Image via YouTube
For a short time, Knott's Berry Farm was as much about dinosaurs as it was about Peanuts characters, fried chicken dinners and berry jam.
It's time once again to revel in the days gone by with an attraction many who visited Southern California from 1987 to 2004 might remember, Kingdom of the Dinosaurs.
I for one can still remember with fondness the wacky, high-pitched warnings of a professor exclaiming, "You're going back in time!" as you meander slowly into the abyss of the famed dark ride.
For those who don't recall the ride, we hope to remedy that here with a piece of warm nostalgia pie.
First, let's take a look at a couple of commercials, the first of which boasts a ride that would scare the pajamas off of you.
Then there was this commercial, which promised kids in the area would get free dinosaur calendar with admission. But stick around for a bumper to one of the best cartoons ever created: "The Real Ghostbusters."
Now if you can't quite remember the exact plot of the ride, the Internet has been a treasure trove in kick starting the memories.
A Bear-ytales blog entry is one of the more complete, offering images along with descriptions of each point of the unforgettable ride.
The LA Times put it simply, when reporting on the theme park's latest ride: "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs took riders on a time-traveling journey from 1920s Los Angeles to the prehistoric era. Filled with animatronic figures, the realistic and majestic dark ride included a Tyrannosaurus rex, brontosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus and a 32-foot-long apatosaurus."
Then again, you could always just hop in the way-back machine that is YouTube:
If you enjoy your rides with some shtick, enjoy this video with Gary Owens and Eric Boardman.
And, of course, before dinosaurs ruled the theme park, a Bear-y Tales ride resided at that specific park location:
As the LA Times reports, the former dark rides have been washed away by a more immersive experience with a new 4D ride.
Voyage to the Iron Reef offers far more engagement for visitors, but there is something endearing about slowly moving animatronic dinosaurs.
We can't help but keep a space open in our heart for a slow, sensible ride back in time to the age of now extinct monsters and beasts.
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