I used to be a Ride Operator on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs (1990-1991). There’s a TON of stuff going on in that ride no one knows about,…well,…sort of. 😂 First, most don’t realize they’re being watched. We always had 3 strategically placed employees in different spots throughout the ride. We all had 30 min shifts & were almost hidden completely. I saw a lot of kissing & folks “gettin busy” - usually as the nights would wind down! Of course we were supposed to stop or break that stuff up. I just never had the heart to do it! 😂 We also each had walkie-talkies and “emergency shut off” switches hooked to our belts (in case a kid fell out, people did something to the Dinosaurs, were fighting, etc.). The emergency remotes looked like old garage door opener remotes on a car visor - and would stop the ride immediately! The Operator up front would radio in - ask what was up - get an “all clear” & the ride was back up and running! (All three spots are below - if anyone is bored or cares - and who knows maybe you can see one!). Ice age: This was the 1st “lookout” & was ALWAYS F*CKIN FREEZING COLD🥶! (We would sit on the RHS, just before the left turn at the “Geico Caveman”). “Tall Ass Hill”: Next, you’d get “bumped” to your 2nd post - which is near the top of the big hill & on the RHS covered in plants & vines - (i.e. where the professor says “I’ve got you turned back around!”) which will be forever engrained in my head. 😑 All positions were placed well throughout the ride, but the last one was the best & hardest to see. Towards the end of the ride (on the right) is the Triceratops & T-Rex fight scene. As the cars turn right towards the Dinos,…we were seated in this tiny spot on the LHS that was literally CARVED INTO THE WALL. That way,…if anyone tried to mess with the “T-Tops” or “Rex” 🦖 IT WAS ON! Basically,…we’d just scare the hell outta them with our high powered flashlights 🔦and the Operator up front was tasked with telling them not to come back on the ride - or they’d be tossed from the park! 😆 Most ride operators HATED working on KOTD. All in all, I really liked it. (Mostly because I had a serious crush on an OLDER WOMAN 😳 I worked with! (I was 16 & she was 17 😂). If you’ve made it this far - thx for reading! Hope you could feel the nostalgia of “easier times” in my diatribe. Peace & God Bless! ✌️😏
Lol I found out a funny lesson as I stood or tried to touch a scorpion in the tunnel and felt a hand on my shoulder gesturing me to sit down so when ride finished and they asked did we want to get off we said no so as going in that tunnel saw to the side a well disguised walkway and someone sitting on a chair to the side so that must have been the security guard hiding and watching lmao😂.
Someone should get a petition together with signatures to get the Kingdom of Dinosaurs back and restored with new creatures. I always loved this ride and I remember riding it over and over at Knotts back in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
I'm down to 3D model it all. We already have all of the original concept art and facility layouts for the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. I'm sure someone has access to the original audio tapes, or we at the very least could recreate all of the audio. Let's see if people would fund a VR experience in Unreal or Unity, then distribute it on Steam! Maybe an IOS or Google Cardboard version for mobile VR.
Brother Micheal… I DO NOT disagree w/ ya one iota‼️‼️‼️ Before we were married, my first/now ex-wife (but STILL very good friends) & I went to Knott’s Berry Farm on our first date. We must’ve went on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs like, 3x- 1.) For the first time ever; 2.) Because we were just chillin’; & 3.) We we’re makin’ out the entire third time (third one’s a charm I guess)…😁. Good memories. Afraid I missed Journey to the Iron Reef, and the new Beary Tales: Return to the Fair doesn’t hold a candle to the former…☹️. For our honeymoon, my new wife & I, as well as my 3 kids (all grown up now & doing well in life) & my daughter’s 2 adopted kids went to USH this past summer, but unfortunately, didn’t get around to getting back to KBF.
The song when you enter the realm of the dino's almost brings tears to my eyes. Rides like this is what caught my 9 year old imagination and got me loving dinosaurs
This video takes me back to the days when I started my journey on Knott's Bear-y Tales and this ride. Great times and I remember uploading the Bear-y Tales under the video responses to this video. God I feel old... The one thing I do wanna see years later that remains unfulfilled is the soundtrack to this ride. Man, I would pay someone over a Grand just to find it.
