Roaring Springs
The grotto pool in Roaring Springs
Roaring Springs was set in a heavily wooded area. While the other sections were clear of trees for the most part, this section had seemingly every tree intact. The first thing you would see after walking down a winding path were the “roller slides.” I don’t remember their real name but they were these 3 slides that had steel rollers as a sliding surface. First you had to tote this heavy plastic sled to the top of the platform which sucked since they weighed like 20 to 30 pounds. At the top, the ride op would position the sled on a pivoting platform; the rider would then climb onto the sled and get ready to drop. The ride op would push a lever that would tilt the platform and the sled would rocket down a very steep drop which must have been pitched at like 70 degrees. The slide then leveled out before abruptly ending in a shallow pool where the sled would skip over the surface of the water for quite a length before stopping. It was a very dangerous slide if I say so myself, but kind of fun at the same time!
If you continue past the “roller slides,” the blacktop path will eventually end and turn into a large area of semi-smooth tan rock. Aqua Socks are a requirement for this section of park; if you don’t have them your feet will be bruised and banged up from all the steps and dips scattered throughout the area. The rock y landscape marks the main area of Roaring Springs, a large rock face grotto.
Jumping off the Cliff Dive
The grotto has two sides separated by a long, narrow rock island with trees and bushes covering its top. To the right is a semi-shallow pool area, to the left is a blocked off section that becomes vastly deeper and contains a few horrifying attractions. The water in this grotto and everywhere in this area is very, very cold; almost too cold to swim in. On the far end of the grotto is the exit of the Rogue River body slide. Riders will periodically shoot out of the tunnel into innocent bystanders which was sort of funny.
The left side of the grotto is where the “Air Slide” and “Cliff Dives” reside. The Air Slide was a very simple waterslide; it started out maybe 25 feet above the grotto on a rock faced cliff. You simply slide down a wide 15 or so foot slide and then fall about 15 feet into the water. The Cliff Dives are even more simplistic, you walk out onto a ledge and jump! There were two cliff dives, one was maybe 15 feet and the other was about 20 feet. The water below these attractions is cold and about 20-25 feet deep. Unlike most of the deep pools, the bottom was a lighter color so you could actually see the bottom. According to Tom Fergus’ write in to Weird NJ, this was in response to an incident when someone jumped off the Cliff Dive and could not swim. “After that, they painted the pool white so they could see bodies lying on the bottom.”
If you go to the right of the grotto, you’ll see the line for two of the three river rides at Action Park ; Thunder Run and The Gauley. The Gauley is for single tubes and Thunder Run is for double tubes. Both are fairly long river rides that wind riders down the side of the mountain. Thunder Run is pretty straightforward with many turns, tunnels, bumps and drops. Double tubes aren’t as versatile as single tubes so the course needs to be a bit more structured. It’s really well made, and almost looks like a natural downhill river feature…even though it’s obviously not.
The first set of turns on Gauley
The Gauley on the other hand is a free for all single tube bedlam, and my second favorite ride in the park. The very beginning of the ride is very intense for a tube slide, and of course the queue line surrounds this section so everyone gets a clear view of riders being thrown off their tubes. Basically the beginning of the river is a long, steeply pitched S shaped curve. Once out of the start pool, you race down a hill into the first curve where your tube slams into a curved wall. You slide down the wall right into the second curve which turns maybe 120 degrees before dumping riders into a small pool. You’d be hard pressed not to see at least one rider loose their tube in this first section.
The pool is like a break, you float around it until you slide down a small hill into another pool. Sometimes your tube will flip over when you slam into the next pool but the tube easily retrievable here. After the second pool is a large turn where your tube speeds up greatly. The turn gets progressively tighter until you enter a tunnel that makes a steep curve and then spits you out under a waterfall and into the lower portion of the main rock grotto. I lost my tube in the turn before the tunnel once, and had to slide down the tunnel on my back. It sucked because the tunnel is grooved and not meant to be used as a body slide by any means.
Going into the tunnel on Gauley
Colorado River Ride
The real draw of Roaring Springs was the Colorado River Ride, a long river ride into the backwoods of the park. The river is tucked into the back and is a bit tough to find. Back in the Action Park days, you would first wait in a line to get your humongous, forest green colored, circular rubber raft and then you were forced to drag it all the way to the top of the hill. The thing weighed like 50 damn pounds and was unwieldy as hell. The path you rolled or dragged it up was uneven and many people would loose grip of their rafts; the rouge raft would then tumble down the hill into a wooded area, leaving those people to fish it out of the thorns and brush.
Once you got your raft to the top, you had to then wait in a line to actually put it into the start pool. The person in the water would hold the raft while riders piled into the raft at which point the raft would flood with ice cold water. Out of the start pool, the raft would travel down a small hill, under a bridge, and then around a corner at which point you would be out of the view of the queue line. Next there are a few turns, small drops, and sudden bumps which would toss more ice cold water into the raft.
Eventually the riders would come to a fork; to the left was a rocky cave with two heavy duty sprayers manning the entrance and straight ahead was a corner followed by an unknown portion of river. 99% of the time, the raft would slide into the tunnel despite the fact that there was nothing keeping you from going straight. What was around the corner you ask? I have no idea, I have never been down that path…it remains a mystery to many. Upon entering the cave riders are sprayed directly in the face by the sprayers.
The cave/tunnel itself really does look like a natural cave feature…again it’s obviously not; if it was real, who needs Action Park when you could just look for more features like it in other hills! Anyway, the cave is dark and humid with quite a few turns and bumps that throw the raft around. The raft picked up a huge amount of speed here as well and upon exiting the cave, the raft slammed into a curved wall that damn near flipped it. The raft would then slide into a small pool that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere; this is also where the second path reconnected. While my raft was floating around the rock pool once, I saw a tube full of people stuck near the exit of the second path. As they saw our raft they began to yell “help! We’re stuck!” I guess they paid the price for going down the other path!
