Great Bear is Hersheypark’s flagship inverted coaster — a Bolliger & Mabillard machine that opened May 23, 1998, by threading 2,800 feet of steel track over Spring Creek, past neighboring rides, and through a hillside hollow where the terrain itself amplifies the first drop. Riders are suspended beneath the train with feet dangling free from the moment the lift crests, and the layout runs through four inversions before they catch their breath.
What separates Great Bear from a typical B&M invert is the engineering problem it had to solve. The layout crosses Spring Creek, skirts the existing SooperDooperLooper and Coal Cracker log flume, and climbs a hillside — all without placing a single support column inside the creek bed, which park and environmental rules prohibited. B&M described it as one of their most technically challenging installations ever, and the finished ride reflects that difficulty: a custom layout that feels faster and more disorienting than its headline numbers alone would suggest.
Quick Answer
Great Bear is a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted steel coaster at Hersheypark (Hershey, Pennsylvania) that opened in 1998 with a 124-foot first drop, a top speed of 58 mph, and four inversions — a vertical loop, Immelmann loop, zero-g roll, and corkscrew — all routed over Spring Creek with riders’ feet dangling throughout. It was Pennsylvania’s first inverted looping coaster and remains one of the park’s signature thrill rides.
Stats at a Glance
Park: Hersheypark, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). Type: Inverted steel roller coaster. Opened: May 23, 1998. Lift height: 90 feet. First drop: 124 feet. Top speed: 58 mph. Track length: 2,800 feet. Ride duration: approximately 2 minutes 55 seconds. Inversions: 4. Capacity: approximately 1,300 riders per hour. Minimum height: 54 inches.
Each train carries 32 riders — eight cars of four across in a single row — seated in B&M’s signature over-the-shoulder harness configuration, with legs and feet hanging free for the entire circuit. Two trains run the circuit, keeping throughput at around 1,300 riders per hour.
History and Construction: B&M’s Toughest Installation
Hersheypark broke ground on Great Bear in mid-November 1997, and the coaster opened roughly six months later on May 23, 1998 — the sixth coaster at the park and the first inverted looping roller coaster in Pennsylvania. The project cost approximately $13 million and brought in structural design work from Werner Stengel, whose firm has contributed to dozens of celebrated coaster layouts worldwide.
The site made construction unusually difficult. The layout had to cross Spring Creek while park and environmental regulations forbade placing support piers inside the waterway. B&M had to engineer custom spanning structures to bridge the creek without in-water footings — an arrangement the manufacturer had rarely needed before. The finished structure required more than 214 piers, approximately 4,500 cubic yards of concrete, and around 2 million pounds of steel across roughly five acres of sloped terrain. B&M later described Great Bear as one of the most challenging projects the company had undertaken.
The park’s promotional campaign for the ride won a Brass Ring Award for marketing excellence in 1998. Demand was strong from the start: Great Bear averaged approximately 1.2 million riders per year in its first five seasons.
The Name: Stars, Bears, and Hockey
Great Bear is named after Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation. The ride’s seven major elements correspond to the seven stars that form Ursa Major — a design choice that gave the layout a thematic structure, not just a name. The name also connects to the Hershey Bears, the American Hockey League franchise that has played in Hershey since 1938 and shares its color palette with the coaster’s black track and light grey supports. The trains themselves are painted purple, pink, and yellow.
The First Drop: 90-Foot Lift, 124-Foot Fall
The numbers look contradictory at first: the lift hill is 90 feet tall, but the first drop is 124 feet. The explanation is terrain. Great Bear crests its lift on the upper edge of a hillside, and the ground falls sharply away into The Hollow below, so the train plunges well beyond the height the lift alone would deliver. That 34-foot bonus is a classic trick of terrain coaster design — using the landscape to get more vertical drop than the structure’s height implies.
What makes the approach particularly interesting is the helix between the lift crest and the drop. Rather than sending riders straight into the plunge, the train sweeps through a pronounced left-hand curving arc — the first time B&M used this configuration on an inverted coaster. The helix stacks lateral g-forces before the bottom drops out, so when the 124-foot fall finally arrives, riders are already loaded sideways and the transition hits harder than a straight-line approach would.
