QUEENSBURY - With the summer tourist season rapidly approaching, the Great Escape is hoping for a monster year, even in a down economy.

Tourism types say if the Great Escape does well, the area economy will do the same.

They're keeping admission and season passes at last year's rates, but they have added their first new thrill ride in a decade. Sasquatch offers thrill seekers a choice. One tower will send riders rocketing 192 feet skyward in three seconds and then bring them gently back down. The other tower offers the opposite - the sensation of plummeting from 19 stories high.

VIDEO

Watch reporter Mark Mulholland and photographer Rich Frederick try out the Great Escape's new ride, Sasquatch.

The ride is a metaphor for the upcoming season. Will it be like the first tower, launching straight up? Or, thanks to a struggling national economy, will it be in a free fall?

The Great Escape says numbers are pointing up.

"We expect to have a great season," assured Eric Fluent of the Great Escape.

The theme park added other attractions this year, including new food and new shows.

They're hoping Capital Region families and teens will stay close to home and make the Great Escape their destination this summer.

"Certainly in a tougher economy, we're an incredible value for locals to come out, as well as people in those outer markets will have the opportunity to drive in and spend the day," Fluent said.

Like Sasquatch, the Great Escape has a big footprint in the area. As the park goes, so goes the summer season. Warren County's sales tax revenue has been off dramatically in the first quarter of 2009. So elected leaders say they need the theme park to have an up year -- and they think it will.

"In a down economy, people aren't flying and they tend to be driving more. Actually, Great Escape historically has done pretty well. If we're going to have a rough year on the national level, maybe Great Escape will float the boats around here because it's in such close driving distance to so many people," Queensbury Town Supervisor Dan Stec suggested.

Stec says there are 40 million people within a short day's drive.