Alabama Adventure Shows off Completed Cheddar Chase Coaster

© Alabama Adventure

Alabama Adventure's newest roller coaster, Cheddar Chase, is now structurally complete and looking good!  The wild mouse style ride is the largest of the park's additions for 2022, which also includes some refurbishment to the park's famous wooden roller coaster, Rampage.  

Cheddar Chase still needs the station completed, and cars put on the track, but it looks like most of the heavy lifting is over - at least from these photos which the park shared.  There will also be a pretty long walk to the ride constructed, as Cheddar Chase is located up on the hill that overlooks the park.  For now the ride will be alone up there, but perhaps we'll see more development in the area in the future.

© Alabama Adventure

The coaster comes to Alabama Adventure from Lake Winne, where it closed last year and was disassembled.  The coaster stands around 48 feet tall and features 1,200 feet of twisting and turning track.  As is expected on a wild mouse style ride, the cars will fly around the unbanked turns giving the riders a thrill as they go.

No word yet on exactly when visitors will be able to ride Cheddar Chase, but the park opens for the 2022 season on May 14th.

Alabama Adventure Building New Family Coaster "Cheddar Chase" for 2022

© Alabama Adventure

As promised, Alabama Adventure has revealed another Christmas present this year for all their fans - this time in the form of a new family roller coaster named Cheddar Chase.  The reveal of the new attraction was done on social media via a video upload, you can check that out at this link.

Cheddar Chase is believed to be an L&T Systems Wild Mouse, specifically the one that ran at Lake Winnepesaukah up until this past season.  The given model of Wild Mouse stands around 48 feet tall and features just under 1,200 feet of track.  As a family ride, big thrills aren't the intention here - in fact Alabama Adventure points out in their video that they will now offer Rampage for thrill seekers, Cheddar Chase for families, and the Centi-Speed for little kids.

© Alabama Adventure

The park shows the location of the new coaster in their announcement video, a screen capture of which can be seen above.  The ride will be located up on the hill where Zoomerang, a standard Vekoma Boomerang coaster, once stood.  This will give the ride nice presence over the developing amusement ride part of the property, and certainly draw families over that way.

While this new coaster is pretty big for the park, they also mention that for their 2022 season they have a total of 4 announcements to make, and Cheddar Chase is just the first.  So stay tuned during the winter months for more news, the park says they have something to announce "4" everyone in 2022.

Taking a Look at Alabama Adventure's New Rocket Racer Slide

© Alabama Adventure

Granted there's only a little bit left in Alabama Adventure and Splash Adventure's season, but I would be remiss if I never followed up on the park's large new water slide, Rocket Racer.  The six lane, rainbow colored mat racing water slide is one of the largest investments the owners have made in Splash Adventure in some time.  Standing over 50 feet tall and with each lane stretching more than 400 feet in length, the new slide has quickly become a favorite of park guests.

Rocket Racer opened in the middle of July, just in time for the hottest part of the Alabama summer.  Riders have been racing each other toward the finish line ever since.

© Alabama Adventure

This neat aerial view of the Rocket Racer shows it's placement within the park.  The park cleared out the space that an old log flume occupied and the new waterslide takes up a portion of it.  The new slide is pretty far off from the main water park area, but it also comes with some nice new lounge areas you can see built into existing structures adjacent to the slide.

This local news story from back when the slide opened noted that the slide has been positioned in an area that is an "opportunity for growth in the future."  There's a lot of open space in that part of the park that can be redeveloped over time, and since the water park is extra popular with guests that only makes sense to me.  As always, it's neat to see this little park continue to grow, perhaps we'll see another addition in 2022.

Alabama Adventure + Splash Adventure Adding Rocket Racer Slide for 2021

© Alabama Adventure

Alabama Adventure & Splash Adventure delivered their Christmas morning 2021 announcement as promised, and revealed that the park is building Rocket Racer, a brand new mat racing water slide tower.  Standing over 50 feet tall, Rocket Racer will feature 6 racing lanes, each with more than 400 feet of slide.  As with all popular mat racing water slides, riders will each other through the course, attempting to cross the finish line first (and with a splash, of course).

