Roller Coaster Guide to Canobie Lake Park: Every Coaster Ranked

Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire is not a coaster park, and pretending otherwise sets you up wrong. It is a 120 year old lakeside classic with a small, characterful coaster lineup where each ride earns its place a different way. Here is every coaster at Canobie ranked, with honest advice on seats, timing, and what each one is actually for.

1. Yankee Cannonball

The heart of the park. This wooden out and back dates to the 1930s, arrived at Canobie in 1936, and still runs classic Philadelphia Toboggan Company trains with a single lap bar and real freedom of movement. The layout is simple, a string of hills straight out and straight back, but the airtime pops over the return run are genuine, and on a summer night with the lake breeze coming through, it is one of the best old wooden coaster experiences left in New England. It also has solid capacity for its size, so the line moves.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: back row for the strongest airtime, front for the classic view
• Best time to ride: after dusk, when the track is warm and fast and the crowd is at the midway

2. Untamed

Canobie's thrill anchor, a compact Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter that opened in 2011. A vertical lift climbs 72 feet, then the track bends past vertical into a 97 degree drop, followed by three inversions stacked into a footprint the size of a tennis court. It is snappy and abrupt in a way big coasters are not, and the beyond vertical drop gets first-timers guide every single time. The catch is capacity: small cars and a modest queue that swells fast once the park fills.

• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: front row, the drop over the edge is the whole show
• Best time to ride: first hour of the day, before the line triples

3. Canobie Corkscrew

A genuine piece of coaster history: a 1970s Arrow Development corkscrew that toured two other homes before settling at Canobie in 1990. The double corkscrew was cutting edge when this hardware was new, and riding it now is a time capsule, smooth enough to enjoy, rattly enough to remind you it predates most of the park's guests.

• Note: The Canobie Corkscrew was retired after the 2021 season and donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum. It is no longer operating at the park.
• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Best seat: middle of the train, easiest on the transitions
• Best time to ride: midday, the line rarely gets serious

4. Dragon Coaster

The kids' starter coaster, a small oval with gentle dips. If you are an adult without a child in tow, you can skip it without guilt. If you are working on a full credit count, ride it early before the family crowd makes an adult in the queue look strange.

• Height requirement: 36 inches with an adult
• Best seat: wherever the operator puts you
• Best time to ride: park opening, in and out in five minutes

What this lineup means for your day

Three real coasters and a kiddie ride will not fill a day by themselves, and that is fine, because Canobie's supporting cast is the actual draw: the Mine of Lost Souls dark ride, the lakeside flat rides, the arcade, and the general 1900s trolley park atmosphere. Budget roughly two hours for a complete coaster sweep including re-rides, then let the rest of the park happen to you.

First-timer order

• Untamed at opening, its low capacity makes it the only urgent ride
• Canobie Corkscrew second while the midway is still quiet
• Yankee Cannonball late morning for a first lap
• Dragon Coaster whenever, if you need the credit
• Yankee Cannonball again after dark, this is the non negotiable one

Enthusiast order

• Untamed front row at rope drop, then an immediate re-ride if the station is empty
• Corkscrew once for the Arrow history
• Yankee Cannonball back row in the afternoon, then marathon it at night
• Judge the park by the Cannonball night rides, not by the coaster count. On that measure, Canobie wins.