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Jeff Scheid/Review-Journal
The Stratosphere's High Roller coaster gives riders a view of the city.
Clint Karlsen/Review-Journal
Roller coaster enthusiasts from across the country are descending on Primm to ride the Desperado.
Clint Karlsen/Review-Journal
About 10 million riders have zoomed (at 55 mph) through the Canyon Blaster's loops and corkscrews since it opened in August 1993.
Clint Karlsen/Review-Journal
New York-New York's 69-mph Manhattan Express stands out against the Strip skyline.
Clint Karlsen/Review-Journal
Buffalo Bill's intimidating Desperado shares the speed record - 88 mph - with the Steel Phantom at Kennywood theme park in Pennsylvania.
Over the Top
Roller coaster fanatics swoop into Southern Nevada for new thrills, chills
Some Las Vegas visitors find plenty of excitement in the tumble of dice, the turn of a card, the jackpot-bound spin of a slot machine reel.
But others require a bit more.
Plunging down a 225-foot drop at speeds topping 80 mph, for example. Twisting 180 degrees through a diving corkscrew loop that approximates the gravitational pull of an airplane pilot executing a barrel roll. Or gazing at Las Vegas' glittering grid of lights from a 1,149-foot tower - strapped into the seat of a circling roller coaster.
More and more, those thrills act as a magnet for legions of roller coaster fanatics who have transformed Southern Nevada into an up-and-coming coaster destination.
Las Vegas "certainly has gone from a place that coaster enthusiasts wouldn't bother with to something of a coaster mecca," according to Geoff Allen, who oversees one of numerous Internet sites devoted to roller coasters across North America - and around the world.
Circus Circus' Canyon Blaster inside the resort's pink-domed theme park sparked the city's coaster boom when it opened in August 1993. It's still one of only...