Watching this makes me miss the late 1980s early 1990s time period when I lived in LA and used to go to Knotts Berryfarm to ride this ride all the time. Sigh.
I can't believe this ride is really gone. :'( I remember when I was 4 I used to make my grandma take me on this ride 5+ times in a row. It's so sad to know that it's really gone.
Makes me wish I were smart enough to build a time machine like Doc Brown in Back to the Future then I could ride this fun and sentimental ride again. I need a time machine to ride a time travel ride, LOL. This was always one of my favorite rides.
If I have enough money someday I would buy Knott's Berry Farm and bring back this classic ride with some added scenes and characters. I always loved this ride!
You would have to persuade Ceder Fair parks to sell it to you, at least as of today. That will take some major convincing, maybe even over paying for it's value. Sadly, the Knott family sold it to Ceder Fair sometime in the early 2000's which they renamed it Knott's but, Knott's Berry Farm stuck with all the locals so they changed it back. A little story, Walter Disney's Disneyland would never have existed if it was not for Walter Knott (Creator of Knott's Berry Farm) and Mrs. Knott (I always known her as Mrs. Knott, never by her first name). If anyone is interested, hit me up and I will tell you the rest of the story but rather than bombard everyone with ancient history, I'll just let it go at that.
I miss this ride. I absolutely LOVED this ride as a kid. It was fantastic! Slow, yes, but incredibly cool! My favorite part was the beginning where you hear the constant chiming of the clock as you move through the laboratory and go back in time. Very ominous and sci-fi-ish. This ride was also very educational. I learned about evolution from this ride! *sigh* They need to bring these kinds of rides back.
This was my favorite ride at Knott’s when I was a kid. It’s too bad they shut it down. For some reason, the bicycle at 0:42 always fascinated me. After this ride closed, that was one of the few things that stood out in my mind. I wonder if it still exists somewhere.
Wow! I've been looking all over the place trying to find a video of this ride! Kingdom of the Dinosaurs used to be one of my favorite attractions at Knott's, apart from the Calico Mine Train. I don't much like thrill rides, so this was one of the only rides I enjoyed. I'm so sad it's gone. I love that mysterious flute music that plays when you first encounter the dinosaurs. Very cool!
SIGN the petition, if you want this ride and KBT to return as one ride, then sign. your support is needed to convince cedar fair, once and for all, that they need to take care of knotts professionally. there will be a new ride system, pre show, and new special effects. also, old and new animatronics.
This ride used to break-down every time I rode it in 2002-2003, I remember the ride getting stuck in the dinosaur part and seeing a huge dino head right over my face for many minutes :P
I remember being very fond of this ride in the 90s, but it was starting to get a little rundown by 2000. It seems like the maintenance wasn't kept up on the ride after a while. I remember one time the T-Rex did not have eyes. For some reason there was just this hollow sockets for eyes T-Rex an operation. It startled me but my mom downplayed it pretty well.
I miss this ride so much : ( ...this is such a classic from my childhood! This ride was infamous for people getting out of the cars while the ride was going haha. I remember during Halloween Haunt two years in a row some girls jumped out of their car to join my buddies and I in our car. Ahh the late 90's/early 2000's when you could still get away with shit. You're going the wrong way! (flails arms around hilariously)
Thank you so much for uploading this video takes me back to when i was a toddler. This is one of the greatest rides ever made cant believe they closed it down... i wish i could Download it
The building is still standing. The downstairs area is an arcade, like it always has been. I don't know how much is left upstairs of the old ride, but there's plenty of room for a new dark ride if they want to gut the building and start fresh. Knott's seems more interested in coasters now, though, so it's hard to say if they'll ever do anything ith this space.
My favorite ride at Knotts Berry Farm. Brings me so much nostalgic memories as kid during first and only visits to the theme park. But now that it's extinct, I don't see any point coming back. It's not the same. 🦖🦕🦣🦤
Thanks for posting this footage. This brings back so many cherished memories of when I used to go to Knott's Berry Farm as a kid every Summer. It's sad that they tore shut down this ride.
