The 'Abandoned & Creepy' Flintstones Theme Parks: Bedrock City | Expedition Extinct

In the Arizona Desert exists a mysterious place where you can meet the Flintstones, the modern stone age family. This often thought of closed and abandoned, even creepy Theme Park that has existed for over 50 years. This was not the only Flintstones Theme Park, but the second following on from the also abandoned location in South Dakota.

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[katniptimeme]

This made me cry. My family went to the grand canyon in 1975. We stopped at the Bedrock theme park. It was an epically insane month long summer vacation trip. My mom. my grandfather, my 3 brothers and me (the bratty sister) in 1/4 ton pick up with a canopy shell. No A/C in the back and forced to ride on the wheel well. I hated every moment.
Now, all these year later, I'm the only one left. I miss them all and choose to remember the good things. The Flintstone's park visit is one of those memories.
Thanks for the memories.

[EccentricGentelman]

What I find bizarre is that, out of all these parks, none of them had a bowling ally or a working recreation of the Bedrock drive-in theatre. I would think those would be two obvious choices when creating a Flintstones theme park.

[CaptainGrackle]

I went to the Arizona park in 2015 and it was wild. We were the only people in the diner and the park. Being all alone in the middle of a desert on a gray, cold January day surrounded by decaying Flintstones decor was quite the experience. Imagine all the quiet and solitude of a hike combined with the feeling of exploring the Fallout New Vegas map.

My friend did crawl through the snake. He regretted it instantly.

[alyricaldream]

I love the way you included the family’s story! It makes it so compelling

[TAddy-wqhg]

My family used to stay almost exclusively at kitschy themed campgrounds while traveling in the 2000's and early 2010's and they never stop being fun. America needs to bring kitsch and tackiness back in a fun, big way.

[TheUberdude]

Much respect to the new ranch for keeping the history intact

[MadGodLA]

Visited the AZ park several times as a kid. The one thing you can’t see in pictures is how HOT everything is because cement absorbs heat. It was super fun being a little kid running around to each building after a long road trip and getting lightly burned by each sculpture when you tried to take a picture next to them

[gtm]

That warms my heart that they decided to keep what they could from the original attraction. With so many greedy developers they don’t care about anything but money. Nice to see a different approach.

[rasmusdegn]

Never has the Expedition Extinct logo been more appropriate.

[sportscentral]

I’m from Australia and we travelled to America in 1975. I was 5 years old and remember going to the park. We spent a couple of days exploring the Grand Canyon then we saw the park while driving past. I have a heap of great photos. We were there for only a couple of hours and as a 5 year old I thought The Flinstones were real! Much better time to be a kid than now. That is for sure. Seeing this video brought back so many great memories.

[Zizumia]

I passed the Arizona one when driving up to the Grand Canyon. It was really run down, the paint was faded, everything was dusty. But it was great to experience an old school "Route 66"-like attraction. Glad the new owners decided to keep this piece of history.

[taliats]

What an endearing story. I have never been a huge fan of the Flintstones but it is nice to see a rare happy ending for these old attractions.

[Sicksikmans]

As a Dutch person the news of a Flintstones Themepark in the Netherlands was new to me, so I had to look it up. Apparently, there was a small 'Bedrock City' at the Pier of Scheveningen (near the Hague) at the Childerns play area called Schateiland (Treasure Island). This was in 1965, where you could drive around in the stone age vehicles and there were Fred and Barney figures. Some remember them being animatronics, but I could only find pictures of people in suits and still standing figurines. This park was only open for the 1965 summer season.

[Willenator]

My family visited the one in South Dakota back in the late 90's. I remember thinking it was the greatest thing ever as a kid. This video brought back some memories.

[viknightingale]

I think it's amazing that the new owners kept Bedrock as apart of their experience. There was a theme park I used to go to called Storyland; the road it was built on is still named after it. It was so freaky, being out in the forests of Ontario and having this whole theme park based on story book characters. It felt like you were far away from civilization and in a weird fantasy storybook world. Now, it's a glamp ground and all the items were auctioned off. I feel like if they kept parts of its history, it would be nice, but I'm not even sure if they did. Gotta cherish these places while they last.

[Inurantchan]

I remember being so happy to hear that the new owners had seen what the place meant to people and decided to keep it. I've know about it for several decades of my life and was sad when the original closed. I really want to see one of them before its gone too, and even with it looking run down I'd really enjoy it. Hell I'd offer to help paint it if they let volunteers do that, it's worth keeping it looking nice.

[staffy]

Omg the costumes with the black soulless eyes!!! Absolutely terrifying 😮

[cherieakckerman]

I went to the original South Dakota location in 1969. This video brought up a lot of fun memories! I was seven years old and we were driving back home to San Diego from our families farm in Wisconsin. My dad was started driving and wanted to stop for a break. And a few minutes later, I saw the sign for bedrock city and asked my dad if we could take our break there. We took a break there until the next day😂
I remember my favorite thing I did there was go down Dino slide about 100 times😂

[Sparty-pijq]

Speaking of roadside attractions, I was driving x country with my then teenage daughter and I excitedly woke her up at 3am to see the world's largest ball of twine and she threw a shoe at me. I took it as a polite, no thank you Dad, I'd rather sleep. 😂