Canyon Blaster Circus Circus Hotel & Casino August 18th, 1999 S T A T S Manufacturer: Arrow Height: 93.7 ft. Extreme elements: Two loops, two corkscrews Length of ride: 1 minute 45 seconds Novelty: Only enclosed looping coaster on the west coast

Now these folks have the right idea. In the blasted heat of the Las Vegas desert, it can be a toll just walking down the street. But the huge pink glass enclosure that is the Adventuredome is an engineering marvel (the largest of its kind in the U.S.) and also a pleasant experience since it can be kept at a temperate 72 degrees year round. With your mind off of the opressing heat, you can focus attentions on the thrilling rides inside this 5-acre elevated park which, quite frankly, offered us a whole palette-full of incredible fun.

The new Inverter attraction is right at the entrance and entices riders to hop aboard a wild contraption that promises to seperate "the men from the cry-babies." There's also the Rim-Runner, a wet and woolly water-ride that gets you mindlessly soaked, the Fun-House Express, which is an Imax motion theater experience that offers a unique and eye-popping journey--and there's even a laser tag field where I ran about and ended up getting shot in the back a lot by kids half my size. Fun.

But the real treat here is The Canyon Blaster, a surprising Arrow creation that delivers more thrills than you could bargain for. After boarding the sleek trains, the ride begins by taking you up the 93 foot tall lift and offering you a spectacular view of the theme park. It's all tightly cropped in together, and you realize this upon reaching the top. A slight speed bump and a turn to the left closely encircles an outcropping of rock, and this is just foreshadowing to what happens next!

The plunge happens, diving down 90 feet into a pair of loops. The first is 74 feet and the second is 72 feet, they happen wham-bam and at 55 m.p.h., a quick right turn then empties into a pair of corkscrews--but the fun isn't over yet. The 14,000 pound trains then begin to wind their way diabolically into the faux-rock mountain, pressing ever closer and closer to the walls, making you fear for you elbows or whatever other extremities that you have perched on the sides of the cars. After about 2,000 feet of track-grabbing action, the trains slow down and pull into the station.

During the journey, you'll experience positive G-forces of 1.5 and negative G's of about 1--all in all, it's a tidy little bit of unnerving ingenuity that doesn't get enough credit. The Canyon Blaster delivers well.

Grand Slam Canyon is a pretty nifty park with plenty to do for young and old, if you're truly tired of spending all of your money in a fruitless effort to leave a millionaire. If you're seeking even more in the way of thrills, there's a teasing glimpse of a higher calling just through the some 350,000 square feet of insulating pink glass over your head. There, staring at you and daring at you as well, is the Stratosphere Tower, and that just happened to be on our list this trip.