Ride America's First-Ever Rotating Water Slide At This Midwest Park

Just when we think we've experienced the craziest, most exhilarating water slides imaginable, the country's greatest engineers come up with something that blows our minds all over again. That was certainly the case in 2021, when the geniuses at Ramaker and WhiteWater teamed up to create Medusa's SlideWheel at the Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park in the thoroughly entertaining city of Wisconsin Dells, which is a great place to visit for any occasion.

Upon its debut for Memorial Day weekend in 2022, the attraction became the first rotating water slide in not only the United States, but the entire western hemisphere. While this version of the SlideWheel style was merely part of a $23 million expansion (which also featured the addition of a new 22,500-square-foot building to expand the original indoor water park), it undoubtedly became the centerpiece as excitement and buzz spread among theme park thrill seekers.

WhiteWater is responsible for some of the most insanely spectacular water parks across the world, and the company's SlideWheel had previously been installed at Chimelong Water Park in Guangzhou, China, and Aquapark Reda in Poland. At Mt. Olympus, however, it became yet another in a series of bold and dynamic accomplishments.

While it might look like a convoluted play set for your pet hamster, this award-winning concept is a marvel of engineering brilliance set at one of the best and most thorough water park experiences in the nation. As the wheel spins, making three rotations per minute, 4-person floats are loaded one at a time onto a conveyor belt, which pushes them into the tubes, where they'll reach speeds of up to 25 mph. Except, when most slides send you from point A to point B, the rotation on Medusa's SlideWheel keeps rocking riders back and forth for a truly unique and amazing experience.

That might seem like you'll be swishing back and forth inside the tubes for quite a while, but the whole ride experience lasts less than 2 minutes. You might also think that the rotation could cause floats to bump into each other within the tubes, but only three are inside at a time, and each foursome will have plenty of space between them as everyone hopes it'll never end.

According to TripAdvisor reviews, the biggest thing visitors should know is that the wait to ride Medusa's SlideWheel can be anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour. But most people, regardless of how they wrote of the entire park experience, claimed the wait was well worth it.

Mt. Olympus has always been a haven for "firsts." In addition to the first multi-level go-kart tracks in the world, the park raised the bar with the Hades 360 rollercoaster, which isn't just the world's first upside-down wooden coaster, but it also boasts the world's longest underground tunnel. And most recently, the park debuted The Rise of Icarus, which became the tallest water slide in the U.S. at 145 feet.

Between the more pleasant Midwest weather and the indoor-outdoor elements of Mt. Olympus, it's not a surprise this destination is as popular as Florida's iconic water park, Universal's Volcano Bay. While it's hardly the same style of ride, Medusa's SlideWheel is still so unique in comparison to the Krakatau Aqua Coaster at Volcano Bay. Obviously, the best solution is to visit both parks and try all the rides!

For a global comparison, so many parks stake claim to the title of "best on the planet," as people love the surroundings at Siam Park in Spain, while World Waterpark in Canada boasts the largest indoor wave pool, and Waterbom Bali delivers a speed of 2.5 G's on the Climax Slide. But for the future of design and excitement, we may need to look no further than WhiteWater's latest endeavor: Meryal Waterpark in Qatar, where the Icon Tower holds the distinction of having the most water slides on a single tower as well as the tallest in the world. Well, for now, that is.