King Ghidorah
Roller Poster
Hi everyone. New guy here but have been a long, LONG time CF lurker. Great site, everyone here seems pretty cool. A little late here, but I figured the opening of a new local park was a good excuse for me to finally join CF and post a photo trip report.
Now this is basically just a small children's park, but for the first time in almost a century, my city (San Jose, CA) has an actual real credit! And despite it only being a small Miler family coaster, it's 1 of only 2 new for 2010 coasters in the entire western U.S., which makes it especially special! So I'll preface this report with a warning that this isn't a big coaster report, just an opportunity to show my new local park, will hopefully entice some of you to visit on your next credit hopping holiday to the San Francisco Bay Area.
And technically this was actually a re-opening/imagining of a local city-owned park that originally first opened back in 1961. After closing almost 2 years ago and $72 million US dollars (47,934,500 GBP) later, the park reopened to the public on the first day of spring, Saturday 20/03/10. If you have any interest in the park's history, there's a great article on their website: http://dev.hhpz.org/index.cfm/id/83/
Not much at all of the original park was left untouched, they pretty much scrapped everything and built a completely brand new park. The park was also built to become a LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified facility. According to U.S. Green Building Council, Happy Hollow Park & Zoo is now the first LEED certified Zoo and Amusement project in the entire United States. Green components such as green (growing) roofs with native plant species to provide habitat for wildlife, radiant flooring for cooling and heating of buildings - no HVAC in buildings, with the exception of the restaurant and part of the medical building, porous asphalt paving, sustainable storm water management - designed to keep all rainfall on site, clerestory windows in all buildings for lighting and heating & cooling are just a few of the Green improvements made during the transformation. If any interest in this aspect of the park, you can read more here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... z0iwc9y1pJ
Anyways, enough talk, onto the pictures. Don't have the best camera here and it takes even worse pics in crappy light, so these won't be the best, but will at least give you an idea of what the park has to offer. Here's the all new entrance plaza/ticket booths, with these cool little bronze-like critter statues all over
The first of many dragons in this report!
Cross-dressing rodents
And transvestite tortoises!
Park Map
Park mascot Danny the Dragon
More dragon love
One of the many new birthday rental areas
New food outlet
New barnyard critter area
aaawww!
The new landscaping throughout the entire park is also really well done, especially in the new Zoo areas
furries
Giggle Grove is the new rides area, here's a few of the offerings
The frog on top looked constipated!
The beautiful new "Keep Around Carousel" near the park entrance, featuring endangered animals, with a few mythical ones throw in for fun
My personal favorite, the dragon seahorse!
Just beautiful!
The Danny the Dragon ride, one of the few remains from the original park, completely redone
Trackless! (the driver doesn't actually "drive", Danny's guided by a wire imbedded in the concrete)
Lovin' the new dragon train!
And finally the all new coaster credit, Pacific Fruit Express
Unlike most coasters in California that are set up far away from the midway and guest access, the queue for PFE winds very closely in and around the coaster, providing great photo ops
Inside the station
First drop fun
Just really surprising how close you're allowed to get to it!
Here's the hill after the headchopper
A better view of the airtime hill
Into the twisty helix
And a few twisty hops back to the station
First drop POV
Helix POV
Would have been a great pic if not for the crappy lighting/camera
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the tour, thanks for reading everyone!
Now this is basically just a small children's park, but for the first time in almost a century, my city (San Jose, CA) has an actual real credit! And despite it only being a small Miler family coaster, it's 1 of only 2 new for 2010 coasters in the entire western U.S., which makes it especially special! So I'll preface this report with a warning that this isn't a big coaster report, just an opportunity to show my new local park, will hopefully entice some of you to visit on your next credit hopping holiday to the San Francisco Bay Area.
And technically this was actually a re-opening/imagining of a local city-owned park that originally first opened back in 1961. After closing almost 2 years ago and $72 million US dollars (47,934,500 GBP) later, the park reopened to the public on the first day of spring, Saturday 20/03/10. If you have any interest in the park's history, there's a great article on their website: http://dev.hhpz.org/index.cfm/id/83/
Not much at all of the original park was left untouched, they pretty much scrapped everything and built a completely brand new park. The park was also built to become a LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified facility. According to U.S. Green Building Council, Happy Hollow Park & Zoo is now the first LEED certified Zoo and Amusement project in the entire United States. Green components such as green (growing) roofs with native plant species to provide habitat for wildlife, radiant flooring for cooling and heating of buildings - no HVAC in buildings, with the exception of the restaurant and part of the medical building, porous asphalt paving, sustainable storm water management - designed to keep all rainfall on site, clerestory windows in all buildings for lighting and heating & cooling are just a few of the Green improvements made during the transformation. If any interest in this aspect of the park, you can read more here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... z0iwc9y1pJ
Anyways, enough talk, onto the pictures. Don't have the best camera here and it takes even worse pics in crappy light, so these won't be the best, but will at least give you an idea of what the park has to offer. Here's the all new entrance plaza/ticket booths, with these cool little bronze-like critter statues all over
The first of many dragons in this report!
Cross-dressing rodents
And transvestite tortoises!
Park Map
Park mascot Danny the Dragon
More dragon love
One of the many new birthday rental areas
New food outlet
New barnyard critter area
aaawww!
The new landscaping throughout the entire park is also really well done, especially in the new Zoo areas
furries
Giggle Grove is the new rides area, here's a few of the offerings
The frog on top looked constipated!
The beautiful new "Keep Around Carousel" near the park entrance, featuring endangered animals, with a few mythical ones throw in for fun
My personal favorite, the dragon seahorse!
Just beautiful!
The Danny the Dragon ride, one of the few remains from the original park, completely redone
Trackless! (the driver doesn't actually "drive", Danny's guided by a wire imbedded in the concrete)
Lovin' the new dragon train!
And finally the all new coaster credit, Pacific Fruit Express
Unlike most coasters in California that are set up far away from the midway and guest access, the queue for PFE winds very closely in and around the coaster, providing great photo ops
Inside the station
First drop fun
Just really surprising how close you're allowed to get to it!
Here's the hill after the headchopper
A better view of the airtime hill
Into the twisty helix
And a few twisty hops back to the station
First drop POV
Helix POV
Would have been a great pic if not for the crappy lighting/camera
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the tour, thanks for reading everyone!
