Haunted water ride at King's Dominion
Kings Dominion: Does anyone remember a ride at King's Dominion that was like a haunted log flume?
Does anyone remember a ride at King's Dominion that was like a haunted log flume? It was a water ride through a cave with holograms and horror movie displays with a big drop at the end like a log flume. It was a great ride, but I went on their website and it looks like it's not there anymore. I'm going there next week and was hoping to go on it. Also, what's inside the mountain at that park?
From JR Walker
Posted April 5, 2006 at 7:07 PM
Where have you been? LOL. Volcano: The blast coaster a LIM launched inverted coaster is in the mountain. All i've heard is the thing your talking about was called the Haunted River. But that probobly wasn't much help.
They had a log flume in the volcanoe before the coaster. That may be it
Also many other ill-fated attractions met their demise there too...
Copy and past this URL if you want to see where I got this information -- http://timelines.home.insightbb.com/pkd_years.htm
"The Haunted River" opened in 1980 within the mountain replacing "Journey to Atlantis." As for when it was removed, it doesn't mention it, but it must have been before 1998 because that was when they introduced "Volcano: The Blast Coaster.:
The Haunted River was removed sometime between 1993 and 1995. The mountain also once held two other attractions, Time Shaft, which was a gravitron on the south side of the mountain (near the entrance to Flight of Fear), and Smurf Mountain, which was a slow moving train ride on the Avalanche side of the mountain.
If you look carefully, you can still see the splash zone and an old ride vehicle from the Haunted River, which is at the exit to the gift shop.
I'll have to look for that. I love to find markings of the past in parks, show's where they've been and how they've improved over the years, or declined... I think that PKD should've left Diamond Falls instead of taking it out and putting in Italian Job.
Actually there is quite a bit more still hidden in the old mountain if your eyes are keen enough...
1. While in line for the Volcano (or while on the assent for the Avalanche) if you look closely you can still see the boarding area and que section for the old smurf ride. There is appearently no way to get to it but it is still there littered with trash and debris.
2. At the end of your wait for the Volcano, look up towards the mountain and you'll see a rusted broken track infused in the side of the mountain.
3. In the water next to the gift shop, you can see the old track the Hauted River followed as well as one of the old cars filled with old baskets (presumably for decoration).
Since this dicussion is about vintage Kings Dominion, I thought I would point out I this great collection of old Kings Dominion photos on Webshots. It features over 200 images of the park during the early years.
Many of the park's removed attractions are documented - The Old Dominion Steam Train, The "Lost World" Mountain w/Haunted River, the Monorail through the animal areas, and of course Lake Charles.
http://community.webshots.com/album/419637432CUOxsq
Those shots, and the archives from Dustin, have literally made my day!!! What a flood of memories that brings back
Hey thanks, glad to know that I've helped someone here! I have to admit that I'm a junkie when it comes to theme parks. I'll spend hours researching the parks that I visit and others just for fun. Thanks again!
From Joe Blow
Posted July 22, 2009 at 12:55 PM
The haunted river ride at KD was one of it's funnest rides. Not a thrill ride, but fun, silly, creepy. And that ghoulish green face that kept popping up through the ride was funny. Especially at the very end as ou were to fall. Places don't have good spook rides anymore. And that combined a spook ride with a flume and a big drop...much bigger than the log flume the still have outside. Too bad KD took that one out. The place now really just caters to teenies and young adults who want thrill rides.
All that pretty much remains of the orginal KD (the hanna barbara one), is the scooby coaster, yogis cave (or the emptied out cave now, called something like diamond cave), rebel yell, and not much else. It use to be a much funner place for kids....dolphin shows, slides, sky ride, trains, safari, etc...and tons of hanna barbara characters runnign around...now, you only get sponge bob and dora, and you have to wait in line to see them, and they come out like twice, and that's it. The magic left the place long aog. But if you want thrill rides, it's your place.
From Ryan B
Posted July 22, 2009 at 6:28 PM
Let's not forget the blue ice cream and blue products sold around Smurf Mountain. The haunted log flume was interesting with the scary face man. At least volcano is awesome. They could have replaced it with something lame.
From Rey Lowe
Posted July 27, 2009 at 4:31 PM
There was also another ride attached to the mountain called Mount Kilamanjaro. It was a circular ride very similar to a Himalayan, but steeply banked once it picked up speed. Used to be our favorite!
Also, before Smurf Mountain, it was called Land of the Dooz.
The Haunted River was a lot of fun. Much more so when all of the effects were working - which wasn't often.
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
