Photos from Abandoned American Adventure

On the way home from Ikea we decided to take a random side trip to American Adventure, while the theme park is shut up, the country park that surrounds it is more than open, making it possible to walk fully around the perimeter of the old park

All these photos were taken on my camera phone, so excuse the quality, from outside the park, at no time did we break any rules and go inside!

^map board showing the layout of the country park, we didn't realise how far we'd have to walk!

After getting a tad lost, we eventually found what was the former rapids, this section was quite overgrown and hard to see anything as there was a big mound blocking the view into the park, we followed the path around to reveal . . .

^ a view looking across the lake, these are the buildings of the waterfront and new orleans mall section of the park, one of the last sections of the park which hasn't yet been demolished

^ Jetty around what was the Space Port/Fort area of the park, i think there may have been a hit the golf ball into the lake game here at one point

^ Photo taken through the big iron fence looking at what was the second entrance to the park.

Subsidence issues caused the park to move the entrance to this location, cutting through from the bottom of the carpark, there were small huts to buy your tickets from, the whole thing was temporary and a lot less impressive than the original grand entrance plaza at the top of the hill, where you entered the park to some magnificent landscaping

^ Sign points to the second entrance, the coach and car parking spaces were ghostly and in tact

I remember pulling up in the car during my only visit when the park was operational (around 2001) and seeing the Twin Looper peeking over the top of the embankment which separated the park and car park

^Superzoom alert! the Twin Looper and Alamo buildings were once here, there should be a stadium seating stand blocking our view, which originally was the venue to watch grand shows when the park first became American Adventure but in later years sad idle

^ Looking at the original main entrance, in the final year of trading, this entrance was re-opened to allow access to the soft play area and kiddie flat rides outside Aztec Kingdom building which operated for a winter event

^former main entrance which has now been boarded up

^ Photo taken by reaching over the top of the fence, you can make out some buildings which once formed the entrance plaza

^ photo taken by reaching underneath the fence!

It was very sad to see what has become of American Adventure especially when it was just plain bad business sense to remove the big rides which ultimately lead to the inevitable closure of the park

When I visited in 2001 the park had so much potential, it had a strong foundation of rides which make up the backbone of a good theme park, it had a fantastic log flume and rapids, a runaway train and looping coasters.

It had already set out themed lands with a good balance of attractions and supporting amenities, restaurants and shops

All it really needed was some good TLC, and a more effective marketing push to get visitors back to the park, but sadly it was just left to rot until it fell apart at the seams

HighExtreme