Have I mentioned that I adore abandoned buildings? Was my post about the Camarillo State Mental Hospital not clear enough? I can remedy that. Today on the drive home from the Vegas, I pulled off on a side road to get a closer look at something that has been lurking in the back of my mind for YEARS, begging to be trespassed and visited.
Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark, located in Newberry Springs, California.
This waterpark (originally named Lake Dolores Waterpark) was designed back in the late 1950s by Bob Byers.
His original plan was to have this park for private use of his extended family.
Over the next 25 years, rides were added and the park expanded as tourism to Las Vegas rose, as did interest in motocrossing in the sandy area.
The park was incredibly popular from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The popularity ran out in the late 1980s, and Byers sold the park in 1990.
The new owners tried to revitalize it with a new name (Rock-A-Hoola) and re-opened it in 1998.
The park was open for three more years and amassed three million dollars in debt.
In 1999, a park employee was paralyzed after he used one of the slides after hours.
He went down the slide and into the runout lane, but the water wasn’t at the height that it was supposed to be.
He realized that he wasn’t slowing down as much as he should have been and hit the concrete end of the runout lane, which you can see in the picture above.
He was paralyzed and sued the park. He was awarded $4.4 million dollars, which undoubtedly lent a hand to the upcoming bankruptcy and closure in 2000.
In 2002, new owners decided to give it another go. They spent $400,000 updating the park and renamed it “Discovery Waterpark.”
The park was open seasonally until 2004, when it closed for good.
Since then it’s been ripped apart, piece by piece, and sold to other waterparks.
Vandals have also gone wild, spray painting every standing structure, prying open doors and shattering any glassware they can find.
The lazy moat is filled with tattered mattresses, and the vandals really want you to know that “Nutsaks” are available there. (See the bridge above)
No, seriously. They really, really want you to buy some of their “Nutsaks”.
The stairs that led up to the tallest slides have been overgrown by large bushes. Sharp bushes. They hurt to walk through. I suffer for the good of my blog.
This park is beautiful and tattered, eerie and forgotten. I think it was made just for me.
I really need to find a history class that teaches only about abandoned towns/buildings/parks such as this.
This was my idea of a perfect day.
by Becki | July 6, 2011 · 8:18 pm
Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark
Filed under Abandoned buildings, Travel
Tagged as abandoned buildings, abandoned waterpark, Barstow, desert, Discovery Waterpark, Lake Dolores Waterpark, Nutsaks, paralyzed, Rock-A-Hoola, runout lane, water slides, waterpark
I’ve driven by that thing a dozen times, never stopped. Really amazing. How did they get water to that place?
The place is on top of a bunch of underground springs fed by the Mojave Aquifer. There used to be a man made lake there that they filled via those springs and used for jet ski races, but it’s all dried up now.
There are some awesome forums and photo groups dedicated to this– I gave it a shot for a while but in SoCal there’s really not a lot available (except for things like Camarillo State and my personal fav, the Paramount Ranch racetrack).
I had no idea that was a racetrack! I love the old Western town there. It’s true though, there aren’t that many around SoCal. That’s why I’m trying to find as many as possible on the road since I have the opportunity.
Well, if you ever get to New Orleans:
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-orleans-abandoned-six-flags-theme-park-2011-7
Looks like you had an amazing time! I love looking at pictures of abandoned buildings.
It was SO much fun. One of my many obsessions
I thought that since you enjoy abandoned buildings as much as you do you might want to check out the blog http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com it has some pretty cool pics.
If you like abandoned buildings check this blog out:
http://americanurbex.com/wordpress/
I never realized people actually went to the water park there!
I LOLed at nutsaks
Any pix out there when it was beautifully thriving? what a loss!!! ….i was there during the mid 70′s (once):): when it was in it’s infancy stages….such a terrible loss to the people of Barstow!!! ):):):
I haven’t found any pics of it when it was actually in use. All the pics seem to be of it post-abandonment. That’s my preference when it comes to pics, so works out for me
Hear are in use pictures I found
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyroo117/sets/72157614486264219/detail/
Wow! That’s so great that you found them! Thanks for sharing!!
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Thanks so much for sharing your pictures!
I’m from Sydney, Australia and was recently on holiday’s, driving past on my way to Vegas. I spotted ‘Rock-a-hoola’ for a split second out of the window and have been OBSESSED ever since.
So interesting that there was once so much life and fun in the park and now its just forgotten… so beautiful and interesting.
Thanks again!
I’m glad you found it! It haunted me for a few years after I first saw it. I was so glad to finally get in there and see it up close!
NUTSAK is a semi-famous graffiti writer. There are videos of him painting on Youtube. VERY COOL!
I googled. Probably shouldn’t have. Didn’t find anything of his work, but got some lovely graphic images, haha!
What is it about abandoned buildings? Love them but can’t tell exactly why. Do we somehow relate to the abandonment in one form or another? Is it the sadness of what could have been, of unrealized potential and dashed hopes, that somehow draws us in? Is it just the fascination of discovering something, anything as faint as an echo from the past?