Grizzly River Run is a river rapids ride located at

Disney California Adventure Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...

at the

Disneyland Resort The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (Di ...

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. It is similar to

Kali River Rapids Kali River Rapids (originally named Tiger Rapids Run before opening) is a river rapids attraction at the Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park of the Walt Disney World resort, in the "Asia" area. It is themed as a rafting expedition along the Chakr ...

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, it is the l ...

but distinctive as the rafts are engineered to spin as they descend chutes. The attraction's name comes from Grizzly Peak, the bear-shaped mountain that the rapids flow around. It was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering. In 2015, the "Condor Flats" area in Disney California Adventure was merged with Grizzly Peak to become the Grizzly Peak Airfield.

History

On October 14, 1998, Disney announced that they would be constructing a brand new theme park next to

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

called Disney California Adventure. It would be themed after the history and culture of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and would feature various attractions, such as

California Screamin' Incredicoaster is a steel roller coaster at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California. Manufactured by Intamin, it opened to the public as California Screamin' in 2001. It is the only roller coaster at the Disneyland Resort with an in ...

, Soarin' and

Maliboomer The Maliboomer was an attraction at the Paradise Pier section of Disney California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, US. Manufactured by S&S Power, Mailboomer was a Space Shot attraction, meaning it launched guests from ...

. The park would also feature a river rapids ride named Grizzly River Run. This new ride would wrap around Grizzly Peak, a snarling bear-shaped mountain that served as the central icon for Disney California Adventure. Construction of the ride began in early 1999 when the mountain began rising. Grizzly River Run was completed on time for Disney California Adventure's grand opening on February 8, 2001. In November 2018, warming huts were added outside the attraction. Although they were removed shortly after.

Ride experience

Queue

The queue takes place in the fictional Grizzly River Rafting Company. The extended queue winds past an office that features a radio, a map of the river, a canoe, and a list of the various rapids on the river. Guests past various water buckets as they head to the loading station. As part of the park's major 2007–2012 refurbishment, the old queue that had been themed around extreme sports was replaced with an homage to California state parks, specifically after

Redwood Creek Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. Description The three redwood subfamily genera are '' Sequoia'' from coasta ...

and the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–S ...

. Elements that evoke the "golden age" of national parks are placed around the entrance, alluding to the wave of turn-of-the-century wildlife conservation.

Main ride

The raft trip around Grizzly Peak begins with the raft being lifted up a wooden conveyor that runs under leaking pipes that spray water on the riders. Upon reaching the top of the conveyor, the rafts are dropped into the water to be descended down the peak, passing through a cave and bumping against a log jam. The climax of the ride drops the rafts down into a geyser field. The final drop has a unique element in that the rafts are spun as they begin their descent. As with all flume-type rides, there must be a location to store or drain the water in the upper sections of the flumes when the pumps are shut down. The original plan was to create a large, underground basin beneath Grizzly Peak to hold water. This would have required costly excavation and construction. Upon looking at the final layout of California Adventure, it was noticed that the Pacific Wharf area of the park had a water element meant to simulate a tidal basin. The tidal basin is located across a walkway from Grizzly River Run and became the catch basin for water from the raft ride. The rise and fall of water in the tidal basin serves the dual purpose of providing a location to store water and being a scenic element that simulates a rising and falling tide.

References

External links