The coolest waterpark rides & slides across America

Summer is just around the corner, and so is the opening of water parks to beat the heat.

To celebrate, we researched water parks across the country to find the most impressive slides and other water park features, from high-tech magnetic water coasters to an entire jungle gym floating on a lake. 

At 142 feet high, these side-by-side water slides are the tallest in the United States as of May 2024, as well as the tallest indoor water slides and third-tallest overall water slides anywhere in the world. Riders step into a drop pod with a trap door floor. When it opens, they shoot down 14 stories and approach freeway speeds. 

If that's more intense than you're looking for, DreamWorks Water Park has plenty else to offer as North America's largest indoor water park. Another record-holder is Toothless’ Trickling Torpedo, which is currently the world's longest hydromagnetic rocket coaster and has a more moderate thrill level.

When it first opened in 2016, the MASSIV Monster Blaster was the world’s tallest water coaster—Schlitterbahn lists its height as precisely 81 feet, 6 ¾ inches tall. Water coasters are a cross between traditional water slides and roller coasters. Riders sit in an inflatable raft and slide along a wet tube, like a water slide, but the ride propels riders up as well as down, like a roller coaster.

On MASSIV Monster Blaster, powerful water jets push riders up the uphill portions, propelling them through steep climbs and even steeper dives along 926 feet of winding slide. A similar ride, the Master Blaster Uphill Water Coaster, can be found at Schlitterbahn Waterpark New Braunfels.

3. Scorpion’s Tail

Noah’s Ark Waterpark
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

This 10-story high, 400-foot-long capsule slide holds the title of America’s first nearly vertical looping waterslide. Riders first plunge at speeds faster than 50 feet per second, before the slide begins curving up and to the right for a full loop. The faster you slide down the tube, the higher up the side of the walls you’ll travel as you shoot through the 27-foot-high loop, defying gravity. Sprayers inside the loop mist the tube walls all around to produce higher speeds.

4. Ko’okiri, Kala, and Ta Nui

Universal Volcano Bay
Orlando, Florida

The towering volcano at the center of Universal Volcano Bay, the water park at Universal Orlando Resort, features not 1, not 2, but 3 separate body slides that drop riders through trap doors. Prospective riders for all 3 slides must hold their nerve as they climb hundreds of stairs to the top of the volcano.

Kala and Ta Nui are serpentine slides, spinning and looping through the volcano’s core. Ko’okiri is a body plunge, dropping riders at high speed down a 70-degree near free fall and 125 feet of tube. Since all 3 drop capsules share a platform, half the fun is watching other riders suddenly disappear down the tubes. 

5. Aqua Rocket

Raging Waters Los Angeles
San Dimas, California

The aptly named Aqua Rocket had the honor of being California’s very first hydromagnetic water coaster. “Hydromagnetic” refers to the powerful hidden magnets it uses to pull rafts up inclines at high speed, allowing riders to climb steep hills seemingly by magic. The tech enables it to reach speeds up to 30 mph, combining the splashes of a water slide with the acceleration of a roller coaster.

6. Tornado

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Los Angeles
Valencia, California

This slide drops riders into a 60-foot-wide funnel at 35 feet per second. Momentum slides the 4-person raft up both walls multiple times, sometimes near-vertically. With enough momentum, riders can briefly defy the water pulling them toward the funnel’s exit.   

7. Loggerhead Lane

Aquatica Orlando
Orlando, Florida

Like any lazy river, Loggerhead Lane at Aquatica Orlando offers you the chance to lie back and drift with the current. It’s the marine life that sets it apart: Guests first float past a massive aquarium teeming with tropical fish. Later they meander past the Reef Plunge water slide and get a unique underwater view of black-and-white Commerson’s dolphins, as well as riders shooting through the clear Reef Plunge pipelines.

8. Riptide Race

Water Country USA
Williamsburg, VA

Water Country USA bills Riptide Race as Virginia’s first dueling pipeline slide. Unlike most other racing-style water slides, Riptide Race features full-size side-by-side pipelines and 2-person rafts, letting friends and family race together as teams. The pipes open at regular intervals so you can see your opponents, heightening the tension—will they be leaving you in their wake at the next checkpoint, or vice versa? 

9. Aqua Park

Nashville Shores Water Park
Hermitage, Tennessee

Ever been to a playground that’s floating on a lake? Nashville Shores Water Park has one, the Aqua Park on Percy Priest Lake, included with regular admission. Guests can enjoy 40 interconnected water elements, including monkey bars, hurdles, slides, wiggle bridges (a series of floating steps that require careful balance to cross, lest you fall into the lake), and more. Guests 10 and older can also ride around the lake aboard Banana Boats, rentable for an extra charge. 

Hurricane Falls is all about verticality. Riders board massive rafts that seat 4 (you don’t want a small boat in a hurricane, after all) and travel down a 680-foot flume, picking up enough speed to slide up the ride’s many steep walls. Each climb also scoops up a refreshing splash of water into the raft, so this is a perfect choice for a hot day.

There are plenty of water features to count at Sesame Place San Diego’s new kid’s play area. You can start with the 3 separate tipping buckets that send water tumbling down at regular intervals. Tally up all the others—Sesame Place lists off “soakers, flow pipes, hose and spray jets, shooters, curtains, tipping troughs, spinning and sliding buckets,” among others—and you’ll find there are 111 in total, making this count’s castle fit for a king.