Boulder Dash Roller Coaster Ride at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut

When it opened in 2000, the Boulder Dash roller coaster at Lake Compounce Family Theme Park in Bristol, Connecticut was hailed as the tallest, fastest and longest wooden roller coaster in the eastern United States. Years later, roller coaster enthusiasts still rate it as one of the most innovative and exciting wooden roller coasters anywhere.

It's the environment in which it operates that sets Boulder Dash apart from other roller coasters. The coaster was built onto the side of a mountain at the western edge of the Lake Compounce park, and the trip - "out-and-back," as these types of roller coasters are known - drops riders down the side of the rocky slope, winds them through the woods and returns them along the lakefront. By day, it's a unique experience unlike traditional amusement park rides - where the view is typically of other rides, midway games and acres of parking lot. At night, the pitch-dark ride becomes an altogether different experience, where the bumps and dips come totally unexpectedly.

In addition to the wooden construction and the wooded setting, it's the speed of Boulder Dash that most roller coaster riders marvel at.

Because of its unique hillside design, the ride is deceptive. It doesn't tower above the park above a giant latticework of wooden support beams. For the first part of the journey, riders are barely above ground level as they climb to the rides highest point. And yet, after the briefest pause at the peak, Boulder Dash makes a right turn and plunges riders into a ravine at a startling 60 miles per hour. From there, the speed barely lets up. In fact, the average speed for the entire ride is an amazing 52 mph - despite the leisurely climb to get things started.

Thundering through the forest, Boulder Dash riders experience eight separate hills, each of which creates a feeling of weightlessness as the cars hurtle along the track. Some of the hills are double dips, barely giving you a chance to catch your breath. And all this before the ride reaches its furthest point from the start, where it executes a head-snapping 180-degree turn and heads back.

Even the return ride on Boulder Dash is a thriller, as the ride puts its occupants through a speedy series of "bunny hops" in rapid succession, each lifting riders up out of their seats, before it finally applies the brakes for the only time during the entire ride and returns you to the start house.

Boulder Dash is nearly a mile long, and the ride takes two-and-a-half minutes. But once the first drop takes place, it is a non-stop, high-speed trip through the woods unlike any other roller coaster you've ever experienced before.

Lake Compounce Family Theme Park is the country's oldest, continuously operated amusement park, having opened in 1846. It is located off Route 229 in Bristol, Connecticut, opposite the world headquarters of the ESPN television networks.