Written by: Andrew Withers
Photography by: Jeremy Johnson
The Mojave Desert is one of the driest places in North America, with a whopping average annual rainfall of roughly five inches. It’s also hot, even by desert standards: the Mojave’s notorious Death Valley holds records for both the hottest day and month ever recorded on Earth.
Most drivers passing through this boiling mountain Mars-scape probably won’t cut the A/C or cruise control until they hit Los Angeles or Las Vegas, depending which way they’re heading.
But there’s usually a car or two pulled off on the shoulder in Newberry Springs, CA, an oasis community roughly halfway between Vegas and L.A. where an eye-popping, expansive complex of vibrantly graffitied buildings is found, intriguing enough to entice the occasional traveler out of their car and into the dusty desert hills.
After passing by this place on our way to Los Angeles, we made it a point to check it out on our way back a month later. (8/16/18)
As you walk down a service road, through a gate and over a parking lot where weeds have begun to take up occupancy in the cracks, a turnstile-ticket booth and main entryway becomes visible with the sign: WATERPARK.
It is an utterly surreal thing to see in the middle of the desert.
Stretching back on either side are buildings covered in every inch by graffiti. Some look like they once housed carnival games, where kids might once have thrown darts at balloons or rings at bottles to win a cheap prize.
Others look like they were once theme park staples such as nasty public bathrooms or concession-sized-huts. Some of the latter have registers still intact.
Metal struts that once supported the park’s plastic waterslides now look eerily like Japanese torii, scattered slalom-style on a hill overlooking the park.
Perhaps the most jarring imagery is to be found at the lazy river, where human refuse and debris chokes the channels where water once flowed.
Throughout the river and remainder of the park are signs that skaters have been making use of all the smooth concrete. Makeshift quarter pipes, paint skids and wax spots are everywhere.
The only indication of water ever being here now are the palm trees ringing the park, whose green leaves indicate that they’re still clinging to life, somehow.
HISTORY
More details can be found here, but in a nutshell, the Lake Dolores Waterpark was opened in the 50’s by a local businessman. During the ‘60s, the park expanded its features to include things like slides and a campground. It reached its heyday in the ‘80s and ‘90s. (Check out this TV spot from the 90’s advertising the park.)
According to the blog, after a series of owner, name and theme changes in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the park went bankrupt and closed, partially due to a lawsuit from a former employee who was injured there. It has remained abandoned; despite occasional buzzings that investors may be interested in reopening, the logistics make it unlikely.