It sometimes took a bit of time for the raft to find its way out of this pool, but eventually it would float out and down a hill into the final stretch of the river. One could see the end pool by now, but in front of it was a long stretch filled with bumps, moguls, and some small obstructions. The raft picks up speed very quickly here and tends to slam into bumps hard enough to throw the raft off course or into the wall of the trough. As the rivers last hurrah, the raft rocketed over a small drop were the raft momentarily caught air before slamming back down to surface. Finally, the raft ploughs into the large splash pool which seems to sit on the edge of the mountain. The pool is a little deeper than expected and many a rider would leap out of the raft and slip completely underwater.
The Colorado River Ride is one of the few attractions that still has that Action Park life in it. At one point Action Park’s new owners switched the rafts out with dingies…which sucked. The dingies didn’t send you up walls or fly over bumps nearly as well as the old rafts. They didn’t last long however and were replaced by smaller and lighter versions of the multi-person circular rafts. Today you’ll still get a completely out of control ride on the Colorado River Ride. The sprayers guarding the entrance to the cave are gone, luckily, and a couple of other things are cleaned up; but other than that it’s the same old rough and tumble ride that it always was. The versions that start high in the air can’t compare to this terrain hugging beast!
Motorworld
On the opposite side of the park, across the highway, is Motorworld. To get there you needed to ride these weird single seat monorail cars which brought you over a bridge and to the Motorworld section. I never did anything in Motorworld but I do know some stories. First off, this section was filled with go-karts, tank tag, and speed boats. The Go-karts are hardly the kind that you see at any normal theme park though, these are practically real cars. They had these fast mini NASCAR looking cars that could go at like 20 to 30 mph, and then they had LOLA cars (small, dangerous looking Indy cars) which went a bit faster. According the Issue 24 of Weird NJ, ride ops knew how to override the throttle regulators with tennis balls, and would race around at like 50 or 60 mph in the cars!
The Tank Tag was this large caged arena where people could pay some money to ride in a small, tennis ball cannon equipped tank around the caged arena while people could pay a couple of bucks to shoot tennis balls at the tank via cannons set up around the arena. When a tank would stall, the ride op would need to scramble out to fix the tank while patrons happily shot him with the tennis balls. Lastly, Motorworld had speedboats which raced around a swampy area. The swamp was infested with water snakes apparently and when a person would capsize, the lifeguard would have to fight off the snakes while rescuing the person. (Most of this was written about in Issue 24 of Weird NJ.)
I’ll always remember the Action Park commercial which featured some guy speeding along in a LOLA car. He seemed to be going extremely fast and I now realize that he was probably using the tennis ball trick.
The two screenshots were taken from this video by darklighter5000. The video also features Action Park’s Bungee Jump and Slingshot, it’s definately worth a look!
Action Park Today
In 1996, Action Park closed its doors. The company that owned the park and ski area had been in trouble with the law for various money related indecencies which resulted in the closing; plus the fact that Action Park was a deathtrap probably didn’t help either. Though, Intrawest bought the resort and turned the ski resort and waterpark into Mountain Creek.
Mountain Creek during the winter is a ski resort, and in summer is…surprise, surprise…a waterpark! Not much changed to Action Park really, though it is MUCH safer and more family oriented. Many of the more sinister attractions were taken down such as the Alpine Slide, roller slides, the Cannonball Loop, the bungee rides and all of Motorworld as well as some lesser known slides.
However, even after the acquisition by Intrawest, many of the best slides and attractions still exist with improvements. You now do not have to lug a huge tube uphill to ride the Colorado River Ride as now a modified ski lift does the work for you. The two slides that flanked Geronimo Falls (now called H2 Uh-Oh) are gone, replaced by two enclosed slides (one is called Vortex and the other is called Vertigo…I think.) It also looks like the original Geronimo slide has been modified as well, along with the second one being taken off altogether.
I’ll give Mountain Creek credit for adding the “High Anxiety” slide though, which seems like something Action Park would have loved to see in its heyday. High Anxiety is basically a 4 person per tube slide (they also have odd looking two person tubes) in which you slide down an enclosed drop which dumps you into a massive funnel-like structure that lies on its side. The passenger tube is then shot up the walls of the funnel using it’s own momentum until it slides out the other end. It definitely looks more like a torture device rather than a waterslide. But it’s fun!
Mountain Creek is a good park today, a bit mismanaged according to some, but it’s still a bunch fun. Of course, Mountain Creek isn’t a park that you can come back from and proudly proclaim “you should have seen THIS place” anymore. Going to Mountain Creek today will not merit you an award for tempting death and living. Nope, today Mountain Creek is simply one of the more scenic waterparks in the country with many unique slides and attractions.
Lynx
Back to Observations
If you have an Action Park story to share or just want to comment on the article then by all means, drop a comment below!
“Most people would never make it out of the building due to their inexperience. However, sometimes you would see some hotshot rise up from the structure and hover 15 or 20 feet above the building. I doubt that thing made much money for its size and probably it’s cost, but it was interesting”
I went on it in 1995 or 1996 and I know I got back change from my ten dollars, I want to say it was only like 7 or 8 dollars extra to do it.
I got massive street cred with my friends for doing it. I fianlly went sky diving a few years ago and actually, I was in more fear for my life at Traction Park then I was when I did the real thing lol.
I beleive doing the Aerodium garners some sort of post Action Park internet cred as well. lol Few can say that they have done one of Action Park’s three most infamous attractions: Cannonball Loop, Aerodium, and their bungee jumping. And I guess to some extent the ‘expert’ run of Alpine Ski Slide.
I guess I could see how the faux skydiving could be scarier, at least at Action Park. There’s just something about Action Park’s lax safety coupled with a giant whirling fan that might cause for alarm. Haha
Thanks for dropping by!
I remember this place, the roller slide was called the Aqua Scoot! I loved that thing. I personally never got injured in my multiple visits between 87 and 91, but I remember those guys with their shirts off and a nice Alpine Slide burn. Those looked like they hurt. This was a great stroll down memory lane, I look forward to going back someday. I am in the midwest now and hating it
Aqua Scoot! That name does ring a bell now that you mention it! I actually remember many waterparks having those types at slides at one time.
Wow.. I thought I forgot about Action Park for good..
I had worked there for 7 years both seasons..
For the first few years I worked Food and Beverage, then ride attendant, Then finally once I was old enough and they had an opening I was allowed to work as a mechanic in motor world.. I rememebr breaking in the Lolas after they got new engines.. all we did was drive them up into water world and back down over and over again to break them in..
