Colorado River Ride [Action Park Original]

 water  Add category

 Upload a photo

This is a river rapid ride where 4 - 5 people ride down a river shaped track, and get bumped around by water jets. The riders then traverse a dark tunnel before ending up in a pool. After floating through said pool, the riders reach the final downhill stretch, where there is a jump allowing the raft to jump up to a foot into the air before reaching the end pool.

Unlike many river rapid rides, Action Park's was unique in that instead of traveling in a halfpipe with jets sticking out, the walls were crafted to look like actual rocky canyon bed. As a result, it can be said that this - combined with the power of the jets - provides a very rough ride. In fact, as of 2012, riders are required to wear football helmets because of the number of incidents where people riding together slammed into each others heads - one case resulting in a lawsuit in 2011. It was not uncommon for riders to find themselves riding up the walls of the ride in their rafts, and even get stuck on the turn before the tunnel - resulting in getting slammed into by the riders behind them.

In the ride's history, very little has changed. When the park became Mountain Creek in 2002, the water fountain flowing over the entrance to the tunnel was removed, and an alternate path was sealed off. A mechanism was installed as well so rafts were carried up automatically, instead of riders having to carry them up to the start on their own, and the jets were turned down considerably. In the 2014 Action Park master plan, according to the minutes at an April 2014 Vernon Land Use Board meeting, are plans to do work on the ride as part of the owner's desire to bring the in-ride experience back to how it was prior to Intrawest's ownership of the resort.