Knotts, Magic Mountain, or Elitch Gardens??? Fam with Teens

TBH even with thrillseekers who don't care about theming, i'd still go to Disneyland.

Elitch Gardens is absolutely terrible in every way. Its owned and operated by Kieran Burke (yes...THAT Kieran Burke), is neglected, run down, and poorly operated. Unlike Magic Mountain or Knotts it doesn't even have any good rides. Its easily one of the worst parks in the country and TBH probably won't be around in a decade or two.

I will admit Magic Mountain has some great coasters: Twisted Colossus, Tatsu, Apocolypse (depending on the day), Batman, Riddler, and X2 has its fans (though keep in mind its a 25 year old arrow). The rest of their collection I find to be fairly mediocre although I can see the GP enjoying rides like Goliath, Wonder Woman, Full Throttle, West Coast Racers etc. So this park is easily the best for coasters.
But the coasters aren't the problem, there is no doubt this park has a bad case of the SF-stench. Its not operated well, not maintained well, has no atmosphere, and it seems like several major things are always closed. Granted I haven't been there in a long time so maybe it has turned around...but I highly doubt that. I suspect considering your criteria most people will suggest this park...but go in with the expectations that its a dumpy SF park and you won't be as dissapointed.

Knotts is like the middle ground here. It doesn't have nearly as prolific of a coaster collection as SFMM, but it does have a few good coasters (unlike Elitch Gardens which has none). Xcelerator is incredible, Ghostrider is really good, i'm not a big fan of Eurofighter coasters so Hangtime isn't my thing but a lot of people like it, and Silver Bullet is kinda "meh."

It has a slightly better atmosphere and more pleasant to be at than SFMM and Elitch, although I wouldn't consider Knotts a top-tier park in terms of atmosphere either. Knotts best coaster by far (Xcelerator) also tends to be closed a lot which can be super frustrating.

Elitch Gardens was never great, but growing up in Denver, you had the choice of Elitch Gardens or Lakeside, and they were literally in the same neighborhood. “Elitch’s,” as we all called it (sometimes colloquially spelled “Elitches”), was where you went when you had a little more money to burn, because even though it was more expensive, it was clearly the better park. Lakeside was only slightly better than your average traveling carnival, with the exception of the Cyclone, the old wooden coaster that ignited my affinity for coasters.

Not sure which location of Elitch Garens you visited; for the 1995 season they moved from a a beautiful park full of history and mature trees to the treeless concrete jungle just west of Downtown. But they made everything worth it for 11-year-old me with the opening of the first inverted coaster within hundreds of miles, the Mind Eraser (a Vekoma SLC). I rode that thing more times than I can count, and I had every twist, roll, and inversion memorized. The Twister II was a painful and rather boring wooden coaster. And besides those, there wasn’t really much worth waiting in line for.

But don’t make a trip to Elitch Gardens. I’ve heard from my old high school buddies that it’s not even worth it for the nostalgia. Your time and money is probably better spent at Meow Wolf across I-25.

Elitch Gardens should not be in this conversation unless the question is whether or not it's worth trekking to California for a theme park when you're already going to be in Denver. I've been to over a hundred full size amusement parks, and it's a bottom five park with only one coaster that doesn't suck and an environment about as basic as they come. I'm not sure which park you're referring to as Six Flags GA, but I'm going to guess California's Great America if you live on the west coast, and if so Elitch Gardens is about two-thirds that size (plus it's not at all close to the bay area...about 20 hours driving time).

The other two parks you mentioned (Knott's and Magic Mountain) are both located in SoCal about an hour apart from each other, and you could easily combine them if you have a few days. Six Flags Magic Mountain is a roller coaster paradise, and it would be an excellent choice if your teens are thrill seekers who want to spend the day riding nothing but the craziest thrill rides ever built. The downside of this park is that upkeep and operations are not the greatest and it also has very little to do aside from the coasters, so it's going to be a non-stop adrenaline packed day with more one train operations than you'd prefer to see (though the park has been really good about having everything scheduled to be open actually open since the merger). Knott's Berry Farm, on the other hand, features a very well rounded mix of attractions, with a few solid roller coasters, a couple decent dark rides, some pretty good food by theme park standards, and atmospheric theming throughout that's nice but not in your face. This one is very close in size to CGA (SFMM is about double the size), so it's typically manageable in a single day (SFMM probably requires two days).