Thank you very much for uploading this video. It really brings back wonderful memories from when I was growing up. I was sad watching the full ride through, it feels as if I was riding it myself.
I remember this ride having a very museum feel to it. I haven't been to Knott's in over 12 years only cause I personally think the park is small and the rides suck. Don't hate me, I just think Disneyland and Six Flags have a lot more to offer.
yeah, you're lucky this was the 2001 recording, if you saw it during it's final years you'd get a better idea of why the thing was shut down. They put the individual carts together (7 in a row), added seat belts, added more people to check to make sure everyone stayed in, and they even had a checkpoint in the middle so they could see that you were wearing their seat belts. I haven't the slightest idea why, but that really ruined it for me.
I used to have dreams about this ride where the professor got up out of his chair and chased me through the ride. That is a dream I had in about 1995, 1996 or possibly 1997.
Really sad for me when I went yesterday only to find this ride was gone. Made even more nostalgic by the fact that I looked up above right above the laser tag sign and I could still see the Sabertooth tiger sign.
Actually I remember in 1996 when I dreamed that I rode a version of this ride where you went through scenes of construction, a blend between this ride and the min cart ride and the king kong ride at Universal and the Dr anamatronic got up out of his chair and was following and dance walking around you as you rode through the ride. This was one of three dreams I had of this ride that is how much I liked it.
the iron reef ride is there. and when it first opened. i noticed alot if the ride was not gutted out. if you step on certain parts of the rug from waiting in line you cqn notice the rails for the ride is still there. i actaully fell over them while waiting because there was a huge bump in the carpet. so the original ride is still there. you also might not think so but the iron reef never used all the space for the ride. there is a hidden door which leads to items left behind from the ride. also if you want to find old stuff from the ride go behind the sherrifs office in the main street of ghost town there is a storage house with some stuff from the ride. i have discovered it recently. and my mum has confirmed that they are old stuff from the ride.
Theres a door when you standing in line in the big room where you learn the backstory of the ride. There is spare space back there. Theres extra stprage over there. Also i found recently that they sold some of the dinosaur stuff at a auction. They also kept the beary tales characters in the local barn. The barn is located across the old school house. Sometimes they turn on the machine to have memories of the old ride
+AlTheGameFreak also another thing. there is a employee area out on ghost town. if you head back there, there is another storage area. right now as far as i can tell they have 2 skeletons in the windows. they are holding stuff in there from a ride that was like a long ago. i cant tell what ride excatly but it looks old. im guessing from this ride (video) or even older than that. also they have a bear thing inside but im not sure if its from beary tales. when i go to knotts again i will find out for you. i should be going next saturday. so wait until then. :D
I was talking to an employee that I knew from Knott's Scary Farm. Apparently the building is one giant hazard. When it rains, the ceiling leaks, and there are puddles of black mold that form all over the place.
this ride was the best, i remember when i was a kid this was my fav ride at Knott's i would want to go on this ride first every time and when i got older i still liked it up in till it was removed. i wish some one would bring it back
I can't believe I used to be scared of this ride. When I was little I thought this ride was a coaster and did loops and stuff. Now I wish it really did, that sound so much more fun.
I went on the ride many times in the 90s, and even during the summer it was always a walk-on. I used to ride five times in one visit. But connecting all the cars into "trains" was complete idiocy. Disneyland and DisneyWorld have omnimover rides and have never had to do that. They just bring the whole ride to a stop when someone needs assistance boarding.
i miss this ride so much. i always remember it and with all the trips i take to disneyland with all of its "dark rides" it makes me want to ride this. :(
Seeing and enjoying this ride makes me wish I were smart enough to build a working time machine. I would go back to the 1990's just to ride this ride, yeah I thought it was that awesome and worth while!
Well, there are two sides to that coin... Maybe the time machine has been invented in the future but you would think that we would see the future earthling at one time or another. Then again, convert millenniums into minutes or even seconds, this individual(s) may have chosen a time before you were born or after you have died. Besides, just like 2000 years ago, someone who had Schizophrenia was considered to have a demon in him or her, we would just count him as a mental patient or crackpot today and have him committed to where he would not be able to get to his time machine that he hid in the deserts of the middle east where in the year 3015, there is a bustling casino town called Las Iraq or Atlantic Afghanistan.
