If we’re not on a plane, we’re in our car, driving either to or from Las Vegas on Interstate 15, to or from a Zuffa show, and we pass by skeletons of grand ideas, quiet, abandoned, burned.  Last time, we stopped to snap photos of a burned semi (which is still there, two months later), and this time we finally stopped at Rock-a-Hoola, a seemingly once-fun waterpark just before the California Inspection booths when heading south.  I’d always meant to stop here since I started driving this route.  I finally got my chance and stopped at another destroyed house on the way.

We wandered the grounds and took photos for a long while, long enough to feel the sun want to leave us.  I think my favorite thing about these photos is that I can tell it is winter.  The waterpark’s slides were long shipped off to some other aquatic amusement, I believe in Canada.  The place looks particularly sad with the empty frames dotting the hillside.  I wonder if the spring that inspired this place still had water, if Lake Dolores was still around.  We didn’t have too much time, but I’ll make this drive again in two weeks and maybe I’ll stop to find out.

As we were wrapping up in the park, I saw a truck pull up into the parking lot beside our car.  We walked back, hoping not to hear, “Hey! You’re trespassing!” and instead heard, “Hey, are you the owners of this place?” I laughed, relieved, “No, no, just stopped to take some pictures.”

Hope you enjoy the pictures from our detour after UFC 108.