The park says that Rocket Racer will be the biggest water slide in all of Alabama, and it will also make Splash Adventure the biggest water park in the State.  The announcement video also notes that the park is "making sure that this isn't just a new attraction for the park, but an entirely new area for families to have fun and make great family memories every summer."  We saw the location of the new slide in previous teasers, and since it is slightly distant from the water park proper, maybe there's more to come with the expansion in terms of lounging, amenities and/or guest space.

© Silverwood Theme Park

The ride shown in the video is the mat racing water slide at Sliverwood Theme Park, seen above, and if the same one is going up at Splash Adventure then it looks like one of Whitewater's Whizzard towers.  It is a considerably sized tower for a park that's still quite small, having shown up in the past at much larger water parks, so this addition must be quite an achievement for the latest owners!

Alabama Adventure to Unwrap 2021 Addition on Christmas Morning

© Alabama Adventure

We don't know exactly what yet, but Alabama Adventure & Splash Adventure has something significant planned for their 2021 season, and are promising to reveal it as a holiday gift on Christmas Morning.

The park has posted this teaser on their social media, which is a slow zoom out of a giant gift that's sitting atop a section of the amusement park.  The box is of substantial size, and if the unnamed attraction does take up that whole area, we're looking at something pretty big.  The reason I saw that is because the box is encompassing a decent amount of the layout of the park's former log flume, which was removed years ago.

© Google Maps

Here's a look at this section of the park before the current owners started to rebuild and redevelop the park, with the log flume still standing.  The cleared area is a large rectangle, which could fit many rides, really.  One would assume that the attraction will be a ride in Alabama Adventure and not a water ride in Splash Adventure, but then again the park recently redeveloped an area that you can see at the lower right of the top image into a children's area of the water park.  Still, my guess would be a ride for the dry side of the park.

There are numerous small layout coasters on the market today that would seemingly fit here, but the park's hot Alabama summers also mean a water ride would be well received.  Even a large spectacular style flat ride might get the park the attention they're after.  For now only the park knows!

A Round-Up of Recently Announced Park Reopenings

© Lagoon Amusement Park

Lagoon Amusement Park, located in Utah, announced that they will be reopening today, May 23rd.  They received notification from local authorities that they were allowed to open, and wasted no time in doing just that.  The park's water park, Lagoon-A-Beach, is also open.

The park has implemented a reservation system that must be used before visiting, in order to limit attendance.  The system only allows for reservations for the week following the current day, and season pass holders are limited to visits per week.

The park will be requiring visitors to wear a face mask at all times, and they will also ask everyone to sanitize their hands when they enter a ride queue.  Right now the park is following hours of 10 am until 8 pm on Saturdays, and 11 am until 8 pm other days.

© Gatorland

Another long time Orlando area attraction, Gatorland, has also reopened as of today.  The park is heavily promoting their Social Distancing Skunk Ape, a famed "Florida Cryptid" who is cousins with Bigfoot.  He feels very strongly about everyone keeping an appropriate distance and also keeping things clean, and I love it.  If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to learn more about him on this page.

The park is not requiring visitors to wear face masks, just encouraging them to do so.  The park's CEO has written a great deal about the measures they have taken in response to COVID-19.

Gatorland has also very smartly extended their Florida resident half off sale, which should help them attract some curious folks looking to get out of the house.

© Alabama Adventure

Alabama Adventure amusement park and Splash Adventure water park are planning to open on May 30th, if all goes well.  After announcing that opening date the county they are located in passed their own extension of stay at home orders, however as of today it seems the park has clarified that they can open and as such is back to planning to reopen on the 30th.  Regardless, the stay at home was only extended by one week so worse case is an opening around June 6th.

There isn't a lot on the park's website about specific changes that will take place in response to COVID-19, though as a small family run park we hope that they will double down on the safety of their workers and guests.

