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The Pacific Northwest seems to have a dearth of amusement parks. Why is that? Does the amusement park shortage have something to do with the rainy weather?
Partly because the weather would make an amusement park not economically viable, and partly because there are so many options for outdoor recreation that amusement parks are just not needed. For an outing, a family could go hiking or fishing and interact with nature. Amusement parks are just overpriced tourist traps where you pay to wait in lines for hours just to sit your butt on a moving cart for 20 seconds and where you pay an arm and a leg just for mediocre junk food. If anything, amusement parks should be discouraged.
I also feel like a lot of people wouldn't bother traveling all the way to the Pacific Northeest to visit an amusement park unless it was something on the level of Disneyworld or something that would draw people from all over. The PNW is one of the least visited areas in the country(imo). Not a whole lot of people visit Washington and Oregon like they would California or Florida. WA and OR or both beautiful states though.
One of the reasons there aren't many amusement parks in the NW is that it has easy access to California. Weather has little to do with it as the east side of the mountains get little rain, and the western areas get little rain during the summer. Silverwood in Northern Idaho between Couer d'Alene and Sandpoint is quietly becoming a regional destination amusement park.
Partly because the weather would make an amusement park not economically viable, and partly because there are so many options for outdoor recreation that amusement parks are just not needed. For an outing, a family could go hiking or fishing and interact with nature. Amusement parks are just overpriced tourist traps where you pay to wait in lines for hours just to sit your butt on a moving cart for 20 seconds and where you pay an arm and a leg just for mediocre junk food. If anything, amusement parks should be discouraged.
The PNW is one of the least visited areas in the country(imo). Not a whole lot of people visit Washington and Oregon like they would California or Florida. WA and OR or both beautiful states though.
That used to be the case, but the Alaskan cruises and three of the NW cities becoming chic destinations has changed that. Many of the folks that come here want real thrill rides, like climbing a volcano.
I also feel like a lot of people wouldn't bother traveling all the way to the Pacific Northeest to visit an amusement park unless it was something on the level of Disneyworld or something that would draw people from all over. The PNW is one of the least visited areas in the country(imo). Not a whole lot of people visit Washington and Oregon like they would California or Florida. WA and OR or both beautiful states though.
The SF Bay Area has two amusement parks but I don't feel really any tourists who come here visit them, at least I never hear of any doing that. They seem to be mainly for locals.
Outside of Disenyworld and to a lesser extent Southern Ca, I'm not sure really any other is a national draw for amusement parks.
My guess for the lack of amusement parks in the PNW is probably the weather too. But even then I wouldn't think their season would be that much shorter than a Six Flags in Montreal or New England, if at all.
The Pacific Northwest never had the large regional population nor the year-round tourist figures to support or really have the need for larger amusement parks. The places that can support large amusment parks like Disneyland/world or Six Flags or Busch Gardens or Great America or Cedar Point are either places that are big tourist hubs with good enough warm weather that get a lot of visitor all through the year(like Southern California or Florida)--or are places with enough people living in close enough proximity that they can get enough regional crowds to support places that might only be open in the warmer months--like all the big amusement parks in Ohio or somewhere like Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Or both. Those are places that are centrally located near enough larger metros that you can sustain the crowds with families visiting for the day in summer.
The Pacific Northwest has only recently been building it's tourist crowds--and mostly in the summer--and the overall combined population of Puget Sound and the Willamette Valley is less than somewhere like the Bay Area and Sacramento or many Mid-Atlantic metros pack in a much smaller area. Also the tourists who come to the Northwest are often more interested in stuff like the outdoors attractions or the food/wine scene than amusement park-type stuff.
There actually were and are older smaller amusement parks in the area, however. There's old Oaks Park in SE Portland, the sort of quirky Enchanted Forest in Salem, which also has one up by Federal Way next to the Wild Waves Waterpark--and there was a sort of depressing carnival style place called the Fun Forest at the Seattle Center that they closed down after years. There even was an old amusement park on top of Council Crest in Portland way back in the day. But these are sort of old school regional theme parks at about the same level at state fairs that get local families but are not really tourist destinations.
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