3 Once-Thriving California Amusement Parks That Now Lie Abandoned For Nostalgic Adventurers

Hunting for and exploring abandoned places is one of my favorite hobbies and travel quests — and I love the occasions when I get to write about it. There's something wonderfully nostalgic about seeing the gentle, or sometimes not so gentle, decay of once-thriving structures that have seen so much life. So, my planning a trip to California invariably involved a deep dive into potential sites to explore — and, low and behold, there are some ruined amusement and water parks to get stuck into.

After consulting the good people of Reddit, who maintain a great thread on "urban exploration," AKA scaling abandoned places, as well as the rest of the internet, it transpires that California was once a hot bed of theme parks. That's not hugely surprising for a state with so much magic and whimsy. Unfortunately, many of the ruins were lost to developers or forest fires, but these are three to get you started. Small disclaimer: It's always best to seek permission and put on solid footwear for your endeavors.

On the Mojave Freeway (Route 15) sits a dilapidating treasure trove of nostalgic design, Rock-A-Hoola. First opened to the public in the 1960s as Dolores Waterpark, the sprawling site of 251 acres stayed faithful to design from this era throughout its multiple incarnations, with huge signage, a long length of spiraling slides that whizzed down into a lake and a campsite. By the '90s, visitor numbers were dwindling (was running a waterpark in the middle of the desert ever a good idea?) and it sat derelict for most of that decade until its second life.

Restored and reopened in 1998 as Rock-A-Hoola, the new owners made the most of the (by then) retro design and relaunched the place for lovers of all things vintage and rockabilly. Unfortunately, disaster befell the park once more when an employee hit the slides after hours and was left paraplegic in this tragic accident. The court case cost the park $4.4million, as well as its reputation, and the site was finally closed in 2004.

Today, Rock-A-Hoola's only visitors are skateboarders, photographers, and intrepid ruin lovers, who post reels of the graffiti covered signs, slides, and structures, much of which are still standing. It takes at least an hour to wander round the pools, but it is in the scorching sun of the Mojave Desert, which is a popular film location in California. So should you risk a visit, do so prepared for heat. Remote heat.

In the eastern realm of Apple Valley, a quirky mini golf course has been slowly decaying since the 1980s. A few miles along Cahuilla Road, off Highway 18, a herd of eerie — or lonely, depending on your take — dinosaurs jut out from the dusty skyline. In various states of disrepair, some with limbs and heads missing, some bleached by sun, the dinosaurs were the brainchild of Lonnie Coffman, per Abandoned Spaces. A generous guy, Coffman set about building his dinosaur park meets crazy golf site in the 1970s, vowing it would be a place where kids could visit for free, welcoming visitors to the site as he went about his plan to build 30 dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, his philanthropy and amateur paleontology never saw the light of day. Despite funneling every bit of spare cash into his project for 12 years (according to neighbors who said he was there building at every chance he got), when funds ran out in 1982, his bid for support from the county was denied. Forced to abandon his dream, the wire mesh creatures have been in ruin ever since — you can see inside some of them, as weather has borne holes through the concrete structures.

Visitors are advised to take heed by blogger explorers, as today, the tumbling dinos are home to all manner of snakes and insects. Watching YouTube clips of 'Jurassic Putt' (great pun) is undoubtedly safer, or visit SoCal's less ruinous giant desert dinosaurs in the Borrego Valley.

If you find yourself in San Diego County, there's a enjoyably spooky spot in El Cajon off Highway 8, along Ridge Hill Road that's still in action for annual Halloween shenanigans but abandoned the rest of the year. Perhaps due to its new life as a scare trail, locals say the spot gives them the creeps, or maybe it's the eerie appearance of the 20-foot tall ferris wheel and decaying rollercoaster, yellow paint fading and peeling after 30 years of abandonment.

According to local San Diego bloggers, Marshall Scotty's Playland had its heyday in the 1980s, when families would visit the bumper cars, water slides, cute train track and aforementioned rides. Its demise came in 1989 when the owner's plans of building the longest water slide in SoCal, ploughing half a million dollars into the dream, led to the park going bankrupt and having to close the doors. It wasn't the first failed waterpark in the state.

America's first of its kind, Lake Dolores, is now a surreal wasteland – but its remnants are San Diego's haunting reminder of a bygone time just the same. Urban explorers take note — Marshall Scotty's Playland may be a tempting prospect to check out and photograph, but people live on site, so make sure you seek permission before getting those zoom lenses ready.

Aside from being a hobbyist urban explorer, I'm also an ex-academic, so trawling the web to research niche subjects is my wheelhouse (and then some). When searching for California's abandoned amusement and waterparks, I trawled Reddit, Google Maps, and local news sources.

Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube also gave up to date pictures of sites to explore or that had been lost or repurposed. I'm most sad, as a huge Lord of the Rings fan, that the delightfully quirky Hobbiton USA is no more following the California fires, and am quietly disconcerted that Micheal Jackson's Neverland Ranch was bought and fixed up by a billionaire fan, notes the BBC. But nonetheless, California's got the goods for you adventurers out there. Again for those at the back, seek permission before going in.