© Magic Springs

Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, located in Arkansas, has announced their reopening for June 1st.  The park will be limiting attendance to 30% of maximum occupancy for the theme park, and 50% of the maximum occupancy for the water park.

As a benefit the park will be offering season pass holders some extras, including $10 to spend in the park, extra bring a friend free passes and monthly discounts via coupons.

Magic Springs will not require reservations to visit the park, and they do encourage guests to purchase tickets online ahead of time.  It sounds like tickets can be purchased at the gate as well.  The park will not require face masks for outdoor parts of the property, but they are required to enter indoor food and retail locations.

The park is also asking guests to be patient as social distancing initiatives will create longer lines, all in the name of safety.

© Quassy Amusement P ark

Connecticut, home of Quassy Amusement Park and Waterpark, has announced that amusement parks will be able to open on June 20th.  As such, the park is already diving into hiring for the park's summer season, which is expected to start on that day.

Since this is a very recent development and the opening is still several weeks away, the park's website does not yet reflect much in the way of changes related to COVID-19.  I'm sure that as the official opening date draws closer the park will have more information to share.

© Indiana Beach

It wasn't long ago that we found out that Indiana Beach was being saved, and now we know that the park is planning to open for the 2020 season on June 27th.

The park is still hard at work building a new website, so we don't have any specifics yet related to COVID-19 changes that may be required.  Between trying to actually get the gates open again and all the work that comes with it, the new owners are probably about as busy as they can be these days.

Also of note, if you're interested in getting into Indiana Beach one day early the park is having a VIP Party on June 26th.  You'll have to purchase a VIP ticket along with a brick paver that will be installed at the park.  More information on that is available here.

From The Vault: Visionland 1999 Park Map

© NewsPlusNotes

Long before Alabama Adventure Amusement Park and Splash Adventure Waterpark came to be there was VisionLand, located in Bessemer, Alabama.  The park is now in a regrowth stage (which hopefully can continue), under new independent owners, but it stated as a unique community driven theme park.

Opened in 1998, VisionLand was created by nearly a dozen local cities coming together to borrow the funds to open the modest theme and water park.  After a couple years the park was in financial trouble, and Cedar Fair almost operated it at one point.  Eventually it was sold to Southland Entertainment Group, which invested it in and tried to help the park grow.

© NewsPlusNotes

That worked for a while but then the park was suddenly sold again to Adrenaline Family Entertainment in 2008, who only held on to it for a few years - the park was sold again before the 2012 season.  This time, the new owners (who were a part of Southland Entertainment) decided to close the theme park and only operate the water park.

In 2014 members of the Koch family purchased the park and started the slow revival of it that is still going on today.

© NewsPlusNotes

© NewsPlusNotes

But if we look back at when the park opened, it looked like a nice place at least in terms of this drawing.  While I did not visit the park, it definitely did not have the grand amount of shade that is shown here.  Granted over time the park has grown in all those planted trees, but it must have been hot back in the early years!

The park is home to the highly regarded Rampage wooden roller coaster, which has been fully restored under the Koch family.  Once this virus clears out Alabama Adventure will be a great place for locals to support!

As Parks Grow, Alabama Adventure + Splash Adventure Gain Separate Identities

The past 5 years have seen great development at Alabama Adventure Amusement Park & Splash Adventure Water Park.  So much that the two parks will now have their own names, logos and identities (seen above) - which differs from the previous combined name of Alabama's Splash Adventure.  However, the parks will remain a two parks for the price of one combination, with one ticket giving admission to both parks.

The park will open in May for its 6th season under the Koch family's leadership, and they have quickly built back up the offerings on the amusement park side since taking over.  With 5 new rides added last year, and another one this year, the park now needs its own identity due to all of its offerings.

And they're not stopping in 2019, as they've already decided to add 10 days to the park's operating season and have announced something new for both Splash Adventure and Alabama Adventure.

