An orange and silver tower is set into the granite hillside on Highway 2 in Leavenworth, acting as a sentry to the town's Bavarian-style streets. Yes, there's a roller coaster in the Cascades, but the ride might pale compared to the adventure that surrounds it.

The Leavenworth Adventure Park’s alpine coaster—the first, and only, in Washington—boasts spiral helix circles and hairpin turns along a 2,700-foot-long track. This kind of gravity-powered ride is common in the Alps: Germany’s longest coaster glides for nearly two impressive miles. Given Leavenworth’s Bavarian theme, the oddity made perfect sense when it debuted in 2023.

I enter under a facade painted with the promise that “Adventure Begins Here.” Virtual ticket in hand, friendly employees brandish a wristband affording two rides on the attraction. The coaster, nicknamed the Tumwater Twister, borrows its moniker from nearby Tumwater Canyon, an adventure capital in its own right with Class V river rapids and classic rock climbs.

After a short safety video explaining the use of the hand brakes I’d be in charge of deploying, I loaded into a no-frills plastic orange seat. The cart lurched skyward, giving me time to wonder about the engineering of these carts gliding along metal tube tracks. A cable system similar to a ski lift lugged my cart up the hill; metal cages flanked downhill turns as a last-ditch safety precaution.

At the track’s precipice, an employee instructed me to release the brakes: gravity would take me down from here, lending a quieter ride than typical motor-powered roller coasters. I whipped around corners, reflexively pulling back on the hand brakes. Sudden dips afforded a fleeting feeling of levitation—and appreciation for the car-style seat belt.

Snaking around the curves, I tried in vain to find views beyond the 76 gas station across the street. Ahead, there was downtown Leavenworth and the arid, hilly expanse of Eastern Washington, but most mountain views were behind me or further up Icicle Road. A few more whiplash moments and my cart glided back into the multistory hut; the adventure was over. “Fun. Quick,” I heard one rider succinctly describe the coaster on his way out.

And quick it was. I had stats: the downhill portion had lasted just 90 seconds. Sure, your speed is predicated on how heavy-handed you are with those brakes. But you’re also at the mercy of other riders. I vowed on my second ride to brake sparingly for max thrill factor, but the carts in front of me had different plans, and riders must leave designated space (marked with helpful signs along the cages) between themselves and the next cart. After all, this isn’t bumper carts, as the safety video helpfully warns. One slowpoke translates to a leisurely, somewhat disappointing ride for everyone behind.

Post-ride, I wandered out through an empty food court to the rock wall and mining sluice on property. Overall, the ride was a fine thing to do on vacation if you’re already in Leavenworth and pining for a Bavarian-style mountainside adventure, but questionably worth $20 a pop (two rides for $36).

I had dropped my friends off just a couple miles away to trail run among alpine lakes and towering granite peaks that surround Leavenworth while I explored the adventure park, and the irony wasn't lost on me. Later that day, we donned harnesses and quickdraws at a natural rock climbing crag across the highway from the coaster. From the top of each pitch, we could spot the orange carts through the trees, and occasional squeals wafted through the thick summer air.

The Leavenworth Adventure Park’s creation was contentious among the small town’s nearly 2,500 residents. That noise—in addition to parking woes, traffic increases, and a general dislike of the town’s theme park-ification—were grounds for opposition. A 2018 Change.org petition against the proposed park garnered 7,099 signatures; community group Friends of Leavenworth brought park developers to court in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to nix the project.

“Well, now you can say you did it,” I overheard in the park's dedicated parking lot. Like a trip to the nutcracker museum, a ride on the Tumwater Twister is now an obligatory Leavenworth tourism right of passage.