I remember the battle action tanks mechanics shop had some prototype or homebrew air cannon that would shoot a tennis ball from the tank cage well up past 94.. I wonder what happened to it. if anyone knows the make or has plans drop me a line.
I spent most of my time on the dock at the super speed boats, I remember one day clearly . There was an asian woman on the paddle boats in the adjacent pond and a lightning storm was rolling in. Unfortunately she panics and couldnt figure out how to work the boat controls..
we has one speed boat with a larger engine than the reast of them and it was our tow boat(for capsized recoveries) and a plaything for us to show off to the girls with.
I remember that we endedn up having two lifeguards stand on the edge of the foating dock that separated the two ponds, I disengaged the transom lock and headed straight at the dock head on.. because it was tilted my way it resembled a ramp, I then launched my boat onto and over the dock landing in the paddle boat pond. I then hooked her up with a line and towed her back to the area where the paddle boats were funneled into the boarding area.
The ride attendant girl hooked the boat with her boat hook and helped the woman out.. I was a hero for 15 mins.
In the winter I was a snowmaker.
I remember riding my skate board to work and having my mother pick me up after .. I lived in augusta so it was not a short trip… Fellow emploee parents passing by would often pick me up if they had the room so it wasnt too often that I skated the whole way.
I remember the first timecard system they put in.. you got a card with punch holes in it.. you’d slide it into the clock in the managers office, bang in a few codes and pull the card back out.. the funny thing was that if you didnt punch out say on friday night and then came back monday morning, you could punch out then back inand get paid for the weekend.. apparently one of the parks downfall was the accounting department.
Thanks for the memories..
Thanks for dropping by sigmaz; that was some great stuff! I always like hearing stories from Motorworld since I never really hung around in that section all that much and don’t really know the full details of that section. At the time I was too young to drive the cars or anything so I just stuck to the waterpark.
Also, skateboarding from Augusta to Vernon doesn’t sound like fun at all! Besides the fact that it’s a long trip, I would think that it’s very hilly as well!
The Cannonball Loop was opened. I rode the Cannonball Loop. My pre-pubscent friends and I would gawk at the holy grail of water slides everytime we went to the park. And one spectacular day my wildest dreams came true, they were actually asking for patrons to ride the slide. It’s funny how many people who bragged that they “…would totally do that!” had somewhere else to be when they were actually looking for riders. I volunteered. I was led up to the slide and then had my height and weight measured. The more I think about this, the crazier it becomes because I couldn’t have been more then 12 or 13 and my parents were no where around to give consent to their kid signing up for a suicide mission. When I got to the top of the slide the park attendant (who I doubt was an engineer) hit me w/ a garden hose to essentially lube me up in order for me to make it through. I prided myself on doing everything at “Accident Park” but this moment of truth was scarier then the rest. A crowd had formed as I got into the slide and I felt like Evil Knievel climbing onto a stars and stripes motorcycle. I got the go ahead and sent myself down the pitch black tube. When you’re sure you are going to die your mind records everything. I vividly remember the sensation of my feet going up as I realized “Here comes the loop!”. I remember being ecstatic when I had cleared the pinnacle of the loop, however the worst was yet to come. Apparently my sub 100 lbs body was not heavy enough for the ride and rather the sticking to the slide on the back end of the loop, I actually fell to the bottom of the loop. I smacked the back of my head on the slide and was nearly knocked unconcious. It was then I saw light as I sputtered out of the exit of the tube into the splash down pool which about 8 inches deep. I was able to orient myself enough to get to my feet and smile with pride as the stunned crowd cheered for the little kid who just went down the most dangerous water slide of all time. It was closed again within minutes and although I went to the park a dozen times after that day I never saw that slide opened again. I have no fear of amusement park rides after going on that death trap. There is nothing that will be built as dangerous and poorly supervised as the cannonball loop again. It was truly a perfect storm for water park aficionados.
That was a great story! Falling from the apex of the loop must have been just awful. At least you didn’t slow down and fall in the other direction however; then you would have been stuck in that section at the base of the loop. I can’t imagine how terrifying that would be, basically coming out of a momentary disorientation only to find yourself in some small dark space. lol
I worked there for several years as a lifeguard, and a few things.. The tarzan swing and the cannonball pools… The pools were only 15′ deep and yes freezing cold, they were fed from a spring fed lake at the top of the mountain. The bottom of the pool was not lined with anything they were concrete pools that had large rocks/boulders around them. The water was crystal clear. As a guard I would be able to sit on the stand (10′ tall) and I could spot and tell if there was a dollar bill on the bottom and if it was within 10 – 15′ of the stand I could tell you what denomination it was. it just seemed dark because of all the shade in the area.
The riptide slide was called Surf Hill… when it first opened the 2 left most lanes (looking down from the top, or the right most from the bottom looking up) were the “expert lanes” initially they had a ramp and I can remember going down with friends and family and it wasn’t uncommon to get 10 – 15′ of air off the things… landing was sometimes a bit tough, but I can remember people and us included doing flips and twists off that thing. The trick to it was to use more than one mat the more you had the faster you went. Too many people got hurt and they redid the ride to make it a much smaller ramp. the employees were able to secure a section of the new lining it’s was about 4 – 6″ thick and we cut 2 hand holds in the front of it… I wasn’t crazy enough but I knew and watched several friends going down using that mat… they would go so fast that they would end up hitting the first 12″ of the water puddle at the bottom meant to slow them down and it wouldn’t do a thing.. They would end up literally slamming into the padding at the end of the lanes hard… a couple of them hard enough that they needed help getting out from where the padding and the floor met.
Only 15 feet deep?! Aw man…that’s takes all the odd mystique out of the pool. lol Actually, I saw a photo of those pools drained on another site and it did look only 15-20 feet with slabs of concrete at the bottom. Although, I distinctly remember a lifeguard at AP saying that they were some 30+ feet deep, but I guess it was just to weed out anyone thinking they could do the attraction while not knowing how to swim well.