© Alabama Adventure

Crews are hard at work digging footers for Splash Adventure's all-new Twister water slide.  The slide will twist around last year's addition, the FreeFall water slide, which can be seen in the photo above.  Containing several tight curves and bright colors, the Twister slide will be another thrilling addition to the water park.

© Alabama Adventure

The big new ride at Alabama Adventure this year is seen here, named The Galleon.  The swinging ship ride is a classic at many amusement parks, and will give a family-thrill that is a big of a step up for the flat rides currently at the park.  Alabama Adventure is now up to about 15 flat rides for families and children, and of course the star of the park remains the Rampage wooden roller coaster.

In 2019 the park is also expanding and beautifying and repaving several of their walkways, performing track improvements on Rampage to keep it running smooth and fast, bringing back the high-dive show from last year, and adding 120 new large size lockers.

© Google Earth

Also interesting to look at, this image from last April (via Google Earth) shows how much of the park has been brought back to life so far.  There's still plenty of room for more additions as time passes, but you can see they've removed most of the log flume's foundations, though the shoot-the-chutes and river rapids rides are still sitting untouched - for now.

Alabama's Splash Adventure Announces Three New Attractions for 2019 Season

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

Coming off a season that saw a large expansion of new rides and attractions, Alabama's Splash Adventure will yet again grow in 2019 with the addition of three new rides.

Technically the first opened at the very end of the 2018 summer season, and that is the FreeFall waterslide.  Riders face a steep plunge downward (seen above) from almost 8 stories in the air.  The high-thrill attraction was in preview mode at the end of last season, and no doubt many guests will line up to take the plunge for the first time in 2019.

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

Also new in the water park in 2019 will be the Twister water slide, seen above wrapping around the new FreeFall slide.  The park did not specify when they released the images of these new attractions, but Twister appears to be a body slide.  It lives up to its name via its design, twisting several times around both sides of the drop slide.  Decked out in alternating yellow and red slide pieces, Twister is sure to be another thrilling addition to Splash Adventure.

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

Finally, over on the amusement park side of the park will be the Galleon, a traditional swinging ship ride.  The Galleon will be a thrilling ride that still is welcoming to a variety of both younger and older guests.  Alabama's Splash Adventure has gone to great lengths to bring back many of the property's rides in recent years, and the Galleon is another strong addition.  Congratulations to the park on their continued expansion!

Alabama Splash Adventure Breaks Attendance Record + Opens New FreeFALL Slide

© Alabama Splash Adventure

More good news coming out of Alabama Splash Adventure, as the park has reported that they had broken their own attendance record when they still had 17 operating days left in the 2018 season.  The park was reopened by members of the Koch family in 2014, meaning this was the property's 5th year of operations under them.

The park has continued to grow by adding several rides (including a Yo-Yo, Scrambler and Tilt-a-Whirl), a high dive show and a family water play area this year, but just recently yet another new attraction debuted in the water park - FreeFALL.  The giant water slide utilizes a slide tower that was already at the park, which had its older slides removed.  This new slide features a super steep drop and an extended run out area - perfect for thrill seekers.

The park has also noted on social media that this tower is able to support another water slide from it - you can actually see the support for that to the right of the tower.  While not a 2019 project, it will come on board one day.

This fall the park will also open on weekends in October for a family friendly fall festival, which is news and extends their operating season even longer.

After a year of such expansion for Alabama Splash Adventure, one might think it will be a quiet 2019 season... but you never know with these guys!

What a perfect way to spend the day! Open every weekend till Labor Day. #FreeFALLSlide https://t.co/nE7gNy76f1 pic.twitter.com/XFKZcNPSvX

— AL Splash Adventure (@ALABAMASPLASH) August 12, 2018

Alabama Splash Adventure Announces New Ride Package for 2018 Season

Alabama Splash Adventure previously announced a new waterpark addition for 2018, a large children's area with many spray-ground features along with several kiddie slides.  Costing more than $1 million, we all thought that would be the park's biggest addition for the year.  Remember, Alabama Splash Adventure is currently the little-park-that-could after all, slowly growing back from having been closed with all rides stripped and sold from its previous life.

