Knott's Berry Farm Celebrates Calico Mine Ride + Camp Snoopy Openings

Knott's Berry Farm is officially reopening the Calico Mine Ride tomorrow, though it started previews yesterday during a big media and pass holder event.  The dark ride has been closed for about six months while a total restoration took place, repairing the physical attributes of the mountain and trains but also bringing the characters, lighting and special effects into modern times.

Here is a nice movie of the new version of the Calico Mine Ride.  All the animatronic characters look great, and there's many more of them than ever before.  The cavern scene at the top of the ride also looks fantastic with its new paint, and I love the way they reveal it out of total darkness.  While hard to capture all the effects since the trains is zooming along, the explosion finale looks to have some great special effects in use as well.

Several sites have published some nice coverage of the ride's opening, including Knott's Network,  Mice Chat, and Inside The Magic.

© Knott's Berry Farm

This weekend also marks the official reopening of Camp Snoopy, which has also be refreshed for its 30th anniversary.  Three new rides have been added, all with appropriate theming.  I especially love the inclusion of Pig Pen on his own ride, I'm not sure I remember seeing that character have his own attraction elsewhere!

Camp Snoopy also received all new walkways, restored buildings, new landscaping, renamed rides and plenty more.  The area was ready for some work, and it received what was necessary plus a great deal above that.  Many kudos to Knott's for restoring both the Mine and Camp Snoopy.

Plus, there's already rumors of a new dark ride in the park's Boardwalk for 2015 - could we see the Wonder Mountain's Guardian technology utilized here?  Can't wait!