Hades 360 is a wooden roller coaster at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It opened on May 14, 2005, simply as “Hades,” built by The Gravity Group, and quickly earned attention as one of the tallest and fastest wooden coasters in the Midwest. Its signature moment came right from the start: the first drop plunges riders into an 800-foot underground tunnel that runs beneath the park’s parking lot, believed to be among the longest tunnels of its kind on a wooden coaster.
In 2013, the park reworked the ride’s second hill, adding a 360-degree corkscrew and a 110-degree over-banked turn, along with new Timberliner trains, and renamed it Hades 360. What made the retrofit remarkable is that the corkscrew itself runs on genuine wooden track rather than a steel loop bolted onto a wood structure, making Hades 360 the only wooden coaster in the world with a true wood-tracked inversion. At 136 feet tall with a 65-degree drop and a top speed of 60 mph, Hades 360 remains a benchmark ride for wooden coaster enthusiasts.
Stats at a Glance
- Park: Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
- Manufacturer: The Gravity Group
- Opened: May 14, 2005 (as Hades; renamed and retrofitted with corkscrew in 2013)
- Height: 136 ft
- Top speed: 60 mph
- Length: 4,746 ft
- Inversions: 1 (360-degree wood-track corkscrew, added 2013)
The Ride Experience
Riders climb a traditional chain lift to 136 feet before plunging down a steep 65-degree drop straight into an 800-foot underground tunnel, one of the longest tunnels found on any wooden coaster. From there, the layout weaves through a series of airtime-filled hills before reaching the ride’s defining feature: a 360-degree corkscrew paired with a 110-degree over-banked turn, both added during the 2013 retrofit that gave the coaster its current name.
The ride runs Gravity Group’s Timberliner trains, reaching a top speed of 60 mph across 4,746 feet of track in about two minutes.
A One-of-a-Kind Wooden Inversion
Earlier attempts to send wooden coasters upside down relied on steel as a primary structural component of the loop, using wood mainly as a running surface. When The Gravity Group retrofitted Hades with a corkscrew in 2013, it took a different approach, building the inversion with a completely wooden track rather than a steel-framed loop.
That construction method is what makes Hades 360 unique: it is described by its builder as the only wooden coaster in the world with a genuine wood-tracked inversion, rather than a hybrid loop reliant on steel structure.
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Hades 360 FAQs
Where is Hades 360 located?
Hades 360 is at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Why was the ride renamed from Hades to Hades 360?
In 2013, The Gravity Group added a 360-degree corkscrew and an over-banked turn to the layout, and the park renamed the ride Hades 360 to reflect the new element.
Is the Hades 360 corkscrew made of steel or wood?
The corkscrew uses genuine wooden track rather than a steel loop, making Hades 360 the only wooden coaster with a true wood-tracked inversion.
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Photo: User Royalbroil on en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.