I have been going to Southern California theme parks since I was born. I have been to Disneyland, Universal, Magic Mountain, and SeaWorld so many times, I lost count years ago. Dispite my being born in SoCal and frequent family and school trips to the area, I have never once stepped foot inside Knott's Berry Farm.
For years, the park had no draw for me. Everyone said it was run down, the rides sucked, and it was attended by gangs and undesireables. I had driven past it on many occasions and never made the turn towards the park, and never thought twice about it.
Over the last few years, I have been watching the park's developement online through various sites. I watched as Windjammer (or whatever their old racing looping coaster was called) was demolished for Silver Bullet, I followed the progress of Pony Express' and Xcelerator's construction, and even studied the history and renovations to Ghost Town. Finally, after years of watching from afar, I felt the urge to buy a ticket and set foot inside the park.
I really like Knott's Berry Farm! I like it a lot, and far more than I ever expected to. It's definately a local's park. Sure, tourists from around the country go there, but by and large, you can tell that most of the park's attendance was from around town. As such, it is filled with thirll rides. Unlike most thrill parks, however, it also has a select few attractions that have a bit more thought and creativity behind them to make the park unique.
The farm's collection of roller coasters is impressive. Ghost Rider is one of the longest, and many say, one of the best wooden coasters in the country and it was a favorite of mine. Pony Express, through exceptionally short, was fun and different than your average coaster in the way that you sat on the trains. Even Jaguar, a family coaster, was a bit unique in that it had a layout that took you over the top of a good portion of the park.
The two rides that I didn't expect to like as much as I did were the Calico Mine Co. and the Timber Mountain Log Ride. They are two of the park's oldest attractions, and they manage to withstand the test of time even with their very outdated animatronic characters within. Calico Mine is a train dark ride with a Jungle Cruise style guide making corny jokes along the way. While the scenes inside don't hold a candle to the dark ride work of Disney or Universal, for a near 50 year old ride, it's still good fun. The log ride was also a nice suprise. The show scenes you float past as you quickly navigate the flume within the mountain are fun and, unlike Splash Mountain at Disneyland, the ride doesn't get you overly wet. Both attractions are ancient by today's standards but still had lines throughout the day while I was in the park.
All in all, I am very happy I finally made the decision to check out Knott's Berry Farm and look forward to making it a regular stop on my sothern California theme park excursions.
I took lots of video during my day in the park. Look for them to appear on the Theme Park Nerds YouTube channel soon.
Until Then,
Later Nerds!
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