Taking everything into consideration, here's what I'd recommend for a SoCal trip...

-If you have only one theme park day, do Knott's Berry Farm. I don't think anyone can go wrong with a trip to this park, and it's absolutely a nicer park than any of the bay area options.
-If you have two days for theme parks, do Six Flags Magic Mountain. Your teens will have a blast on the thrill rides, and while the infrastructure is a bit shoddy the landscaping is pretty decent.
-If you have three park days, do both. Thanks to the merger, a gold or prestige pass gets admission to both properties, and you'll also be able to use it at CGA and SFDK as well for day visits.
-If you're interested in a longer trip, adding a day at either Universal Studios Hollywood or the Disneyland Resort may be worthwhile. The former has a limited slate of attractions, but they are debuting a crazy new roller coaster this summer, and the latter does have enough thrill rides to justify a day, but it is much heavier on the theming and thus might not be worth the high cost of admission.

You know what's crazy? "Six Flags GA" could be SFGAdv, SFGAm, CGA, or SFOG if you're being creative. What a name scheme.

This is such a broad question, because you identify a couple of parks in completely different regions of the country, but seem to be open to traveling anywhere near a major airport. It sounds like you're looking for a week-long trip to a region that has a major theme park with big thrill rides. Given those parameters, let me suggest a few parks and regions not explicitly mentioned.

Philadelphia

There are 2 major theme parks inside the Philly region and another just outside the region that is considered to be one of the best independent parks in the country. SFGAdv might not be as good as SFMM when it comes to top end thrill rides, but El Toro and Nitro are two of the best rides of their kind in the world. The rest of the park's lineup is decent with Jersey Devil, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Flash: Vertical Velocity (excellent modern Vekoma shuttle coaster), Joker, and Medusa (first B&M floorless coaster). The atmosphere of the park isn't great, but is something they're working on with the installation of the new Boardwalk area opening later this summer and Project Purple coming in 2027.

Dorney Park is also in the Philly region (about an hour north), and has a bit more of a traditional amusement park feel. There are a number of classic rides, but a decent collection of big coasters like Steel Force, Iron Menace, and Hydra. If I had to chose between here and SFGAdv, I'd probably chose the NJ park, but given a second day in the region, I would absolutely use it to visit this park.

Hersheypark is a little under 2 hours from Philly, but is absolutely worth the trip, and I'd probably recommend this park over SFGAdv unless the distance is a barrier or if you want to leverage a SF season pass. This park used to be known for having a very mediocre coaster collection, but with the addition of Candymonium, Wildcat's Revenge, and modifying the restraints on Skyrush, Hersheypark can go toe to toe with any iron park in the world. Like Dorney Park, Hersheypark has a more charming, old school vibe, but can get extremely crowded on summer weekends with massive lines for top attractions that mostly have boring, un-themed queues. There's also Chocolate World located just outside of the theme park that is worth the trip on its own.

Toronto

If you have a passport, I cannot recommend a visit to Toronto more highly. Toronto is very much a world city and has a feel more like cities in Europe than typical North American cities. While there's only one major theme park in the area (Canada's Wonderland), there are plenty of other attractions in the city that can fill a week. The weather is amazing in the summer.

Canada's Wonderland is an great park that I feel is often overlooked when comparing major North American amusement parks. The coaster lineup is a bit top heavy with Leviathan, Behemoth, Alpen Fury, and Yukon Striker, but this park probably has one of the most diverse collection of flat rides anywhere in the world.

