Ravine Flyer II opened on May 17, 2008 at Waldameer & Water World in Erie, Pennsylvania, and immediately earned Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Award for Best New Ride in the World. Designed by The Gravity Group and built with Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters trains, the wooden coaster plunges into an actual ravine, producing a first drop of roughly 118 feet — well beyond its 80-foot lift hill — and generating strong airtime through the valley below.
What sets Ravine Flyer II apart from every other coaster on earth, and what photographers travel from across the country to capture, is its 165-foot arched steel bridge, which carries riders twice over Pennsylvania Route 832 (known locally as Peninsula Drive), a live four-lane highway. That singular engineering feat, combined with the coaster’s consistent presence in national wooden-coaster rankings, has made it one of the most photographed wooden coasters in the United States — and one people search for facts and figures on almost as often as photos.
Quick Answer
Ravine Flyer II’s signature photo is a train crossing the 165-foot arch bridge over Route 832 with highway traffic visibly passing underneath — the only place on earth you can frame a wooden roller coaster over a live four-lane road. The best galleries are on Waldameer’s official site, RCDB, and Theme Park Archive, and the best spot to shoot your own photos is the roadside pull-off on Peninsula Drive directly beneath the bridge.
What Ravine Flyer II’s Photos Capture
Because the coaster’s whole identity is built around a single dramatic feature — crossing a live four-lane highway — nearly every well-known photo of Ravine Flyer II centers on that bridge. The classic shot is a train silhouetted against the sky as it clears Route 832, with cars visibly passing underneath. It’s a genuinely unusual image in the coaster world, since Ravine Flyer II is the only ride anywhere that crosses a public highway this way, and it crosses it twice in a single 90-second run.
The rest of the ride photographs well too. The first drop sends the train down into a real forested ravine below the surrounding grade, so wide shots from the ravine floor show the structure towering overhead against the tree line. The four tunnels create strong light-and-shadow contrast for action shots, and the wooden lattice structure itself — supported on natural terrain rather than flat ground — gives the ride a rugged, old-school profile that stands out from the steel coasters at the same park.
How Ravine Flyer II Actually Crosses a Live Highway
Getting a wooden coaster train over a live four-lane highway wasn’t a stylistic choice — it took real civil engineering. When Waldameer and The Gravity Group planned the ride’s route through the ravine, the only way to connect the two halves of the layout was to send the track across Peninsula Drive (PA Route 832) itself. Engineering firm Urban Engineers designed the 165-foot arched steel bridge for the crossing, driving steel girders down to bedrock to anchor a retaining wall strong enough to carry a fully loaded coaster train above moving traffic below.
The bridge was also engineered to accommodate a possible future widening of Peninsula Drive, so it won’t need to be rebuilt if the road is ever expanded. That added complexity is a big reason Ravine Flyer II cost roughly $6 million to build — nearly double what a wooden coaster of its size would typically cost, according to Urban Engineers’ own project records. The payoff is a ride that legally crosses a public four-lane highway twice per lap, something no other roller coaster in the world does.
Where to Find Ravine Flyer II Photos and Video
Waldameer’s own official Ravine Flyer II page hosts a photo gallery of the ride, including shots of guests riding and multiple angles of the bridge and ravine. The Roller Coaster Database (RCDB) also maintains a large fan-submitted photo and video archive for the ride, and enthusiast sites like Theme Park Archive and CoasterBuzz post additional galleries from different seasons and angles.
For a full point-of-view experience, on-ride POV videos filmed from the front seat are widely available on YouTube and show the highway crossings, tunnels, and airtime moments in real time. If you’re researching the ride before a visit, these galleries are the fastest way to see exactly what the bridge crossing and ravine drop look like before you experience them in person.
Best Spots to Photograph Ravine Flyer II Yourself
The single best vantage point for your own photos is Peninsula Drive itself — there’s a roadside pull-off near the bridge where you can shoot trains passing directly overhead as they cross the highway. It’s the shot nearly every coaster photographer tries to get, since it’s the only place in the world where you can frame a roller coaster and a moving line of highway traffic in the same picture.
