Mountain Creek Waterpark

Mountain Creek Waterpark is a seasonal water theme park located at Mountain Creek Ski Resort in Vernon Township, New Jersey. The park is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day yearly.

The water park and ski resort are owned by Crystal Springs Resort, the ownership group of a neighboring ski resort that is descended from the previous owners of the Mountain Creek resort. During the summer season, Palace Entertainment operates the water park. Palace Entertainment has been acquired by Parques Reunidos, which manages and owns many other parks globally as of 2007.

A majority 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.

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 that rarely paid attention to the rules that were posted and explained to them — 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 since, after an aborted attempt to open for 1997 and the bankruptcy of its owner.

When Intrawest reopened the former Action Park, it did so with much less than the park had at the time of its closure. The Motorworld attractions, the park's bungee jumping tower, and its infamous looping waterslide were removed from the land and the alpine slide and most of the Waterworld and Roaring Springs attractions were reopened. Unlike Action Park, Mountain Creek made it a point to emphasize safety. To that effect, various warnings were posted on the water rides and Alpine slide riders had to wear safety equipment. The Motorworld section was converterd into parking, and the Alpine slide was removed from the park following the 1998 season. Several new rides have been added, with most being holdovers from the old Action Park.

Rides

Past slides and attractions

Alpine Slide

Action Park's alpine slide descended the mountain roughly below the ski area's chairlift, 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 imprint left by the tracks can still be seen from the gondola lift Mountain Creek now uses.

Kamikaze

This ride was arguably one of Action Park's oldest water slides, opened shortly after the Alpine Slide was put in. It was a single person body slide that led riders straight down a track of small hills. Riders landed in a small pool at the bottom with a splash. Its last season of operation was in 2009, after which the ride was deemed unsafe and subsequently removed and dismantled. Often times riders had the tendency to bounce off the slide at fast speeds and land on the surrounding cement surface with serious injuries.

Surf Hill (Tsunami)

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.

Present slides and attractions

The Alpine Pipeline

Introduced in 2009. Two people ride this enclosed spiral waterslide that empties into a small pool, with the entire ride conducted in darkness.

High Tide Wavepool

This attraction goes to about 5.6 feet (1.7 m) deep. Under Action Park management the pool went to 10 feet (3.0 m) deep. Under Mountain Creek management the pool was modified. This pool alternates short periods of waves and short periods of calmness.

The Tarzan Swing

This is a wooden beam hanging from a 20-foot (6.1 m) long cable over a pool of water. This historically has been one of the most popular attractions at the water park (going back to Action Park days), with parkgoers waiting in long lines to swing off the cables into the pool below. The pool is fed by the springs at Mountain Creek and is typically colder than the rest of the park, which has resulted in several injuries and at least one death.

The Gauley & Thunder Run

Formerly known as "Roaring Rapids", with the left side (Gauley) a single tube and the right side (Thunder Run) a double tube whitewater rafting ride.

Canyon Cliffs

Two diving cliffs called "Little Moe" and "Big Moe". Little Moe is an 18-foot (5.5 m) drop, while Big Moe is a 24-foot (7.3 m) drop.

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. 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.

Bombs Away

A rock-based slide with an 18-foot (5.5 m) drop into a spring-fed quarry bed.

Cannonball Falls

Similar to the Alpine Pipeline, an enclosed dark waterslide with a 10-foot (3.0 m) freefall into a spring-fed pool.

H2-Oh-No!

A speed water slide with a 99-foot (30 m) vertical drop. Under Action Park management it was known as Geronimo Falls, and had 2 99-foot (30 m) slides, and a small footbridge that crossed over the slides at the bottom of the fall. The footbridge was removed somewhere around 2005.

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 (27 m) long tunnel into a catch pool.

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.

Vortex

High speed water coaster loops 360 degrees through pitch darkness on a double tube

External links

• The Official Website
• Accidents at Mountain Creek Waterpark

Coordinates: 41°11′20″N 74°30′25″W / 41.189°N 74.507°W / 41.189; -74.507