Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars is a family roller coaster in the Grizzly Gulch section of Hong Kong Disneyland, built by Vekoma and opened on July 14, 2012. It sends runaway mine trains through a gold rush-era mountain town, using two chain lifts plus a linear induction motor (LIM) launch to power riders through about 3,600 feet of track.
The ride’s centerpiece is an 88-foot artificial mountain that took a team of 30 sculptors and 20 painters roughly 14 months to build, using about 3,850 tonnes of cement to mimic real rock formations the Imagineers studied on research trips to California’s Sierra Nevada and Yellowstone National Park. It was Hong Kong Disneyland’s second themed mountain and third roller coaster overall.
Stats at a Glance
- Park: Hong Kong Disneyland
- Manufacturer: Vekoma
- Opened: July 14, 2012
- Height: About 88 ft (mountain height)
- Top speed: About 35 mph (56 km/h)
- Length: About 3,600 ft (1,100 m)
- Inversions: 0
The Ride Experience
Riders board 24-seat mine trains that climb through a gold rush town before an animatronic bear named Rocky diverts the cars from a “lucky” tunnel into a darker one, setting off the story. Near the mountain’s summit the lift cable appears to snap, sending the train back down the hill in reverse along a different stretch of track into another mine.
Inside, bears Mother Lode and her cub Nugget accidentally set off a stick of TNT while reaching for a hanging catch of fish, and the explosion triggers the coaster’s LIM launch, blasting the train forward out of the mine on yet another section of track. The full circuit combines two chain lift hills, the backward rollback, and the forward launch, keeping the family-friendly ride’s modest stats from feeling predictable.
Theming and Cultural Details
Grizzly Gulch was designed as a fictional 1850s mining town swallowed by an earthquake, and the attraction leans into Chinese numerology that matters to Hong Kong Disneyland’s local audience: guests are first steered toward a tunnel numbered 8, a lucky number in Chinese culture, before Rocky redirects them to tunnel 4, a number associated with bad luck. It’s a small but deliberate storytelling choice built into the ride’s layout.
The mountain itself was sculpted rather than built from steel show buildings alone, giving it a more naturalistic look than earlier Disney mountain attractions. Imagineers combined sketches, physical models, and research from real rock formations before construction crews translated that work into the finished structure.
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Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars FAQs
Is Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars a launched coaster?
Yes. In addition to two traditional chain lift hills, the ride uses a linear induction motor (LIM) launch that sends the mine train forward out of the mine after an earlier backward rollback section.
Does the train go backward?
Yes, but only during the rollback near the mountain’s summit, when the lift cable appears to break and the train rolls back down and into a different tunnel. The later LIM launch propels the train forward, not backward.
Does it have any loops or inversions?
No. It has zero inversions and is designed as a themed family mine-train coaster rather than a thrill-focused inverting ride.
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Photo: Laika ac from UK / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.