That Surf Hill story literally had me laughing! It just amazes me that Action Park thought it was a good idea to add in ramps for riders to rocket over. And then employees fashion up a mat made of that super slick crap, that’s just too much. I can just visualize the scene of some kid going at like 40mph head first and completely overshooting that little slowdown pool. lol It’s too bad they got rid of that slide…
Thanks for commenting Mike!
i remember this exactly as he described. we would go every year when i was a kid. there was always people trying to find a mat, yet we would always have like 3 or 4 stacked. im glad you confirmed that it did make u go faster, i always wondered if i carried that extra wieght for nothing! lol man i wish this place was still around, i rode every ride there (except loop) many many times and managed to never get seriously hurt. i will try to find old picsand vids i knw we have somewhere and send in…
I remember snakes in one of the pools. I rode this tube down a long slide and half way down i fell of the tube landing painfully in the pool with less skin on my legs then when i started the ride with. But just when i thought my ride of death was over I see this huge snake swimming right at my face. I was only 8 and i couldnt swim very well, so their i was flapping my arms and legs screaming for help because of this snake and the fact i was bloody and in pain, and not one person came to my aide. All the children were pushing me down in the water and they were trying to get out of the pool, I though i was goin to drown or be attacted by this snake. THANK GOD for my older brother, because he pulled me out.
When i was 7 I rode 1 of their tube rides and i was going so fast my tube almost reared off the slope which was very high off the ground. Also the tide pool was the worst being so little the waves would knock me over and afew times a almost drown because the lifeguards were to busy watching the women then watching the children. The place always had nasty snake infested water and half the rides would brake down during the few hours you would spend at the part. Even the kiddie pool with those little bumper boats was a death zone. Once I seen one of the boats start to sink with a child in it, you would think that the lifegaurds would have leaped in the pool to get the kid out, but No the parent had to be the one to jump in and unbuckel the child before the boat sank drowning the kid… Though the park was full of danger, it still provided me with alot of fun and some great memories.
i rose the canonball loop. man that sucker beat you up.
I am curious if there’s any remains of action park left. was mountain creek built on the old site of AP? did they leave any remnants? is there anything to explore?
I don’t know if anything of Action Park is left actually. Everything in the waterpark was pretty much reused by Mountain Creek, and some of the most known attractions (Cannonball Loop, Aerodium, etc) were simply removed. I know they have one river attraction that pretty much sits un-used for the most part. The Surf Hill slides might still be “standing but not operating” as well but other than that I’m not sure.
By looking at Google Earth, it doesn’t look like Motorworld is around at all; at least I can’t spot any tracks or anything. You can check out Mountain Creek on Google Earth at ’41°11’24.78″N 74°30’30.55″W’ and see if you can see anything. That giant field just to the west of Mountain Creek might be where Motorworld was.
As a kid i have always had a strange fixation with roller coasts & amusement parks. Who knows why?!But I have to say that i have been obsessed with Action Park since i found out about it 4 days ago!
We only had a Wonderland (affiliated with Hannah Barbarah) out here in Australia & I was always a scaredy cat to go on any of the big rides!
HOWEVER! I feel so disappointed to have not experienced the ‘legend’ of Action Park. From everything I have read, it seems so ridiculous & intriguing, like a taboo movie about reckless teens!
As ridiculously conservative I am, if I had the chance to jump at any of these threatening rides, I totally would! The Cannonball Loop had my jaw dropped for hours as I read comments/experiences & studied pictures! I even showed my co-workers & their response was “……WTF.. how? wha.. HOW THE HELL WOULD THAT EVEN WORK?!” lol! “Exactly. Fucking insane”
I am sure the real experience isn’t as romantic as it seems- but to someone who has always been safe, always been scared of danger, this place seemed like a place that was so so wrong it was right!
Just want to say thanks for the indepth descriptions! It makes the idea of the place even more real! You have no idea how many people i have told about the place! Just out of sheer disbelief that something so dangerous could have existed for such a long period of time!!
Thanks for the experience!! =)
Lauren
Thanks for stopping by Lauren and thanks for the kind words!
“So wrong it was right”…I like that! It’s a pretty good one sentence summary of how Action Park was.
You know, I think something like the Cannonball Loop, while still crazy, wouldn’t be as insane if it were built today. Like if built in 2009, there would be definately be calculations, proper water drainage, correct pitches, etc; it would be studied up and down and over again until the most minor of faults were ironed out.
Back in the mid 80s it was probably just two guys sitting at a bar with one going “hey, let’s see if this will work!” Two weeks later their drawing scralled out on a napkin became Cannonball Loop! How did they know it would work? Well they didn’t until ‘John the Lifegaurd’ went down and didn’t die!
Even I can’t beleive some of the stuff that went down at Action Park even though I was there!
loved that place went from 86 to 1990 loved motor wolrd and the indy cars fastest go cart ive ever been on got kicked off in 89 hit a cone or tire went over thew yellow line god i miss that place also went on aero ride first year it opened that was fun sad to see it in ruins ps any one know where i can buy one of those cars ?
After doing a google search for water slide, I came across a youtube video of a loop slide in germany. I got curios and googled loop slide and found all this information on this ridicouls ride at action park! Since webates have sparked my intrest in action park and looking at pictures, I’ve relized this was a place my father use to vist. I have pictures of my parent visting this death trap.
Although the picuters show a water slide that was long and horzitial with long bumps. Can anybody tell wich ride this was?
Long horizontal slide with bumps sounds like either Kamikaze or Surf Hill.
Kamikaze was a single slide built into a hill with 3 or 4 small/medium sized drops before ending in a pool.
Surf Hill was like one very wide slide with 8 or so lanes which traveled down 4 or 5 hills before ending.
can you post any pics you have of action park? starting a history site
The only photos I have from the park were from the Mountain Creek days unfortunately.
I was doing a search on action park just to see what would come up and I came across this site. I was also curious about the “Cannonball Loop Slide”. I remember going there when I was a kid and seeing this crazy looking slide that had a loop, but the slide always appeared abandoned and completely shut down. I remember hearing stories that a woman snapped her neck in the loop, but these were all just rumours , or course. I find it so cool and fascinating to read the stories of the people who actually rode that slide, (and made it out alive) major props to you.
Would be great if someone posted up a video of the most dangerous slide ever created.