Inside the park, the queue line and station platform offer close-up angles of the first drop and lift hill, while the walkway near the ravine gives a wider view of the structure descending below grade. Because Waldameer sits along Lake Erie, late-afternoon light tends to backlight the bridge nicely for silhouette shots — a detail regular visitors and coaster photographers often plan around.
Stats at a Glance
Park: Waldameer & Water World, Erie, Pennsylvania. Manufacturer: The Gravity Group (design); Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (trains). Opened: May 17, 2008. Height: about 80 ft (24 m). First drop: roughly 118 ft (36 m) into the ravine. Top speed: roughly 55–60 mph. Length: roughly 2,900–3,000 ft. Tunnels: 4. Inversions: 0. Duration: about 90 seconds. Minimum height: 48 inches. Highway bridge: 165 ft, crossed twice per ride.
The Ride Experience
Riders board at the station and ascend the chain-lift hill before cresting and diving into the ravine for the signature first drop. The plunge below grade — the coaster descends beneath the level of the surrounding terrain — is what creates a drop distance far exceeding the height of the lift hill, a design trick that delivers sustained airtime and forceful positive G’s in the valley.
The course then climbs back up to cross Pennsylvania Route 832 on its celebrated arch bridge before diving again into a second drop, then crosses the highway a second time later in the layout. Four tunnels and constant changes in speed, direction, and elevation round out a layout that rides hard from start to brake run.
Awards and Rankings
Ravine Flyer II won Amusement Today’s 2008 Golden Ticket Award for Best New Ride in the World in its debut season, and it has held a spot among the magazine’s top ten wooden coasters every year since 2009, peaking at fifth place in 2016. That kind of staying power is rare for a regional-park attraction competing against major chains.
The ride has also built a following outside the enthusiast press: in USA Today’s 2025 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, voters ranked Ravine Flyer II the No. 4 roller coaster in the country, citing its blend of classic wooden-coaster feel with the modern highway-crossing spectacle. For a family-owned park like Waldameer, consistently out-ranking coasters at far larger, nationally known parks is part of what keeps coaster photographers coming back every season.
Ravine Flyer II is a The Gravity Group creation — see our full The Gravity Group profile for the company’s history and signature coasters.
Ravine Flyer II photos and facts FAQs
How does Ravine Flyer II cross a highway?
It rides over a 165-foot arched steel bridge, engineered by Urban Engineers with steel girders driven down to bedrock, that carries the track twice over Pennsylvania Route 832 (Peninsula Drive) while live traffic passes underneath.
Is Ravine Flyer II really the only coaster that crosses a public road?
Yes. It’s widely documented as the only roller coaster in the world that crosses a live, public four-lane highway, and it does so twice during its roughly 90-second run.
How big is Ravine Flyer II’s first drop?
The first drop is roughly 118 feet, sending the train below the surrounding grade into a real forested ravine — noticeably larger than the coaster’s 80-foot lift hill.
Where can I find the best Ravine Flyer II photos online?
Waldameer’s official Ravine Flyer II page has a park-shot gallery, RCDB hosts a large fan-submitted photo and video archive, and enthusiast sites like Theme Park Archive and CoasterBuzz post additional seasonal galleries. On-ride POV videos are also widely available on YouTube.
Where’s the best spot to photograph the highway crossing myself?
The roadside pull-off on Peninsula Drive directly beneath the bridge is the classic vantage point, letting you frame a train crossing overhead with highway traffic in the same shot. Late-afternoon light along Lake Erie tends to backlight the bridge well for silhouettes.
What awards has Ravine Flyer II won?
It won Amusement Today’s 2008 Golden Ticket Award for Best New Ride in the World, has ranked among the magazine’s top ten wooden coasters every year since 2009 (peaking at fifth in 2016), and was voted the No. 4 roller coaster in the country in USA Today’s 2025 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
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