A Final Ride Before the Wrecking Ball

“Some say that’s progress,

I say that’s cruel.”

- Midnight Oil, “Progress”

Raising my family in Southern California, we were surrounded by an abundance of theme parks. Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios were only about 20 minutes away. Continuing down the freeway, we would hit Knott's Berry Farm and then the king of all theme parks, Disneyland, along with its sister park, California Adventure. A couple more hours and a hotel room would give us access to Legoland and SeaWorld San Diego.

I carried my love of these parks over from my childhood and passed that love on to my kids. It was rare for us not to have season passes to at least one park. In times when escape was really needed, we would be at one park at opening, spend the day hopping between others, and then be in line for a ride as the closing announcement was made at another. Our car was usually sitting alone when we finally made it back to the parking lot at the end of the night.

After our move to the Pacific Northwest last year, dealing with a lack of amusement parks was one of the adjustments my family had to make. However, there were still some options available when we needed to get our fix.

Just ten minutes down the road from us is Wild Waves Theme & Water Park. Sitting right next to the I-5 freeway in Federal Way, the park's bright yellow Wild Thing roller coaster had been beckoning to me since I first visited my oldest daughter after her move to the state. On a work trip, I longingly stared at it each day as I passed while traveling between my work site and my hotel. It made me realize how spoiled I was in Los Angeles, where the weather allows parks to operate year-round.

Finally, during my 2024 trip up here to see Metallica, we found time for our first visit. As I bought the tickets online, an offer popped up for season passes for just a few dollars more. Knowing that we would be back up to visit my daughter's growing family, I took the bait.

We had no idea at the time how much we would get to use those tickets. In a life-changing move that came out of the blue, we ended up moving to Washington just as the park's season was getting underway. My daughters and I were frequent visitors, if only to stop by for a few hours to dip into the water park on a Sunday morning.

Even though it was once owned by Six Flags, Wild Waves had retained the feel of its origins as a family-owned park. Nestled within a wooded mountainside, it was mostly welcoming, if you ignore the blacktop area that serves as the transition from the water park to the ride area. Areas with decorations that appear to be made in-house add to the charm.

You can't visit a park like this and expect the mega-coasters that populate Six Flags or Cedar Fair parks, but there are thrills to be had. The Wild Thing is an Arrow Dynamics loop‑and‑corkscrew coaster with three inversions that has resided at the park since 1997. Timberhawk: Ride of Prey is one of only four wooden coasters built by S&S Worldwide, and only one of the others is still currently operating.

The park also has a healthy number of flat rides. They aren't as big as the ones back in California, but the sweeping view from the top of the drop tower can't be beat.

As we visited the park one last time before it closed for the season last Halloween, it felt like a good fit for our newly downsized life. Compared to what was available in California, a lot of the decorations were the kind you could buy at a Lowe's down the street, and the effects in the mazes were more high-school auditorium than movie-studio professional, but we were having a great time. We looked forward to creating memories at our new home park, as families in the Seattle area have been doing for nearly 50 years.

Just a few weeks later, news broke that the 2026 season will be this park's last.

This is the type of news that is being digested in many communities. Challenging finances in the post-COVID economy are preventing small parks from adding exciting new attractions. This, in turn, negatively affects attendance and puts further strain on their budgets. It is a death spiral that is difficult to recover from.

To add insult to injury, the plans under review by the city will replace the beloved family park with a warehouse more than one million square feet in size. There could not be a worse fit for the heavily wooded area. It makes me sad just thinking about the view from the freeway of kids carrying tubes up the stairs to the water slides being replaced by an oversized industrial box.

In trying to sell this replacement to the community, the developers are emphasizing the economic benefits. But warehouses in the modern era are notorious for the low number of humans they need to operate.

If approved, carloads of families headed for a day of fun will be replaced in the near future with trucks streaming into a suburban neighborhood, belching diesel exhaust. The Bird of Prey will fly no more, depriving fledgling coaster enthusiasts of their first experience of controlled chaos along its flight path. The wave pool, drained of its fun, will no longer provide a place for families to play together and bond.

Before the sun sets one last time on this family playground, I hope to take my grandsons for their first visit. At least we'll have that one last time to create memories before the wrecking ball arrives to stamp out fifty years of history.

“Riding the day, every day into sunset

Finding the way back home”

- Nightwish, “Last Ride of the Day”

Carl Petersen is a former Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board and a longtime advocate for public education and special needs families. Now based in Washington State, he writes about politics, culture, and their intersections at TheDifrntDrmr.