Through the Four Inversions
Great Bear runs its inversions in rapid sequence after the drop. First is a vertical loop — at roughly 100 feet, it delivers immediate, strong positive g-forces at the bottom. Next is the Immelmann: the train pulls into a half-loop, rolls 180 degrees at the apex, and exits traveling in the opposite direction, producing a sensation riders describe as being launched and then dropped from height. Third is a zero-g roll, a horizontal twist that briefly floats riders before snapping them back upright. The sequence closes with a corkscrew — a tight, fast flip that ends the inversion string before the final brake run.
The pacing between the first three elements is deliberately compressed. The inversions arrive before riders have fully processed the one before, and even experienced coaster enthusiasts report the stretch through loop, Immelmann, and zero-g roll as genuinely disorienting. Before the circuit ends, the train also sweeps extremely close to SooperDooperLooper’s structure — a classic foot-chopper moment where dangling legs appear to nearly brush the adjacent steel. Riders in the outside right seat toward the back of the train get the most visceral version of this effect.
What the Water Routing Adds to the Experience
Crossing Spring Creek was a construction headache, but it also shapes what the ride feels like. As the train sweeps low over the waterway and neighboring terrain, the reduced clearance between track and ground intensifies the perceived speed in a way that open-air elevation cannot replicate. Close-to-ground passages are one of the most reliable speed amplifiers in coaster design, and Great Bear uses them repeatedly through the middle section where the track banks and dips just above the creek and adjacent walkways.
The inverted seating posture sharpens this further. With nothing in front of the feet, riders can look straight down and watch the water and landscaping pass beneath them — a perspective impossible on a traditional sit-down coaster and one that makes every low clearance feel closer than it actually is.
Practical Riding Tips
The minimum height requirement for Great Bear is 54 inches. Hersheypark places the ride in its Twizzlers height category, which covers riders from 54 to 60 inches tall, as well as anyone taller. A test seat is positioned at the ride entrance so guests can check whether the over-the-shoulder harness closes comfortably before joining the queue — a useful stop for larger guests.
For seat selection: front row delivers the most open, unobstructed perspective over the drop and through the inversions. The outside right seat in the rear half of the train maximizes the foot-chopper effect near SooperDooperLooper. Great Bear’s roughly 1,300-riders-per-hour throughput handles volume reasonably well, but the ride draws consistent demand as one of the park’s flagship attractions. Arriving at park opening or riding during the dinner hour (roughly 5–7 p.m.) tends to produce the shortest waits on peak summer days.
Great Bear at Hersheypark FAQs
How many inversions does Great Bear have?
Great Bear has four inversions: a vertical loop, an Immelmann loop, a zero-g roll, and a corkscrew. They follow in quick succession after the 124-foot first drop, with the first three arriving fast enough that many riders find the sequence genuinely disorienting.
When did Great Bear open at Hersheypark?
Great Bear opened on May 23, 1998. It was the sixth coaster operating at Hersheypark at the time and the first inverted looping roller coaster ever built in Pennsylvania.
What is the height requirement for Great Bear?
Riders must be at least 54 inches tall. A test seat is available at the ride entrance so guests can verify the harness fit before waiting in line.
Why is the first drop longer than the lift hill?
Great Bear crests its 90-foot lift on the edge of a hillside, and the terrain drops sharply away below into The Hollow. That elevation change gives the ride a 124-foot fall even though the structure itself is only 90 feet tall — a terrain coaster advantage that adds roughly 34 extra feet of drop.
Why is Great Bear’s construction considered unusually difficult?
Environmental and park regulations prohibited placing support piers inside Spring Creek. B&M had to design custom structures to span the waterway without in-creek foundations, while simultaneously routing the layout past SooperDooperLooper and Coal Cracker on a sloped hillside site. The company later described it as one of their most challenging projects, requiring more than 214 piers and around 2 million pounds of steel.
What is the best seat on Great Bear?
Front row gives the most open view over the drop and through the inversions. The outside right seat toward the rear of the train offers the best perspective on the foot-chopper effect as the train sweeps past SooperDooperLooper.
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