- I stopped in the Mojave Desert and wandered around a 251-acre abandoned water park.
- The previous park went on a rollercoaster journey of successes and failures, changing hands three times.
- The water has dried up today. All that remains is an empty swimming pool and a dilapidated building.
Scattered palm trees were the first clue that I was near Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark.
I knew I had arrived when I spotted a colorful sign.
Just off a side road that runs parallel to California’s Mojave Freeway in Newberry Springs are the ruins of an old water park.
The history of this water park is eerily reminiscent of years of ups and downs and sharp turns of water slides.that Opened as Dolores Waterpark in the 1960sAs Business Insider reported in 2020, it has since operated under the names Discovery Waterpark and, most famously, Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark. It then closed permanently in 2004.
Now, the water has dried up, there are no swimmers, and all that remains are empty cement pools and buildings rotting away in the desert sun.
