Will the greater Pacific Northwest ever support a big theme park? (Portland: lawsuit, move)

[TouristExplorer281]

Silverwood Park in Idaho is like 6-7 hours away in Athol I believe and in Washington and Oregon you basically have wild waves a small theme park, oaks park a small theme park, and a great wolf lodge in grand mound. I know the weather in the northwest is not the greatest but for the Portland/Seattle to support a theme park as big as Silverwood is would be nice. Or if oaks park in Oregon has some sort of future expansion maybe their isn’t room. The adrenaline rush coaster was a nice addition this year. Too bad if that would be their last one built as thrilling as that one. I think oaks could expand in the 2020’s and wild waves in federal way,wa. If this region fails to get a new theme park in the near future. Nothing hasn’t even been planned in the past few years. Their is space to build. But it is very dead in the northwest region not talking about Idaho either just saying. They can go indoors perhaps not sure why that idea hasn’t been talked about.

[PNW-type-gal]

Not unless it was entirely indoor - and the way land use laws work in Oregon, I doubt you'd find a big enough of a parcel to build it.

There have been several small parks over the years and most of them are all out of business - not enough interest. Given the big ones in California that are a day's drive (and a small fortune in admission fees) it probably isn't worth the trouble.

[texasdiver]

I don't think it will ever happen because there are too many other options in the NW for outdoor recreation.

As a former Texas resident I can tell you the reason why places like Sea World and Six Flags are so popular in Texas is because there is basically no place else to take your kids on a Saturday except perhaps the zoo. No nearby beaches, mediocre state parks that are few and far between, no mountains, very few trails, no skiing, etc. etc.

Same reason why there are a lot of 100,000 seat football stadiums in the south. What else are you going to do on a fall Saturday in Central TX? You have to drive 500 miles to get to anything like mountains or wilderness.

[Ttark]

Is Enchanted Forest still open?

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Ttark

Is Enchanted Forest still open?

Yes.

Welcome to Enchanted Forest _Enchanted Forest Theme Park

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

I don't think it will ever happen because there are too many other options in the NW for outdoor recreation.

As a former Texas resident I can tell you the reason why places like Sea World and Six Flags are so popular in Texas is because there is basically no place else to take your kids on a Saturday except perhaps the zoo. No nearby beaches, mediocre state parks that are few and far between, no mountains, very few trails, no skiing, etc. etc.

Same reason why there are a lot of 100,000 seat football stadiums in the south. What else are you going to do on a fall Saturday in Central TX? You have to drive 500 miles to get to anything like mountains or wilderness.

I agree. People move here because they want to go hiking, rafting, etc. They don't move here for those types of things.

[Hemlock140]

Great Wolf Lodge is about as big as it will get in Western WA due to the rain. I still don’t know how Wild Waves makes it being open only May-August, plus weekends in September.

[Larry Caldwell]

A big theme park would have to be within the urban growth boundary of a city. It might be possible, depending on how the LCDC hearings and the lawsuit go. Wildlife Safari is probably the state's biggest, but there is no roller coaster.

[Ttark]

Not really a "theme park" but Alderbrook (a ways north of Hockinson) is open to the public during the week now, weather permitting, so their schedule tends to be a bit erratic. They started doing that about a year ago.

[url]http://alderbrookparkevents.com/[/url]

[2bpurrfect]

Originally Posted by TouristExplorer281

Silverwood Park in Idaho is like 6-7 hours away in Athol I believe and in Washington and Oregon you basically have wild waves a small theme park, oaks park a small theme park, and a great wolf lodge in grand mound. I know the weather in the northwest is not the greatest but for the Portland/Seattle to support a theme park as big as Silverwood is would be nice. Or if oaks park in Oregon has some sort of future expansion maybe their isn’t room. The adrenaline rush coaster was a nice addition this year. Too bad if that would be their last one built as thrilling as that one. I think oaks could expand in the 2020’s and wild waves in federal way,wa. If this region fails to get a new theme park in the near future. Nothing hasn’t even been planned in the past few years. Their is space to build. But it is very dead in the northwest region not talking about Idaho either just saying. They can go indoors perhaps not sure why that idea hasn’t been talked about.

it's not really a NW thing. in general we are far more nature oriented, and theme parks are so very plastic and artificial. We have so much nature around us, it's kind of hokey and second rate to build some manmade thing for thrills. The one time per year people care to try "rides", is usually at the county fairs. Just not that appealing, when you have things like rafting down the rivers etc. Theme parks are for bored people who don't have the huge expanse of good natural attractions like we do in Oregon.