I had a lot of memories of Action Park going there as a kid, no major injuries, just a few head bumps and scrapes, minor compared to some people. I remember my brother tricked me into going down one of the slides in the lower area (in the freezing cold water). He said “oh it’s just a tiny slide”, little did I know that it had a 20 ft drop at the end of it. lol I was only about 9 years old, but I was a good swimmer. I remember the girl asked me before I went on the slide if I could swim and I thought, that’s odd why is she asking me this. lol I also remember the one tube slide next to that area, The Gauley, (I believe that was the name of it). It was fun, but you would sometimes get stuck in certain areas and have to push yourself down, and of course you would sometimes smash into people and sometimes pile up. I also remember the cannon slides which I ended up banging my head around one of the turns in the tube, then being spit out into ice cold water and barely being able to catch my breath. The wave pool was insane, the waves were oddly big, you could drown very easily if you weren’t a good swimmer. The kamikaze was surprisingly fast, probably one of the best slides at the park and the Geronemo Falls slides were crazy, at the end of the ride you had a dental floss for a bathing suit.
I definitely want to make it out to Mt. Creek one of these days just to experience the waterslide thrills once again…
thats exactly what im searching for any pics of old action park or videos of the cannonball slide
i know i commented on someone elses comment, but i wanted to comment on this artical, its GREAT! the descriptions were pretty much dead on. what sucks is i had a lot typed up and some how it didnt get posted, now i dont remember it lol.
i loved this place as a kid. I started going ~90-91, which would make me about 10. im proud to say i went the last year it was open, since it says it was closed in 96. i moved to the south in 95 and swore i went back twice, but it must have been once.
we would run up and down thoses hills barefoot, which would burn and cut ur feet all up, but we didnt care. i loved this place because they didnt care about ur size or age for anything, and at 10 doing these rides you loved it. i rode everyride/slide except cannonball loop, (which was never open while i was there, thankgod cause my stupid young ass would have done it) many many times, avoiding serious injury somehow. my dad would never let me do the areododim for some reason, lol. the wiki says that it would bring u 6-7 feet up, but im here to tell u ive seen people go up higher then the building, i remember thinking to myself “he’s dead if he doesnt go back down correctly to land on the padding!” i loved every ride, some more then others, but top 2 was probly the cliff jump, and the tall ass strait down slide (which had a chain net covering the first 15′ or so down so u wouldnt fall out). i remember only weighing maybe 90 pounds, i wouldnt even be on the slide, it was a free fall till it curved out. im sad to find out these 2 rides are gone at the new mountain creek.
i did the motor park a little. wish i would have know the tennis ball trick, lol. i did wreck the cars though, being 12 in my memory of the motorpark, the only pedal i used was the gas (which was always on the floor). shot the tennis ball cannon many times, and yes the best part was shooting the helpless employees, lol
im gonna go back one day, but its so less appealing now that my favorite rides and others are gone, but my curiousty wont let me not go so i can look in theses areas and see what is or isnt there for myself. i’ve always wished it was still around, but in the back of my mind knew based on my memories that there was no way it could still be today(not in its true glory anyway). as i look back all i can think is “holy shit that really did happen!”
I remember going so often with my friends we used to plan trips to go mid week, when it was cold and cloudy. That way the park was empty. We would complete every ride before lunch, eat, and then repeat.
Surf hill was the best. The ramp in lane 7 and 8 were great but when the lines were long, we would fight, literally, for lane 3. it was the best. We would line up in lane 1,2,4,5. On “three” we would run half way down the slide and jump onto the neighboring chute, claw at your friend who is already sliding, and jump in front of him who would grab you to slow you down. We were not gentle. The person who crossed the water at the end, in lane 3 won. Bruises ensued. Thankfully the laughter always beat out the contusions. Mitch once hit the water so fast he skipped over it and as he was about to ram the padding, he ducked his head and went right under. Four people had to pry him out. He was king for the day and operations on the slide never even slowed down.
That place Rocked!
I worked in Wharton and use to go there back in the late 80′s. We would get out of work at 3 and be there by 4. They use to discount after 3 or 4. It was always pretty empty people would be leaving at that time of the day.
Anyway, I’m surprised I lived. Beer sales were real lax up there, it didn’t matter how tanked or young (sometimes) you were.
Geronimo Falls was my favorite, saw quite a few lost tops from the girls that rode it. Everybody got a wedgie.
Tarzan Swings was great to watch folks get faced.
No place was really safe, I’ve read people use to meet up with snakes on the Miniature Golf Course.
Our Boss hated the place, everytime we went there. We would always be all banged up the next day (with leftover beer buzz),we were pretty much worthless for half the day. that’s if we even showed up.
Thanks For posting this Brian.
There will never be another place like Action Park.
Good Times!
God Bless Action Park!!!!!!!!!
I remember being on the cliff dive looking down at people swimming way too close to the divers and landing right next to them surprised no one was smashed there, but action park was the best thing ever built….new jersey must find a way to build something similar.
Also remember being scared as sh**, but saw everyone else was ok with it so when in rome!!!! LIVE ON TRACTION PARK
This site and reading people’s experiences bring back some awesome memories. Surf Hill and all the stories about people crashing into the padding, getting wedged into it and how the employees would eat at the base of hill while being entertained by the injuries are just remarkable. Here’s my experience.
I get to the base of brand new Surf Hill with some friends and we’re told the ride is closed and can’t go on it. It’s just been built and the surface is brilliant blue. We stand around watching people go down for awhile, apparently trying out the ride. Looks like its open to us so we let the attendants know we’d like to give it a try and are given permission. First time down was fun, though a little bumpy. It feels like the polyurethane foam has just been laid down directly on top of the rocks underneath. I make a note to myself to keep my hands and soft parts on the slide so I don’t get any bone chips.
Second time is when the fun starts. Surf Hill when it was brand new was not the way most people remember it. There was the same 80 feet or so of vertical as you slide down, then maybe an 8” deep puddle, less than in later years, then a slight upslope to slow down and get this… NO padding at the end!!! I go zipping down fast, blow right through the puddle and straight into the gravelly dirt at the base! For everyone who smacked into the padding, imagine the ride brand new with no padding and not even any grass at the end, just gravel and dirt. That was my last time on Surf Hill and, like the employees on lunch break, I then stood around at the end waiting for the next person to get injured.
