was closed during my two visits in the fall of 2024. Steel Curtain is a rather daunting coaster, standing in at 220ft, and with 9 inversions, it holds the record for most inversions on a coaster in the United States. My Dad and I walked right on to the front row (Steph does not do the roller coasters). Steel Curtain has thrills, and the layout really reminds me of an Arrow Dynamics mega looper, but adapted for the 21st century, hence why I call it "the last Arrow Looper." We would ride Steel Curtain 2 more times while we where over there. Steph was thrilled too, as she could watch the Steelers Vs Browns game on the Steelers Country JumboTron while we rode. We would follow the ride with a snack break at Auntie Anne's.
We went to ride Racer after, but we learned that Racer was closed for the remainder of the '25 season for a major refurb. While this was not ideal, I do appreciate Kennywood's efforts to keep the 98 year old coaster around for as long as possible. My Dad and I would ride Jack-Rabbit next, and waited about 10 minutes for it. Jack-Rabbit is the oldest coaster I've ridden, at 105 years old as of 2025. It is a basic layout, but with it being the first coaster with upstop wheels, it has the most insane moment of ejector air I've encountered. John Miller decided to be funny and gave the ride a double down into a ravine, which just gives airtime on the 70+ year old trains. We would only ride Jack-Rabbit once, but it was a fun ride. We followed Jack-Rabbit with Kangaroo, a one of a kind flat ride. The ride goes in a circle, and has a hill on one end. You go up the hill, and it "jumps" off, using a cylinder to cusion the fall back to the ground. I love Kangaroo, and I am so happy that Kennywood was able to save the ride in 2021. We followed Kangaroo with 3 laps on Phantom's Revenge.
This Arrow-Chance hybrid hyper coaster is so strange, with it only being 160ft tall, but featuring a 232ft drop, and its "pool noodle" lapbars, this ride just baffles, but is bonkers. The ride is an airtime machine, and I also love how it was originally an Arrow Looper before Chance Rides came in, retracked the ride, and made it into a hyper coaster. We followed Phantom's with a ride on The Whip, and Turtle. Turtle is the last Tumble Bug left in the world, originally opening in 1927. It just goes in a circle, but it is super fun. I ride it everytime I visit, because its so unique. Steph and Dad both really liked Whip and Turtle, as they are classic amusement rides.
We were getting rather tired, so we made a game plan to wrap up our day. We took a ride on the Merry-Go-Round, which was built in 1927, and noted how fast it went. Steph said she really liked the music played on the Carousel. Following, Dad and I would take our 4th lap on Steel Curtain, and noted how much faster it felt going later in the day. This is where I discovered one of the strangest pieces of amusement park merchanise I have found, that being an O Gauge model boxcar for Steel Curtain from Rail King. I bought it, because I thought the idea of owning an O Gauge boxcar decorated for Kennywood was such an interesting concept, and with it being $70, it was rather well priced for an O gauge model.
Before leaving the park for the day, we would stop and take a lap on Skyrocket while Steph was getting coffee for the road home. I always enjoy riding Skyrocket, as Premier absolutely cooked on the layout for the about 85% of it, than gave up for the end. The airtime on the tophat is elite, and the inversions are fun, but the ending is boring. After Skyrocket, we would leave for the day around 5:30pm. Our ride list for the day was pretty good for 4 hours, riding: Steel Curtain x4, Jack-Rabbit, Kangaroo, Phantom's Revenge, Turtle, Whip, Merry-Go-Round, and lastly Skyrocket.
I've ridden all the coasters at Kennywood, so I'll rank them here. When I get around to writing my previous visits, I'll edit this ranking to reflect the day:
1: Steel Curtain
2: Phantom's Revenge
3: Jack-Rabbit
4: Skyrocket
5: Racer
6: Thunderbolt
7: Exterminator
Kennywood is a great little park. My dad says Kennywood reminds him of Geauga Lake, and its older rides give him a sense of ease in the park. Kennywood has a lot of charm, you can tell it was built up over 125 years, and not planned out like Kings Island or Busch Gardens. The staff are friendly, and the selection of old rides thrills me to visit. I plan to go back next season, because I really like Kennywood. Dad and Steph, who aren't really themepark people, really enjoyef the park. They both said its charming, and Steph really liked Kangaroo. I've attached some photos from my trip down below if you want to take a look.