Lost Island Theme Park Announces Forbidden Lair, First Ever RMC Family Shuttle Coaster
If you’ve been following Rocky Mountain Construction’s social media channels, you’ll see that there’s been a “moose on the loose” as the company reveals the location of its first-ever “Wild Moose” family coaster model. We now know its destination: Waterloo, Iowa and Lost Island Theme Park, where the park will open Forbidden Lair, the first-ever RMC Family Shuttle coaster, based on the Wild Moose concept, in 2027.
This isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill family coaster.
Featuring 910 feet of track, Forbidden Lair will be located inside Lost Island’s “Yuta” realm, themed to earth. It will be the second roller coaster in that section of the park, joining Matugani, and the second coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction to operate at Lost Island following the addition of the single-rail raptor, Fire Runner, in 2025
Riders will begin by ascending a 79-foot lift hill in reverse before gravity takes over and sends you flying through the coaster’s layout. Forbidden Lair will then traverse a custom layout featuring an airtime drop on the lift hill, a station fly-through, high-speed turns, a tunnel known as a “Subterranean Shimmy,” a junior wave turn, a floater airtime hill over the park’s Yuta Falls flume ride before climbing towards the top of “Spelunker’s Spike,” sending riders skyward before reversing direction and taking on nearly all of those elements backward.
Forbidden Lair POV
With a top speed of 38 mph and 11 airtime moments, Forbidden Lair is shaping up to be a pretty substantial family thrill ride. It should provide a good middle ground between Lost Island’s wacky worm coaster Lokolo and its three “thrill” coasters — Nopuko, Matugani and Fire Runner.
For Lost Island, it’s another significant addition to a park that’s quickly becoming one of the most interesting in the region. Since 2023, the park’s coaster lineup has added the launched Matugani and single-rail Fire Runner. Other attractions like the world-class Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol dark ride from Sally Dark Rides and Amara Aviators — one of just four Gerstlauer Sky Flyer installations in the United States — give the park a pretty unique collection of attractions for a relatively young theme park.
It’s also a pretty interesting next step for RMC. The company has built its reputation on some of the world’s most aggressive and innovative thrill coasters, and now, with the company’s first “Wild Moose” installation – and a shuttle version at that, it’s bringing that same approach to the family coaster market with a ride that combines a shuttle layout, backwards travel, airtime and a custom layout that interacts with the park around it.
For a look at how the Wild Moose rolling stock may ride around the track, be sure to take a look at this video from our buddy Scott at Upstop media.
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An official opening date has not been announced, but stay tuned to Lost Island’s social channels and Coaster101.com for more information!