I’m surprised there’s no mention of how many bikini tops came off at this place. My girlfriend lost her top on the tarzan swing the first time she tried it. Everyone got wedgies on the water slides. Funny it did not seem so dangerous at the time, but I do remember all the topless girls from teh crazy water rides.
newslife site » Horrorific tales from ACTION PARK – Vernon, NJ // Sep 17, 2009 at 5:09 am
[...] Great site and photos of ACTION PARK in its horrifying heyday [...]
Hey I rode all these rides for years. I even got to ride the cannonball 2…referred here as the cannonball loop…did it 4 times in a row then they closed it. Me and my friends recalled all the attendants that were there kept saying whatever you do don’t lift your head and there were 4-5 attendants in the dispensory pool all very helpfull while you recovered your conciousness. That was an awesome ride!!! Awesome!!! I flew off the side of the expert Alpine Slide…thought I was gonna die but ended up unscathed….I want to win the lottery and buy the place for myself.
i remember going to action park as a kid during the mid 80s to early 90s. as a kid, you never realize how dangerous the place really was. my father told me about the guy who got electrocuted a few years before we visited. so, my father took me to a park where someone was electrocuted in a water ride! ah, the 80s were such a different time! things were just more lax in general it seems. i hate great adventure, so action park was more fun. i went on the tarzan swing. i was only 10 or 11 and could barely reach the handle. i slipped off and belly floped into the pool! i didn’t get hurt, but everyone thought i did. i felt ok. but man that water was cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good times during a time when things were simpler. no way would action park have lasted today! i want to get to mountain creek, if only to reminisce about the place when it was action park.
Most of the Waterworld/Roaring Springs rides are still there, and most of them are unmodified, so to say Mountain Creek is just another scenc waterpark, IMO, isn’t correct. I was there over the summer, and of all the former Action Park rides still there, they all felt like they were haunted by the soul of the predecessor… I believe strongly especially since I nearly injured myself on the Colorado Rapids ride – head trauma almost inflicted from the continual head banging into head, and head banging into wall action.
The Alpine Slide was probably my favorite ride ever, anywhere. And it really wasn’t that bad, danger-wise. I rode that thing probably 20 times and I knew all the tricks and I always made sure to get a fast sled, and I rarely braked. I’d always catch up to the person in front of me and *then* I’d brake. I remember eventually I started asking the attendants to give the person ahead of me an extra-long head start – they’d do that for the more advanced riders. But I never came close to going over the edge, though I guess it was possible. The sleds did take some skill to “drive”, you weren’t just free-falling, you had to lean into turns the right way and sort of guide the sled down the track. I guess I learned that from doing log flumes with my brother when I was really young – we’d always get our log going so fast in the water that we’d catch up and bang into the people ahead of us. Most people don’t even know you can do that!
Anyway, I’m sad that the Alpine Slide is gone.
I’ve been going to Action Park/Mountain Creek since it opened and it is was the best place ever, Today it’s still fun but the crazy stuff is gone. My favorite stories were always going with my big brother who weighed like 275 pounds and would get beat up so bad when we went. I remember on the Alpine Slide he was wearing polyester coaches shorts and he wiped out and slid down the slide on his butt. When he got up his shorts had melted and were smoking. Surf Hill was also awesome in the expert lanes. I remember there was a 185 pound limit, but they let my brother do it. When he went off the ramp he completely missed the landing pool and went up the de-acceleration hill through the crash mats and took out three employees. This year they closed the Kamikaze slide which was one of my favorites. As you hit crest of each hill you would push of the slide and almost fly off the slide. My senior year in high school we went there for our senior trip and I did the ride so much I threw up on the ride home. I was really bummed to see that closed. I saw the looping water slide, but it was never open when I went to the park, man I would’ve liked to do that! The Colorado river Ride and other raft ride are great, but don’t fall off as I’ve done that a few times and tore up my back pretty good on the concrete slide. I thought it was a wrestling mat surface like surf hill, but boy was I wrong! Motorworld was fun but my brother dry docked the speed boat because he was to heavy and it wouldn’t go fast enough for him. They tried to throw us out, but when my brother asked them who they had who could throw him out, they decided to not try. Action/Traction Park was awesome and it gave me some of my fondest memories as a kid. I went down Cannonball Falls and the Tarzan Swing a bunch of times this weekend at the age of 45 just to remember how great and deadly it was!
I went to this place maybe six times ever – late 80s, early 90s – and it was inevitable that you’d experience danger first or second hand. There was a high speed waterslide in which riders dropped out of a chute from about 35 feet high and basically went straight down, then curved and ended in a splash track. Some woman threw her leg out of the track on her way down, got totally twisted up and ended up being removed by the EMTs. She looked like a Stretch Armstrong that was attacked by a rabid dog.
I went on the Tarzan Swing several times. Once, while passing over the water I couldn’t quite pull myself up, so I skimmed it and slammed into the water on my face. The skin under my arms was transparent and you could see all my veins, etc. clear as crystal. I was freaked and certainly never experienced anything like that before. I thought I’d have to go to first aid but in about 30 minutes, I was fine.
Finally, my uncle who was in his mid-40s at the time, was one of the unlucky fools who got stuck albeit briefly in the Cannonball loop. Apparently, that was not uncommon! And then don’t forget the Wave Pool. OMG! To stand on the edge and watch the waves in the deepend…..a crocodile-filled moat looked safer. Very forboding to say the least.
Great fun.
Just what to let everyone know that the Cannonball Loop @ Action Park (Accident Park) was indeed opened for brief periods of time. I watch people ride it and scream!!!!! I was going to go on it but I became a little to nervous because I had an incident @ the park earlier that day. I turned completely around in mid air while ridding one of the steep water slides that drops ridders almost 10 stories. Some places call it Geronimo. When I came to a stop I was face the trough (inside of the slide(. It was intense lifting off the back of the slide and spinning all the way around in mid air. Parts of my skin was bruised and raw so I didn’t ride that looping slide which barely remained open. I have one phot of that slide.
Had many visits there. I definitely remember the cannon ball being open for one of the visits. While approaching the slide, you could actually hear the people’s bodies clanking around as they went through it. Scary. BUT I LOVED EVERY TRIP!!