Well, surprise!  The park just revealed a new rides package for 2018 that will see the amusement side of the park grow by 5 new rides, along with a new live entertainment show.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

The new rides announced will be suited for the whole family, but three of them will be a bit bigger than the flat rides currently offered by Alabama Splash Adventure.  One of them, seen above, is a classic YoYo ride, popular at many parks along with fairs.  There will also be two other amusement park staples added back to the ride lineup, a Scrambler and a Tilt-a-Whirl.  Both of these are go-to rides for parks everywhere, so it will be wonderful for Alabama Splash Adventure to feature them.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

That's not to say that little ones won't have anything new to look forward to, however.  The park will debut both a Rockin' Tug (pictured above), and also the Royal Express train ride.

Alabama Splash Adventure will be featuring new live entertainment this year as well, as it is constructing a High Dive show arena for guests.  Plus, the park is going to start to stay open for Halloween weekends as well, extending their season.

All of these additions are also covered in detail in the below video, from Alabama Splash Adventure.

Alabama Splash Adventure Expanding Kid's Water Areas for 2018 Season

© Alabama Splash Adventure

Alabama's Splash Adventure will spend $1 million in 2018 in order to add two new children's play areas to their ever-growing list of attractions.  Both will be located within the water park, and are designed to keep kids happy for hours on end.  The additions are part of $10 million in expansion that the park has completed since becoming family owned in 2014.

One area will feature five different slides, each offering a different experience - these can be seen above.  All the slides are meant for smaller kids, but will provide enough variety to keep them coming back.  The slides are being manufactured by Proslide and will empty into shallow water that's safe for the park's smaller visitors.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

Also joining the new slides will be a large sprayground play area, filled with dozens of interactive elements that can be accessed from a zero-depth entry point.  A concept image of a similar area to the one being built can be seen above, and it is being created by Vortex Aquatic Structures.

The expansion will also feature plenty of new seating for families along with some new cabana options.

Alabama's Splash Adventure is looking for help with naming their new play area, and are accepting submissions via their website.  The lucky winner who's name the park chooses will receive 4 2018 season passes. 

Alabama Splash Adventure Announces New Additions for 2016 Season

After a successful 2015, Alabama Splash Adventure has announced a set of additions to the property that will cater to the whole family, and feature not only new rides but also additional in-park amenities.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

A major one of these amenities is the addition of a large new Pepsi Oasis building that will be built adjacent to the Surfside Grill in the water park.  The structure will have eight different drink stations, where guests may keep refreshed with free beverages.

More drink windows will also be added to the Rampage Oasis building, and misters will pop up throughout the entire park to keep everyone nice and cool.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

Alabama Splash Adventure has plenty of vacant ride pads from attractions that were removed between owners, and two of those will be filled once again next Summer.  Above is the Drop Zone, a family free fall tower provided by Zamperla.  While not confirmed by the park, it appears as though it is one of the manufacturer's 30 foot tall Mega Jumpin' Star rides.

© Alabama Splash Adventure

Elsewhere in the ride part of the park, a new Tea Cup spinning flat ride will debut.  The popular attraction allows kids to ride with their parents, and spin themselves silly throughout the ride.

Alabama Splash Adventure will also reopen one of their buildings as The General's Diner, a play on the nickname of Pat Koch.  The restaurant will feature air conditioned dining and a selection of food offerings that the whole family can fill up on.

It is wonderful to see this family park expanding again next year, and as we previously heard it sounds like this is just the first of many years of planned growth.

Alabama Splash Adventure Attendance Soars in 2015 + A Look at the Future

© Alabama Adventure

Happy news to report from Alabama Splash Adventure - the park is seeing a 30% increase in attendance so far during the 2015 season.  A big part of that gain has come from the reopening of Rampage, a large Custom Coasters wood ride that was built in 1998.  The park spent plenty of time and funds to bring the ride back to peak operating condition, including new uplift track steel and total train refurbishment.  According to the park, that has Rampage running both faster and smoother than ever before.

