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UER Forum > US: Pacific Southwest > A Day at the Waterpark! (Viewed 7701 times)
Ptasteful_Pteranodon 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 20 on 7/2/2018 6:02 AM >
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Sweet pics! This place looks neat.

Posted by Grumpy Goose
I just read up on the history of this place if anyone was interested. It's a really unfortunate story. I did go visit the park last December and it's in pretty bad shape. I tried to imagine the glory it once was, but it's sadly trashed now.

The park was constructed in the late 1950's and opened to the public in 1962. It was popular in the early 70's and mid 80's, but it started losing traffic and closed down in the late 80's. The park was sold in August 1990 to an investment group that envisioned a 50's theme "polished" park. The park reopened under a new name in July 1998 and unfortunately its big plans didn't last long. The park accumulated millions of dollars in debt and numerous financial problems. There was also an accident with an employee that decided to take an after hours plunge on one of the slides under maintenance. He became a paraplegic and even though that was his own fault, he was awarded $4.4 million in damages. The park filed for bankruptcy in August 2000. The investment group could not find a buyer for the park, so the judge overseeing the case returned the property to the previous owner's wife (the previous owner died in 1996) and discharged a huge portion of the debt. The wife sold the park to another investment group in September 2001 and died a month later. The park was renovated once again, renamed, and reopened in May 2002. It was open on weekends until summer 2004, when it was closed for good. There have been other plans to renovate the park, but nothing has happened at all and the park continues to rot in the desert.


Thanks for this. I always find the history of these places super interesting. It seems like a lot of properties/ghost towns in the Cali desert have a similar story of being relatively successful in the 50s-60s before becoming too expensive to maintain, closing, and being left to bake in the heat. The Mojave definitely seems to accumulate a lot of random abandoned places that just aren't worth the cost of demolition.





Grumpy Goose 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 21 on 7/2/2018 4:39 PM >
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Posted by Ptasteful_Pteranodon
Sweet pics! This place looks neat.



Thanks for this. I always find the history of these places super interesting. It seems like a lot of properties/ghost towns in the Cali desert have a similar story of being relatively successful in the 50s-60s before becoming too expensive to maintain, closing, and being left to bake in the heat. The Mojave definitely seems to accumulate a lot of random abandoned places that just aren't worth the cost of demolition.




I agree, the history is super interesting, but also a bit sad. It was someone’s hopes and dreams, they put a lot of time, effort, and money into making everything happen, and in the end, it wasn’t successful. That’s gotta be hard. The story of this particular place really saddened me. I always read up on different abandoned theme parks and I think they would have been so fun to go to, but Disneyland is the main theme park everyone goes to now and people forget about these smaller parks. There’s something about the old little theme parks (abandoned or not) that have always intrigued me. There’s an ambiance to them that isn’t like anywhere else. It feels like you’ve gone back in time.




Ptasteful_Pteranodon 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 22 on 7/2/2018 5:56 PM >
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Posted by Grumpy Goose


I agree, the history is super interesting, but also a bit sad. It was someone’s hopes and dreams, they put a lot of time, effort, and money into making everything happen, and in the end, it wasn’t successful. That’s gotta be hard. The story of this particular place really saddened me. I always read up on different abandoned theme parks and I think they would have been so fun to go to, but Disneyland is the main theme park everyone goes to now and people forget about these smaller parks. There’s something about the old little theme parks (abandoned or not) that have always intrigued me. There’s an ambiance to them that isn’t like anywhere else. It feels like you’ve gone back in time.


Yeah, it's sad to think about all the crumbled dreams in places like this, but if it's any consolation, these places still are bringing joy to people - just in a very different way than the owners expected.

I think that sense of sadness and nostalgia is a big part of what gives these places their unique beauty and draws people to urbex (it definitely is for me, at least). There's an emotional rawness and authenticity to abandoned places that's hard to find elsewhere in the urban environment.




sYnOnYx 


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what happens here, doesnt stay here.

