| Thoughts

I once described Bakken as the sluttish sister of Knoebels! Both parks offer the similar un-gated collection of rides amongst the woods experience, however Bakken has a much bolder brazen carnival flavour to it

Admission is free to Bakken, really you can just wander in from any direction there's no fence around the park, you have the option to purchase individual ride tokens or a ride wristband which allows a maximum of 10 turns on each ride and one viewing of each of the 5D films, staff scan a barcode on your wristband using a hand held scanner as you board the rides to enforce the maximum of 10 goes on each ride limit

Rutschebanen is the star of the show, the original 1932 scenic railway with brakemen, classic cable lift, enclosed tunnel and frightful airtime on those amazing double-downs . Rutschebanen is almost the complete extreme away from nearby Tivoli's version, the coaster feels a lot more rawer, the taller rickety wooden structure stands proud clearly showing the last seventy years of weathering

The Intamin Mine Train Ulven is a nice gentle giant family coaster, our favourite coaster at the park was Racing, the individual cars and lack of restraints made whizzing around the banked swoops and turns in and out of the watercolour facade really fun

Bakken is home to a 5D Cinema, a creepy ghost train, Hurlumhej a nautical themed cake walk and a bizarre safari themed interactive dark ride which didn't have any real targets or obvious scoring system just a kind of shoot the animal animatronics affair

Completing the carnival flavour are a large collecton of trailer mounted flat rides which have been dumped in-between the park's even larger collection of bars and ice cream stalls, Enterprise, Polyppen, Viking Ship, Double Shot tower and Extreme Speed Flip make for a rather nauseating combination

I enjoy the contrast of Bakken to other amusement parks I like the brash here are some rides in the wood set up, although since my visit the park have began installing some more traditional theme park expansions including a fully themed splash battle and partially enclosed spinning coaster