Another part of the attendance lift is from the family oriented atmosphere of the park - thanks to members of the Koch family that purchased the park in 2014.  The group has added free perks like parking, drinks and sunscreen.  After many rocky years of operations by different owners, guests are slowly coming back and liking what they see.

© Alabama Adventure

However, there's plenty of open space to see in the former amusement park area.  After the park closed under the former owners nearly all the rides were sold off, which means there's plenty of room for development.  It sounds like there are plans to bring the ride side of the park back but also expand the water park even further - on a bit of an alternating year basis according to the article.  Hard to tell, but rides may be the focus in 2016, though plans aren't yet ready to be revealed.  The five year plan includes multiple expansions, and the faster the attendance base grows the faster the plans will come to life.  Sounds like a great success story so far!

The Rampage Rides Again at Alabama's Splash Adventure

This past season Alabama's Splash Adventure operated with new owners, and the former ride side of the park sat mostly empty in the summer sun.  Sad, but only temporary.  Dan Koch, one of the park's new owners, made it clear that he had plans to get the amusement park back up and running, and one of his first tasks would be to fix up Rampage, the park's large wooden roller coaster.

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

It took some time, and a whole lot of effort, but Dan kept his word - this past weekend the coaster operated during an event for the American Coaster Enthusiasts.  The early buzz is that the coaster is back and better than ever, flying along the track and delivering plenty of air-time.

The park had to have a crew come during the summer to inspect and fix the ride's track, which is a huge project on its own.  The coaster had sat unused for over two years, which takes a lot of toll on a wooden ride such as Rampage.  The ride's trains also underwent a full rebuild and refurbishment, the shiny new red train can be seen above.

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

Now, after spending well over $1 million to get the ride back up and running, Rampage will be waiting for us all when the park opens in 2015.  The coaster originally opened in 1998 when the park was named Visionland, and features a 120 foot tall lift hill and a maximum speed of over 55 miles per hour.

The coaster was well known as an above average ride previously, and now has had extra care to really make it shine.  Here's to a great 2015 season for the park - hopefully we may even hear of some additions to the park soon!

Under New Management: Alabama's Splash Adventure Opens for 2014

© Alabama's Splash Adventure

While the weather wasn't exactly the best, Alabama's Splash Adventure reopened this past weekend for the first time under their new family ownership.

Koch Family Parks has already spent $7 million refurbishing the park, which at one time was both an amusement and water park.  After a bit of a rocky history, currently on the water park is open and nearly all former rides have been sold.

Still, the new owners - including Dan Koch as President - have cleaned up, repainted, resurfaced, and renovated the water park to bring it back to its shiny former self.  They've also added a handful of new kiddie rides located near the water park, a taste of what they have planned for the future.  They're also already working on retracking Rampage, the park's large wooden roller coaster.  While there's a chance it could reopen late this summer, it's a definite go for 2015.

As for other new rides and attractions, this story points out that Koch Family Parks has a five year plan in place, so you can bet we will see all sorts of goodies added soon!

Koch Family Branches Out + Buys Alabama's Splash Adventure

Good news for fans of the former Visionland and later Alabama Adventure amusement park - members of the Koch family, who up until recently ran Holiday World, have purchased the property with apparent plans for opening the amusement rides in the future.

As a bit of a surprise, Alabama's Splash Adventure water park - what's currently left operating of the original Visionland - changed their website today to show off Dan and his sister Natalie as part of the newly "family owned & operated" facility.

Dan Koch was recently involved in a legal dispute over the ownership of Holiday World, stemming from the death of his brother Will in 2010.  Will's wife, Lori Koch, is now in control of the park, owning 60% of it.  Dan still owns 40% but clearly has decided to move on and pursue leading another park - and it would seem his family has joined him.  You can read a history of the legal battle, in short version, here.