You should see the state of the inside of the attraction now. It's pretty sad. Professor Wells is now nothing but a torso, one arm, and one leg. The dinosaurs are disintegrating down to their machinery, the walls have been stripped, countless places have been tagged by disrespectful employees. It's just tragic.
Wow when we used to come here I would always want to go on this ride. *sigh* those were great times...but now we find that Knott's is more for younger kids now lol.
This defintely being back memories of the Old Knotts as a child... and whats strange about me saying this... I am only 21... yeah... a lot of changes at Knotts have been made since I was a kid and not all of them were for the better! This ride was a classic, and what is it used for now... storage space for Haunt props... and now cedar fair has taken out all the good stuff, reflection lake, the chapel, the cemetary, the haunted shack, the soap box racers (actually the Knott family did that one)
Oh memories! I remember this ride. I used to scream whenever the electricity went off for the time travelling, because I was afraid I would never come back. (Travelling through time is freaky.) Nonetheless, they took out the best ride in that damn park. ;_; (At least they still have the Calico Mine Ride.)
I always used to enjoy riding this ride on loops over and over again when the park was not very crowded! I never had to get off. I think I rode this ride about 9 or ten times in a row.
I totally forgot about that... yeah, they would lets us just go for rides over and over... I seem to remember they gave us like a 20 time limit though. Haha!
good lord, i remember being a kid and my mom took me to Knotts scary farm, they did this ride up with monsters and people inside, scared the crap out of me. Loved this ride however.
I remember riding this with my cousins and my grandma every year, we also loved it and fought over what the dinosaurs were, I believe the set is rotting right now, that's what happened to the Submarine Voyage at Disneyland.
This ride was one of those rides that I really enjoyed at Knotts when I was younger. It reminded me of the type of ride that you'd find only at Disneyland. Unfortunately, most of the rides now at Knotts are roller-coaster and thrill rides. While they still have the log ride (which is another one of my favorites) it's sad to this one gone. While I doubt we will ever see it again, although it would be nice, hopefully down the road Knotts will bring in a few more rides in the future to the old Dinosaur ride from the past. While roller coaster rides are always fun... it's nice to see rides similar to Disney's the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.... but then again... I guess that's what makes Disneyland, Disneyland. Although I would like Knotts to offer similar attractions and not only Six Flags style rides.
This is one of my all time favorite rides. Reminds me of my childhood. Going to knots like 4 times a year every year lol. I went on this ride soo many times. I even remember when the big TRex had his eye missing lol and it was like that for like 5 years lol.
Ahh I just went this Sunday 3/16/14 and found out it was not working no more memories this ride was perfect to relax hug the girlfriend miss the music it play through out the ride just really sad to see it gone memories memories my wife ask why are you so sad to see it gone I said ahh I miss the dinosaurs lol
love the music that comes in at 5:14! fond memories of this as a kid.... reminds me alot of disneyland...the ride before this (bear-y tales) was created by an old disney employee....and also there was talks of disney buying knotts in 97? its a shame they didnt because we might still have this ride and many others
wow i used to love this ride so much. the last time i went on it was during Halloween Haunt in 2003, then i went again last yr and it was gone. :( i remember going on this when it was first opened as a little kid.
I can only imagine what this attraction could have been like if they had updated it rather than scrapping the whole thing. This was in my opinion the best attraction at Knotts and is a shame that they got rid of it. Just listen to the soundtrack how wonderful it is, it always gave me chills. They had a golden opportunity to create something similar to Dinosaur at WDW but they chose to do nothing. Haven't been back to knotts unpurposely since they decided to close this I wont be back.
When I went to the park as a little kid, this ride scared the shit out of me. When I went back to the park when I was older I eagerly searched for this ride. I looked around the entire park until I came to realize that they took it down. Damn disappointing, especially since the ride was still listed on the map so I was given false hope.
I remember I went on this ride a long time ago when I was little and we got stuck right near the the saber tooth tiger, it was so scary cuz the music kept playing and all the animals kept making noises and there was just a bunch of yellow and red eyes stairing at us, it was so creepy!