Greatest park ever! Another great thing about action park was that you could walk around with beer and drink as much as you want – and nobody cared! Remember the fish tank by the cliff diving? Once a friend and I were so drunk that one of our friends dared us to jump in, which we proceeded to do and of course we didn’t get thrown out – luckily there weren’t any piranna in the tank – I wouldn’t put it past the owners of this nitemare – it made the swim that much more exciting. My brother was almost killed when his speed boat flipped over in motor world – again another intoxicaed rider allowed to reach high speeds in a free riding speed boat. Lots of bumps and bruises over my several visits. I remember going down the alpine slide as a kid and being afraid to go too fast which of course resulted in whiplash by being rammed from the sleder behind me. As I got older I wanted to take my revenge out on the riders in front of me so I would reach ridiculous speeds which often resulted in me flying off the slide. Wasn’t there a ride where you’d spin around in a circle and the floor would drop? But it was wide open, not like the current gravatron rides in parks. I remember getting naseaus on this ride.
I remember hanging out by geronimo falls laughing at all of the wedgies and lost suit tops. The food and service in the restaurants was terrible. Never had the chance to ride the cannonball loop because it was always closed but I remember getting yelled out for always going head first in the regular cannonball. The black asphalt was so hot I remember walking on the side of it to deal with the pain of the rocks and not risk burning my feet. Thanks for the memories!
Great site… Action Park randomly popped into my head recently so i decided to see what Wikipedia had to say about it and I was eventually lead to this site. Whats really funny is that the memories I have from this place are in line with those of the other writers on this page and with that of Wikipedia’s ‘Accident Park’, “Class-Action Park” descriptions.
I was born in ’86 in Florida, my family is from Jersey just outside NYC, we used to takes trip up to NJ every summer. I would say it was maybe ’94 or ’95 (which i now know to be AP’s later years) that we finally made it to Action Park. Being from florida i have been to some water parks before, Typhoon Lagoon at Disney, Atlantis in Ft. Lauderdale, Rapids in WPB etc., but never in my life have I ever came across a park like the Action Park.
I was young and I cant remember everything from out day spent there but here are a few highlights from the deep reaches of my memory:
Tarzan Swing: I distinctly remember waiting in line for this thing, nearly shitting my pants with anticipation because it seemed so high off the water, thinking there was no way i was going to be able to reach the triangle handle much less swing myself into a safe part of the pool. My cousin was the first one to go, she made a nice swing, did alittle leg kick in the air and landed succefully in the pool with no problem, even receiveing alittle round of applause. She was smaller then me so i figured it shouldnt be much of a problem. I wil never forget grabbing that handle, with my toes dangling off the edge of what seemed like a 20 ft. drop, with just the tips of my fingers holding tight enough for me to ease my way off the platform, swing through the air, get alittle off balance on my release and land almost face first in the water. The other thing i will never forget is how cold the water was, nearly taking the breath out of my lungs and causing and instant seizure. But, alas I swam to the ladder at the far end of the pool and made my escape, alittle shaken up, frigid cold, but alive and well.
Cliff Jump: This place had two pretty serious cliff jumps, one was 23ft. the other 16ft. that went straight down into a large pool where there were many unsuspecting swimmers wading about with out a care in the world. I remember thinking this could be dangerous if one of them decided to wander into the deeper end of the pool and find themself in the path of a diving teenager coming in from 23ft. above. I remember waiting in line, trying to sike myself up for the jump when the life gaurd whitsles blew. Apparently, someone had jumped onto the head of a fellow jumper who had taken to long to clear the path. I’ll never forget the lifegaurd at the top of the cliff, throwing his life saving ring at the distressed swimmers and nailing one of them right in the head. I thought someone died, I guess they were ok because they escorted them out the water and we procceded to take the leap of faith blindly into the water below. Probably one of the best cliff jumps ive ever been on.
Alpine Slide: Lastly, there was the Alpine Slide. We saved this ‘ride’ for the end of the day because the lines were long in the morning and we didnt feel like waiting. So, after a nice little ride up the ski lift, and a struggle to get the heavy ass cart of the back of it, we finally made it to the drop in point of the slide. Just at that moment the ski’s opened up and a light drizzle poured down from above. Now the Alpine carts have a ‘hand brake’ that is simply a metal rod with a peice of rubber at the end that makes contact with the cement slide to slow you down when your going to fast (which was almost always). It was explained to us by the park employees that when the cement was wet the rubber would not be able to create enough friction to slow you down and you would essentially be sliding down this thing at high speeds with no way of stoping. Unsafe? Very. The rain didnt seem like it was slowing, in fact it was getting more intense, and i guess because of a lighting factor they did not allow us to ride the ski lift back to the base area like we did on our way up. The only way down was to walk. Now let me remind you that this park was built on the side of mountain that when snowy conditions allowed, people would ski down. The Alpine Slide was built on a green (beginner) ski hill which is not a big deal if your skiing but could be trouble if you had to walk down. Well since the we couldnt ride the slide down and the ski lift was out of commision cause of the lightning we were forced to walk down, in a group, the semi-steep, rock filled ski hill. It took probly 10 mintues at least to walk all the way down the hill, a few people got tripped up and had some bloody knees, but we all managed to make it to the base with little to know injury. Needless to say we never got to ride the infamous Alpine Slide but because of the conditions, the walk down the hill, and the fact we waiting all day to ride this thing and never got the opportunity too, my Aunt raised hell in the customer relations office and we were given free passes to come back at a later date. I wonder if we still have those passes somewheres? It’d be great to see the exact date i was there, and if i can locate them i’ll defintely upload them to the site.
All in all Action Park was incredible and one of a kind. A “ride-at-your-own-risk” type park which will forever be banished to our memories. Im glad i got to experince it and will continue on the legacy for as long as i can.
Great Site, keep the updates coming!
Viva-La-Action-Park!!
My minor claim to fame is that I believe I was the first person to add “You’ve been to Action Park and have the scars to prove it” to the “You Know You’re From Jersey When…” lists that were going around the internet a while back. In the early days of Myspace, I added that line to it and every time it has come back around to me, that line is still there, verbatim.
