Sierra Sidewinder, Spinning steel roller coaster in Buena Park, California, USA

Sierra Sidewinder is a steel roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. The train is made up of cars that spin freely as the ride moves, so passengers rotate in different directions rather than always facing forward.

The ride was built by Mack Rides, a manufacturer based in Germany, and opened at Knott's Berry Farm in May 2007. It was the eighth roller coaster to join the park's lineup.

The Sierra Sidewinder sits in the Camp Snoopy section of the park, an area designed around the Peanuts characters that families with younger children tend to gravitate toward. Snoopy and his friends appear throughout the zone, giving it a recognizable look that sets it apart from the rest of the park.

The station sits beside the entrance to Camp Snoopy, and each car is locked in place while riders load and unload, then released to spin once the train leaves. Cars are rotated back to their home position before the next group boards. Look for the small holes on the fronts and rears of the cars, left where the on-ride cameras were mounted until the 2011 season.

When it opened in 2007, this was the first roller coaster in the United States where multiple cars on the same train spin independently at the same time. This means no two rides are exactly alike, even if you sit in the same seat each time.