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 23 on 10/17/2018 5:15 AM >
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Yeah when the slides got sold to a Canadian waterpark, it was done. Shortly after security was gone and the vandals took over.




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cr400 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 24 on 10/19/2018 10:36 PM >
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I went here in 1977 or there abouts.. It was just a mudhole campground with a couple of tin slides and a long zip line out into the lake/mudhole.

Place was filled with drunken teens.... I was in heaven.




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JokerSpecter 


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UER Criminal #50420

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 25 on 10/19/2018 11:49 PM >
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That looks like it was quite the satisfactory day, weather-wise. Sweet shots. The location looks pretty cool.




Kaysic 


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That guy

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 26 on 10/21/2018 6:51 AM >
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Drove by this place years ago on a road trip through California and mentally noted it as a site to visit if I was ever in the area... shame, because it seems to have been brutalized even since then.




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trailerparkjesus81 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 27 on 11/13/2018 3:18 PM >
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Posted by urbexsully
During a somewhat spur of the moment road trip from CA back to CO we stumbled upon this lovely water park! It was raining almost enough to have fully functioning water slides, what remained still there at least...


We stopped here over the summer, in the middle of the afternoon. It was hot, dry and the lighting was really harsh. We snapped a bunch of pics - didn't want to waste the trip - but I wish the conditions had been more along the lines of what you experienced, because the clouds and the water lend quite a bit of atmosphere.




TheGamingCave 


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The Gaming Cave

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 28 on 11/13/2018 4:57 PM >
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seeing the park that shape is sad it looked so nice before it got destroyed, i hope that the park gets another chance at life




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WindsorSB 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 29 on 2/22/2020 6:59 AM >
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Hello all,

I recently visited this spot while on a road trip with @Goste. We were in a hurry but overall I took 108 shots on 35mm film. These are my favorites but if anyone would like to see some more from the trip feel free to reach out in the dms.

While we were there we encountered several groups doing photo-shoots and one of the dude's there informed us that this property is being reviewed for purchase and apparently someone is thinking about re-opening the park. That totally ruin the spot obviously but could just be rumors. Maybe some of y'all that are local know some more details?

-Cheers




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Goste 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 30 on 2/22/2020 7:03 AM >
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Hey Everyone!
As @WindsorSB just posted, we stopped by here together at the end of a road trip. Cool spot, but pretty active with people taking photos and exploring, almost doesn't feel abandoned. Still worth the stop, just wish it was in better shape.


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randomesquephoto 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 31 on 2/22/2020 7:40 AM >
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Posted by WindsorSB
Hello all,

I recently visited this spot while on a road trip with @Goste. We were in a hurry but overall I took 108 shots on 35mm film. These are my favorites but if anyone would like to see some more from the trip feel free to reach out in the dms.

While we were there we encountered several groups doing photo-shoots and one of the dude's there informed us that this property is being reviewed for purchase and apparently someone is thinking about re-opening the park. That totally ruin the spot obviously but could just be rumors. Maybe some of y'all that are local know some more details?

-Cheers




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Huh. That's a lot of film exposures for this place. Or, any place really.




RIP Blackhawk
WindsorSB 


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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 32 on 2/22/2020 8:35 AM >
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Posted by randomesquephoto


Huh. That's a lot of film exposures for this place. Or, any place really.




To each his own I guess... that's pretty on par for how much I shoot locations. Usually I leave places feeling I could have captured more.




Howie Dunnet 


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Avoid attention and get lost in plain sight.

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 33 on 2/22/2020 7:41 PM >
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I really miss the abandoned areas of the Western US. Something weird always down the road somewhere. Maybe I will get back out there soon.




Aran 


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Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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Re: A Day at the Waterpark!
< Reply # 34 on 2/22/2020 8:05 PM >
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Sometimes the coolest locations are the ones you stumble across on your way to someplace else. Love it, and the rain really adds a cool ambiance to the photos.




"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

UER Forum > US: Pacific Southwest > A Day at the Waterpark! (Viewed 7701 times)
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