Speaking of scars, I still have the faintest outline of a scar on my knee from the Alpine Slide that I got when I was about 9 or 10 years old (I’m 30 now). They never really stressed the importance of the brake on the little deathscooter they put you on, so naturally, being 9 years old and not knowing any better, I went flying down the concrete tube like a bat out of hell and dumped the scooter around one of the larger turns, sliding for 30 feet or so and sanding a flat spot in my kneecap about the size of a half-dollar. As I lay there regaining my composure, I heard the ominous whooshing sound of another approaching scooter and got to my feet just in time to do an action hero leap over the side of the tube as another deathscooter whipped past me at about mach 3. If I hadn’t leapt over the side, I probably would have broken my neck, or at the very least, my ankles. Action Park was exciting because while most amusement parks SIMULATE the experience of personal danger and permanent injury, Action Park delivered that experience FOR REAL.
Oh, the memories.
-~D~-
The best waterpark ever, hands down!!!
As I have told my wife on many occasions, if it wasn’t for Action Park I wouldn’t be a self-proclaimed, semi-pro water slide rider. Hands crossed over your chest, arched back, and riding on your heels is a guaranteed recipe for speed, or in the case of Action Park…disaster.
To quote my younger brother, “What other water park has so many urban legend death stories associated with it,” yet each summer my parents would have no problem allowing us to go.
I remember when they put the canvas top over Geronimo and you could see the imprint of people’s bodies hovering off the slide and touching the cover. People would be walking around the park with huge road rash burns all over their backs from this ride. And of course the massive wedgies you’d walk off with. The first time I rode that slide I was under the weight limit of 100lbs and I remember being scared to death that I’d fly off the thing.
Kamikaze was always one of the underestimated slides at the park. Since it was built into the hill it was a little deceiving but you could get cranking on that thing. I remember my friends dad flying down the slide and he hit the back wall of the landing pool that’s how fast he was going.
The Cannonball was always a bit sketchy. You’d never know what was going to happen once you entered the tubes and embarked on your journey of 15 seconds of pitch darkness only to be shot out 10 ft above the water arms flailing in the air.
Tarzan Swing was another one I was always terrified of when I was younger. Probably because I was too short to reach the triangle so I would have to jump and grab it at the last second just as they would hand it off to you with that long hook-pole. The last time I was there (5 years ago) my buddy, who is 6’3″, never lifted his knees so he did the classic face plant right into the water which was then followed by the swim of shame in that freezing water as the crowd heckled him from up top.
Surf Hill was another good one. I remember I was too light during the time it was opened so I couldn’t get enough speed like the older kids. I don’t know if it’s my own memory or if I’m thinking of an old Action Park commercial, but I remember people getting like 10ft of air of the jumps on the side lanes.
Roaring Springs and Colorado Rapids are classics. I loved the mayhem and free-for-all that ensues once you’re in your raft, or when you’re trying to catch up to your raft and trying not drown from everyone else crowed in the pools.
Ah, so many other great memories…I remember riding the ski lift for the Alpine Slide looking at all the crashed carts in the woods and hoping I wouldn’t be next, I remember almost breaking my toe when I dropped the Aqua Scoot sled on it, I remember when my friend’s dad zoomed past him upside down in one of the pitch black tunnels, and I remember when another friend jumped off the cliff dive and landed on his side and his dad had to jump in after him because he couldn’t breathe or swim to safety and it didn’t seem like the life guards were going after him. I remember Cannonball Loop but unfortunately it was never opened when I was there.
There will never be another park quite like this. I’m just grateful for those experiences and grateful to be alive.
Awesome Site!! I love hearing all the great stories.
I went to Action Park in the summer of 1988 with my twin sister and our youth group. Our leaders split off from us and we all just walked around doing our own thing. We remember the crazy loop as soon as we walked into the park and both thought it looked like a crazy nightmare, especially since it was closed and weeds and pond scum were in the pool at the bottom.
The first ride my sister and I experienced was the Tarzan swing. We watched how the other people did it before we got on so we didn’t make the mistake of face planting. We both lifted our legs and got pretty high. We both remember the water being VERY cold, but thank goodness we didn’t have to swim far because we made it almost to the other side with the swing already.
The next ride was the embarrasing wedgie and even worse enema that my twin sister and I received from the Geronimo. I couldn’t believe we even went on that ride. We must have been dared, especially after we realized how high up we were and how steep the ride was when we reached the top. I also wasn’t going to walk back down. I believe I closed my eyes until I got to the bottom. Luckily we both made it to the bathroom in time!
I also remember riding a slide that had a drop over the water that I wasn’t expecting at all. I don’t believe it was the cannonball because it was near the cliff jumps not the Tarzan swing as others mentioned. I was not instructed to lay back so when I landed I smacked my face and chest really hard on the water. I guess this was my own stupidity, not checking out the whole ride before I went down it.
I also went down a water slide and passed an elderly gentleman in an underground or completely enclosed tube. I don’t remember light holes, like it was pitch black. I slid right under him and I escaped somehow with only a few bruises. I was speeding down the slide with my toes pointed and back arched and I guess he wasn’t. When I came out at the bottom of the tube, his grandaughter was staring at at me and confusingly asked where he was. He came out a moment later and said he was fine too and couldn’t believe that we were both ok.
The wave pool was our biggest scare. We were used to swimming in the ocean, but not in water that deep that all of a sudden started making waves. We were almost all the way to the back and when the waves started it was way too rough and felt much deeper to us. We started trying to swim to the shallower water, but neither of us had the stamina. Our youthgroup leader happened to be there when this happened and rescued us by yelling at us to come to the side of the pool . I don’t remember a lifeguard halping us at all.
We both also jumped off of the higher cliff and were quite proud of ourselves. It felt like forever before we hit the water and then it felt like forever tying to resurface. My sister jumped at least two more times. I chose not too.
All in all, we didn’t come away with any serious injuries just great memories and the rights to say, We survived Action Park!!
Exploration of Home Base: Vernon « Beyond the Smoke Stacks // Aug 29, 2010 at 9:27 pm
[...] on the very same land they now splash and frolic upon. A legendary ancient water park named Action Park once occupied that land. I shudder at the stories recounted by locals, who dubbed the park [...]