Now with members of the Koch family (no official word on Pat as of yet) as owners of the park (technically through a company named Koch Parks, Inc), 2014 will also see the addition of five kiddie rides in the dry area and a Laser Maze - but that's not to say the whole amusement park will be open.  That could come in time, but not this year.

The Koch family says in this article that they are excited to bring their decades of amusement park experience to Splash Adventure.  The company purchased 89 acres of land to work with, and former owner General Attractions, LLC, kept 150 adjacent acres for development.

Much like at Holiday World, visitors will find perks such a free parking, free sunscreen, free inner tubes, and wifi.  The park reopens for 2014 on May 17th.

If the plan is indeed to reopen the amusement park, there will be plenty of work required.  Looking at a recent aerial shot of the property on Google, it seems that many of the park's former rides have already been ripped out.  The two largest, a Boomerang coaster and the wooden Rampage coaster, are still standing however.

Elitch Gardens Announces a New Coaster!

Guilty as charged - I made that post title a little over zealous on purpose considering Elitch Gardens is adding a relocated kiddie coaster.  Consider it a late April Fools.

But it still is a new coaster, after all!  The Blazin' Buckaroo is reported to be the former Marvel Mania kiddie coaster from the now closed Alabama Adventure:

Recent aerials of Alabama Adventure show only empty footers where the coaster above once stood.  Marvel Mania is a Miler Industries family coaster, and is expected to replace Elitch Gardens' current kiddie coaster, a Herschell Little Dipper named the Cactus Coaster.  No official word on the future of the Cactus Coaster at this point.

Elitch Gardens was highly rumored to be the recipient of America's only Maurer Sohne SkyLoop - but Magic Springs has announced it will operate there another season.  That ride is probably perfect for a park like Elitch that is tight on space.  While this season will feature a small coaster, there still could be a larger one on the horizon!

From The Vault: VisionLand 2001

VisionLand, located in Bessemer Alabama, first opened as a project headed by several local municipalities in 1998.  It had some problems from the start, not generating the amount of business that many expected.  The park almost completed a deal with Cedar Fair in 1999 to operate the property, though it fell through in the 11th hour.

The park was eventually sold to new owners and some moderate expansion followed.  The name of the park was changed to Alabama Adventure in time, separating the water from amusement park under separate admission tickets.  That must have really shown how popular the water park was over the rides, as after the park changed hands again in 2011 it was announced that the rides would be closed and only the water park operations would continue.

But back in 2001 when these scan are from, the park was touting some new attractions it had built.  The Wild River Gorge river rapids ride first opened in 1999 but underwent some modifications and was reopened in 2001, being advertised like it was a new experience.

The park's general brochure for the season also shows off all that was offered.  Some press materials that I also have list some of the park's biggest attractions:

Wild River Gorge:  The new river rapids ride with special effects such as geysers, whirlpools, waterfalls, and more for a splashing good time.

Rampage: The largest, fastest, scariest wooden roller coaster in Alabama.  Rampage brings you to the top of the 120 foot slope drop, before propelling you at top speeds of 56 miles per hour through its bends, drops, and turns.

Sky Wheel: A 106 foot high ferris wheel that provides a panoramic view of the park.

Marvel Mania: A miniature steel roller coaster designed especially for kids with parents in mind.

Also in 2001 the park added a pair of S&S Power tower rides.  One side blasted riders up to the top, while the other was a Turbo Drop, slowly lifting them to the apex them blasting them downward.  The rides were said to be leased from S&S, and when the park had a tough time eventually the company removed the Turbo Drop from the premises.  The Space Shot remained, however - but is currently being rebuilt at Darien Lake in New York.

I never got to take a ride on Rampage, the park's large wooden coaster designed by Custom Coasters.  With the ride park closed for good, it seems as though that door just may have shut forever.  The latest owners seem dedicated to making the water park work, and even added a couple small attractions this past Summer.  It seems the time for rides at VisionLand, err, Alabama Adventure, has come to an end.