New water park to replace Wild Rivers in Irvine

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Wild Rivers water park in Irvine will close forever after next summer.

The off-again, on-again water park nestled next to the old Irvine Meadows Amphitheater claims 2010 will be the final season. Of course, it has said that the last few summers. But this time it just may be the truth.

The business partners behind the 23-year-old Wild Rivers have formed a new venture that’s in the process of raising money for three planned water parks in Temecula, Bakersfield and Irvine under the name Splash Canyon.

The $24-million Temecula and $14-million Bakersfield water parks, set to open in 2010 and 2011, respectively, have already gotten green lights from city officials, according to Waterpark Ventures partner Evan Gentry.

The $28-million Irvine water park, planned for a 25-acre parcel at the Great Park on the former El Toro Marine Base, would open in 2011 pending approval from city officials.

Tentative plans for the Irvine water park include:
* Water coaster with a magnetic lift hill
* Family raft ride
* One or two wave pools
* Lazy river
* Half-pipe raft slide
* Bowl slide
* Rain forest play area with a giant water bucket

The developers plan to team up with the Discovery Science Center to create an educational theme for the Irvine water park.

Here’s hoping they remember to bring the one-of-a-kind Funnel Dog — a hot dog-on-a-stick dipped in funnel cake batter — from Wild Rivers to the new Irvine water park.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photo: Splash Canyon

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 6:42 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, Family & Kids, Orange County, Theme Parks, Water Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.