The Best Tool on the Net! - By John Stacy (jrstacy98)

Last year my kids and I discovered coasters and quickly became enthusiasts (at least enthusiastic). In that process we found Coastercounter.com and started keeping track. As my daughter and I stood in line for our first ride on Maverick we met an ACE member who let us know we were using the best coaster tracking site, and that we were about to ride one of his favorite coasters.

Recently Coastercounter added Parkfinder – a tool that gives you the ability to find active coasters near any place near any place on the globe.

I am planning a Summer coaster trip with my kids – not even sure quite where to yet, but parkfinder is the perfect tool to help. I chose the first location, let’s say Chicago, I type Chicago in, set it to 50 miles, then I see what’s in Chicagoland. Bam, I find Six Flags Great America, we’ve never been there and they have a ton of coasters that will boost our lists. First day of vacation is now done. How far do I want to drive in one day and still hit some parks, let’s say 3 hours, I plug in 200 miles and look at my options, in this case plenty of choices in the Wisconsin Dells. I can click on the red balloons to get some information on the park and it’s coasters, I can look at the guide on the right to see how many coasters are at each park.

Be aware, if a city has more than one park, the balloons could be stacked on top of each other, make sure you also look at the right hand listing.

It’s almost a game of leapfrog – how far do you want to drive – going from park to park, perhaps you can hit several small parks in one area, then dedicate a full day to a larger park. How many days do you have, can you make a large circle to get back to your starting location? Are you traveling for work, what’s close?

It’s easy to get lost in this tool as you keep meandering out and finding parks that might be fun to visit.

One other thing I like about this tool is seeing where you’ve been, once you visit a park it turns green on your map. You can turn those off, but it gives a sense of accomplishment seeing the map as more and more green shows up.