Cincinnati/Louisville

This region is home to 2 major theme parks in Kings Island and Kentucky Kingdom plus lot of other interesting tourist attractions that can easily fill a week's vacation. Kings Island is probably one of the best themed among the legacy Cedar Fair parks and has a good collection of top end thrill rides. I'm not a huge fan of Orion, but Diamondback is really good as is Mystic Timbers. Banshee is still the only next-gen B&M invert in the US and has one of more unique layouts you'll find on this type of coaster. There's a decent collection of smaller rides and attractions at this park that can easily fill a day and maybe even bleed into a second if crowds are heavy or if you like to experience more family-oriented attractions.

I haven't been to Kentucky Kingdom in over a decade, but I continue to hear great things about this park. Louisville is about 90 minutes from Cincy, so it's a comfortable drive if you want to split a week between the 2 cities.

San Antonio

This region is home to 2 major theme parks (Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World Texas). SFFT is probably my favorite park in the chain, though their park president has departed, who was responsible for differentiating this park from the rest of the chain. Iron Rattler is one of the most unique RMCs, and Superman: Krypton Coaster is one of my favorite B&M floorless coasters. The theming is this park is the best in the chain, and in the summertime they do a cool projection and fireworks show on select night.

Sea World Texas is a fun park that has a decent collection of rides and animal exhibits/shows. It's certainly not as good as the other 2 Sea World parks, but is worth a day, especially if you enjoy thrill rides.

There's also Schlitterbahn located in New Braunfels (less than an hour east of San Antonio) that is probably the best waterpark in the US, and is included in a Six Flags "All-Parks" pass.

Salt Lake City

You had mentioned Elitch Gardens as a potential park of interest, and while I've never been there, I have been to Denver, and feel the vibe of that city is pretty similar to that of Salt Lake City, which has a pretty incredible independent theme park of its own in Lagoon.

Thanks everyone! OP here, yes I omitted some context for brevity. We have in recent years been to USH, and my elder teen is not at all interested in DL based on politics. Fair enough, we have been three times in her lifetime already! Yes, Six Flags Great America is our home park. The younger is going this weekend with a friend.
Great info about Elitch Gardens. When I went before I was with friends in my early 20s, to the downtown location, and I recall it being fun... but I was not discerning. And yes we would wrap that into a few days in Denver with Meow Wolf etc. But, I am hearing the general sentiment toward Knotts which I admit was not my subconscious preference due to logistics (either a longer drive or choose among fewer flights daily).

Crossed posts with #5, so adding that believe me when I say I would LOVE to go to Canada's Wonderland but that is just too long a flight and a trip for us at that time. Denver is the furthest realistic option at this point, about a 2.5-3 hour flight. BTW last summer we went to Vancouver BC for a family vacation and spent an enjoyable 4ish hours at Playland, the dinky amusement park there. Now I'm picturing Elitch Gardens as being somewhat comparable to that.
My *personal* #1 amusement park to visit (where I've never been) would be Dollywood but my kids are totally unwilling to travel to red states and in any case, that's too far for our time and resources this year.

Not to be flippant, but I find it completely hypocritical for someone to say they're "unwilling to travel to RED states" or vice versa. Do people realize that there are residents of BLUE and RED states who have opposing political persuasions, and many of these categorized states have entire cities/regions that skew completely opposite from the rest of that state (think Austin, TX, Asheville, NC, Atlanta, GA, Omaha, NE, Buffalo, NY, Stamford, CT - as part of the NYC metro area, Manchester, NH - as part of the Boston metro area, Nashville, TN, and many suburbs of LA and San Francisco in CA). It's extremely close-minded to put entire cities/states of this country on a "no fly" list simply because a slim majority of that state votes a certain way (and maybe not even a majority given the way some places want to redraw districts). Personally, I find the political situation in California bizarre (to put it mildly), but that isn't impacting my summer travel plans one iota. The only thing that would ever impact my travel planning would be a natural disaster, social unrest (violent protests), war, or blatant/encouraged public discrimination where you feel that you would be put in physical harm by visiting a location. The whole point of traveling is to see and be exposed to cultures and situations different from your own, so why bother spending all that time, money, and energy to visit somewhere that's just like home?

