Located In: Spellbound Island - Mystic Mountain
To get to the start of the Great Gryphon Race, guests wind their way up switchbacked trails through a thick forest, where the swooshes, cries, and wingbeats of something large flying overheard can be seen, and shadows that sweep overhead suggest big winged creatures above the canopy, but there's never quite a good sight of whatever's causing the ruckus overhead. Just short of the top, the guests are divided into four separate lines, each going to its own 'nest' that is at least thirty feet on a side. Gryphon cars land at the back of the nest, unload, and pick up 10 new riders each. After loading, the four 'mounts' swoop off the far side of the nest and down along four separate faces of a waterfall.
Twisting and turning their way through a ravine over the river, they gryphons whip around corners, under and over half-fallen sections of cliff, and braid together with the other tracks. Then they corkscrew, twist, turn, and loop their way back up and around the other side of the mountain. The big attraction with this roller coaster is that the first gryphon car back to the nest is different each time -- theoretically determined by how quickly the riders tapped buttons with their feet.
The Great Gryphon Race always requires a great deal of mechanical attention, because it's the fastest, loopiest ride in the park -- and because there are four separate tracks -- and there are several areas where items frequently fall out of riders' pockets that can make for good scrounging if employees can get there before it's all shipped out to lost and found.
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