Mountain Creek Waterpark
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Mountain Creek Waterpark is a seasonal water theme park located at Mountain Creek Ski Resort in Vernon Township, New Jersey. They are open from about Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Both are owned by Intrawest, but the Waterpark was managed by Palace Entertainment, which manages and owns many water parks.
Many of Mountain Creek's attractions were built as part of "Waterworld" at Action Park, where they were notorious for their poor safety record, including several deaths. Intrawest and Palace have closed some of the worst, opened some new ones and in general vastly increased the park's focus on safety.
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[edit] History
The first park on this location was Action Park, which was a popular amusement park open from 1978 to 1996 in Vernon, New Jersey, on the property of the former Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area, today also called Mountain Creek. Its popularity, however, went hand in hand with a reputation for poorly-designed, unsafe (yet thrilling) rides; inattentive, underage, underpaid and sometimes under-the-influence employees; equally intoxicated and underprepared visitors — and the poor safety record that followed from this perfect storm of circumstances. For more details of these issues see Action Park.
Intrawest Corporation opened Mountain Creek Waterpark in 1998 at the same location as the former Action Park which closed on Labor Day of 1996 at the end of the season. Action Park had been closed and for the entire 1997 season.
When Mountain Creek Waterpark opened, the Motor World attractions were eliminated. Alpine Slide stayed open one more year. The other waterslides were holdovers from the former Action Park. They were all modified to conform to higher safety standards. In 1999 the ski lodge burned down and in 2000 a new portable building opened in its place. The Motorworld side of the park became parking as the former parking lot added more buildings and offices.
Alpha Smart Parks began managing Mountain Creek in 2001 and Ogden began management in 2003. In 2004 in a corporate deal Palace Ammusements began managing the park. Palace is now being sold once again. Also on the former parking lot a Condominium Hotel is being built where people buy the studio apartments, one bed-room apartments, and two bedroom apartments. They have the option of either living there or renting them out as luxury hotel units of a little bit of both. A parking garage is also being built there as well.
A couple new slides have been added since Mountain Creek opened but most slides are holdovers from the former Action Park but modified for safety reasons.
[edit] Rides
[edit] Past slides and attractions
[edit] Alpine Slide
Action Park's alpine slide descended the mountain roughly below the ski area's gondola, resulting in much verbal harassment and sometimes spitting from passengers going up for their turn, who would often be entertained by the accidents they witnessed while at the same time hoping to avoid similar fates.
The tracks themselves were made of concrete, which led to numerous serious abrasions on riders who took even mild spills. When Intrawest took over the park and renamed it Mountain Creek at the beginning of the 1998 season, they announced the slide would remain open for one final season. Riders were required to wear helmets and kneepads on the slide. The last day of the slide's operation was September 6 of that year, the day before the park closed for the season, as that year's Labor Day was rainy and the slide had to be closed.
The tracks were torn out afterwards, but the route can still be seen from the gondola.
[edit] Surf Hill
This ride, another one common to other water parks at the time, allowed patrons to slide down a water-slick sloped surface on mats into small puddles, until they reached a foam barrier after an upslope at the end. Barriers between lanes were minimal, and people frequently collided with each other on the way down, or at the end. The seventh lane was known as the "back breaker," due to its special kicker two-thirds of the way down intended to allow jumps and splashdowns into a larger puddle.
Employees at the park used to like eating at a nearby snack bar with a good view of the attraction, since it was guaranteed that they could see some serious injuries, lost bikini tops, or both. This closed in 2005.
[edit] Present slides and attractions
[edit] The Tidal Wave Pool
This attraction goes to about 6 feet deep. Under Action park management the pool went to 10 feet deep. Under Mountain Creek management the pool was modified. This pool alternates short periods of waves and short periods of calmness.
[edit] The Tarzan Swing
This is a wooden beam hanging from a 20-foot-long (6 m) cable over a pool of stagnant water. Patrons waited in long lines for the chance to hang from it, swing out over the water, then jump off as the beam reached its height. The water though comes from a natural river and is therefore colder than the rest of the park. It averages 55 to 60 degrees.
[edit] The Gauley & Thunder Run
The left side is known as The Gauley and riders use a single tube. The right side is known as Thunder Run and is a double tube rafting ride
[edit] Super Speed Water Slides
These were two water slides, set slightly apart from the rest of the park, that took advantage of incredibly steep slopes to allow riders to attain higher speeds than usually possible. One started with riders going almost vertically downwards and was covered with screening for the first several feet.
As barriers on the side of the slides were very low, lifeguards reminded every user to remain flat on their back with their arms at the side as they descended since there was no way to ride it otherwise and stay on. The fall from both slides had the potential for very serious injury.
Those who made it to the bottom found their progress arrested by water, guaranteed to cause a spectacular splashdown, and then a small pool.
[edit] Canyon Cliffs
The area around Roaring Rapids was (and still is) laid out like a kind of grotto, with many lower-intensity attractions. One was cliff perches 30-50 feet (10-15 m) above a pool 16 ft (5 m) deep, where divers could jump.
[edit] Colorado River Ride
The Colorado River Ride, winds its way down a heavily wooded area on the side of the park. It used to feature large, unwieldy circular rafts that people had to carry from the splash pool all the way to the start. The "river" is actually a large trough made to look like a natural river bed.
The ride started out as a nice jaunt around a couple of turns, but then become far more challenging. Since the river is on a steady pitch down the hill, the rafts gained speed very quickly. At one point the rafts would come to a fork where they could either head into a tunnel, or (less frequently) around a corner into an unknown section of river. The tunnel had many turns and was dark. At the exit rafts commonly slammed into a curved wall. The raft then floated into a small rock pool and stayed there until it found its way out. The final stretch of the river consists of a large downhill portion complete with bumps, and a foot-high (30 cm) jump where the rafts would momentarily catch air and then slam back onto the surface.
[edit] Bombs Away
Aggressive body slide that begins with a steep descent and finishes off with 18-foot plummet into our spring quarry.
[edit] Cannonball Falls
Two fully enclosed tubes catapult one through pitch darkness to a final 10-foot freefall into crystal cool mountain water.
[edit] H2-Oh-No!
99 foot vertical drop.
[edit] High Anxiety
High Anxiety is a high-speed, extreme tubing water ride that creates the highest-thrill, zero gravity experience available. It’s a two, three and four-passenger tube ride that begins with a four-story vertical plummet through a tunnel. Riders drop into a huge funnel shaped enclosure and are gravity propelled to dizzying heights back and forth along the walls. Finally at the base of the funnel, riders are thrust through another 90-foot long tunnel into a catch pool.
[edit] Kamikaze
Long and fast furious body slide known for its extreme speed and sudden 8 foot drop!
[edit] Rogue River
This daring body slide sends you sliding through twists and turns followed by a plunge into total darkness before rocketing out into the Canyon Cliffs quarry.