It's baffling to me that we have a growing segment of people in this country that feel that boycotting certain areas of the United States (or other parts of the world) will somehow influence other regions' political views or feel that entire cities or states are black/white (or in this case red/blue) where that categorization makes you feel unwelcomed or unwanted simply because you don't agree with that place's political stance. Very sad.

I digress, and based on that comment, I assume that's why Salt Lake City would be a no-go despite being a surprisingly progressive city (though very openly LDS) with an excellent independent theme park (Lagoon) that has an attraction lineup miles better than what's offered at Elitch Gardens. My wife and I are Jewish and felt completely comfortable in downtown Salt Lake City attending a Sunday Morning musical performance at the Mormon Tabernacle and walking around the Temple Complex. Yes, there were folks proselytizing (it's practically a "commandment" for members of LDS), but that is the culture.

Yes, someone in our party is a person whose identity could cause their personal safety to be threatened in many parts of the country. I certainly agree that's sad, but on a trip that's supposed to be fun for the kids, I'm not going to force it.

I have zero issues with someone voting with their wallet when it comes to dealing with state legislatures, however for your post specifically it is confusing to me because you said she won't go to Disney for political reasons OR Republican-led states. This implies she doesn't like companies speaking out for LGBT rights, and she doesn't states that try to quash LGBT rights. I guess that's possible but seems unlikely? Its just an odd thing to hear from someone lol.

Also just an FYI [prepare for theme park nerd lesson], there is a theme park named "Six Flags Great America" but I don't think that's the one you're talking about. I think the one you're talking about is "California's Great America," which ironically is owned by Six Flags now, but they are two different parks in different parts of the country.

In your first post I thought you were talking about Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, because when most of the general public say "SFGA" they are talking about that park since its the NYC market (meaning the biggest one). Then in your next post when you said "Six Flags Great America" is your home park I thought you were talking about the park in Illinois. I think we all had to re-read your posts several times to understand exactly what was going on. There are agreed upon abbreviations in the theme park community:

SFGAdv - Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey
SFGAm - Six Flags Great America in Illinois
CGA - California's Great America in Silicon Valley

Again not a big deal but I feel obligated to say it because i'm still not 100% sure which park you're talking about (but I think its CGA?)

@the_man26 I don’t stay too up-to-date on these things but I do recall there was a situation a few years ago about a law in Florida (or a bill? I don’t remember exactly) that Disney stayed silent on until they received backlash, and many on the left felt like Disney’s response was too little, too late. So I think there are people on both sides who are boycotting Disney.

Ah, here it is. It was the HB 1557 “Parental Rights in Education Act.” Critics called it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/202203/8850/

I will add - off topic but I'm the OP so I'll allow it - my 15 yo spent the day at California's Great America on Sunday (Memorial Day weekend). I noticed as we drove up around 12:30 that the parking lot was nowhere near full, and she reported that with two exceptions (Psycho Mouse & Flight Deck, my personal all time favorite coaster), wait times were never higher than 20 minutes all afternoon for all the other big coasters. She and her friend had a great time. But my surmise is low crowds means trouble for this park and maybe closing permanently even earlier than announced.

It's a tough call but I'd go with Knotts.

Yes Magic Mountain has a bigger and better lineup, but Knott's will provide the better overall experience. Ghostrider is the best woodie on the west coast, and Hangtime, Xcellerator, and Silver Bullet are solid. The park kinda lacks with their flat rides, I'd say really the only one worth it is Sol Spin. The Mine Train and Log Ride make up for that tho! Food will be better and the employees (should) be better than at SFMM.

But SFMM has such a stacked ride lineup that only a few other parks in the world can beat. So if y'all just want coasters then I'd choose that.

Just make sure to buy Fast Lane (Knotts) or Flash Pass (SFMM) whenever you go. August will be hot and have long lines. In both parks, barely any queues have AC.

I'd recommend not going to Elitch Gardens lol. How about doing one day at Knott's and then one day at SFMM?