Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
During the ride, trains encounter many tunnels and bridges.  Because so much of the ride is covered, it is very hard to photograph.  However, the close brushes with rocks, buildings, and bridge supports all make the ride more exciting!

It seems a little strange that a short ride has three lift hills, but it was built that way for a purpose.  Each chain lift gives a place for trains to be halted.  This design allows for the coaster's course to be separated into three blocks, thus ensuring that a couple of trains can safely be on the course at once.  This could also be done with block brakes, but the brake runs would have to be straight level segments of track, something that designers would not want to have interrupt the flow of hills and turns on the ride.  The hills aren't that tall, so the coaster never exceeds 30 miles per hour, although the surrounding terrain makes it seem like guests are moving much faster while on the ride.

Since the late 1980s, Disney has had a tradition of hiding Hidden Mickeys through its parks.  I didn't get a picture of them, but in the cacti seen in the lower left corner of the shot, there is a large round cactus with two smaller circles above, a silhouette very similar to Mickey Mouse's head and giant ears.

©2018 Joel A. Rogers.