I remember beary tales, but never heard of Tim Van Gorder..Yeah dinosaur ride ended due to a lawsuit. My grandfather knew a manager there, and he told us the story on what happened during a family event. The lawsuit caused the ride to Connect all of the carts together, and it became to much of a hassle, and people started to complain due to the frequent stops of loading and unloading..I heard the guy got millions. Bastard took one of my favorite rides away as a kid.
I guess I know what I would do if I won the power ball or huge lottery. I would buy Knott's Berry Farm, I always loved this theme park. It's one of my favorites.
The ride is still officially closed. I work at Knotts, I managed to slip into the ride area during my break; It appears that they attempted to disassemble the ride after they closed it, because massive parts of the laboratory have been removed. Most of the Ice Age area has been completely removed as well; save the last part just before the dinosaurs (the area with the wooly mammoth sinking).
My mom used to work at the Knott's Family Steak House and so I got to go to Knott's quite often... and there would never be a trip that goes by that I would not hit this ride. It is cool and very informative, although as a kid you don't see it as that way. To be honest, I didn't fully understand the center strobe tunnel (going back in time further) until maybe the last year I got to go on it just before they closed it. Anyways, I was talking to one of the employees and he might have either slipped or intentionally let the cat out of the bag on the real reason it closed but he told me that the real reason was... teenagers was doing shameful things while riding that ride. Maybe not so shameful since as you get on, you can clearly see about 40 monitors that showed various areas of the ride which means there was at least forty (maybe more that was not so much obvious or in the back room) night vision cameras in there... the moron's But, what a story to tell your kid that he was, eh hem, chosen to become existed, 38 million years ago.
Chad Bronswick Disney does not accept behavior like that. I had a friend that worked on the Haunted Mansion for years and while he said people did try that they managed to tag those people at the end of the ride and punish them appropriately, which was usually a talk with security and a warning about being removed from the park. The reason the dinosaur ride was shut down was not enough foot traffic and the ridiculous amounts of asbestos, which is toxic and costly to fix for a ride that no longer had a lot of attention in the first place.
@0mikr0n I dont think you really needed to be old to enjoy the kingdom of the dinosaurs ride or appreciate it, when i was like 3-4 years old i loved the ride didnt go back to the park until i was about 7-8 ( I live in a different state I have family in southern california) and it was gone and i was pretty bummed didnt find out the name until now
Oh, and I was a bit nervous at first but then I got used to walking around in there. I'm not very superstitious, my only worries involved injuring myself (because if I got hurt, no one would find me). Oh! I also found out that the park's local cat population uses it as a hideout / home; I saw a few of them in there. If you didn't know, the park has quite a few wild housecats. Next time you go, keep an eye out for them. They're often more visible during less-busy days for the park.
I used to be a Ride Operator on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs (1990-1991).
There’s a TON of stuff going on in that ride no one knows about,…well,…sort of. 😂
First, most don’t realize they’re being watched. We always had 3 strategically placed employees in different spots throughout the ride.
We all had 30 min shifts & were almost hidden completely. I saw a lot of kissing & folks “gettin busy” - usually as the nights would wind down! Of course we were supposed to stop or break that stuff up. I just never had the heart to do it! 😂
We also each had walkie-talkies and “emergency shut off” switches hooked to our belts (in case a kid fell out, people did something to the Dinosaurs, were fighting, etc.).
The emergency remotes looked like old garage door opener remotes on a car visor - and would stop the ride immediately!
The Operator up front would radio in - ask what was up - get an “all clear” & the ride was back up and running! (All three spots are below - if anyone is bored or cares - and who knows maybe you can see one!).
Ice age: This was the 1st “lookout” & was ALWAYS F*CKIN FREEZING COLD🥶! (We would sit on the RHS, just before the left turn at the “Geico Caveman”).
“Tall Ass Hill”: Next, you’d get “bumped” to your 2nd post - which is near the top of the big hill & on the RHS covered in plants & vines - (i.e. where the professor says “I’ve got you turned back around!”) which will be forever engrained in my head. 😑
All positions were placed well throughout the ride, but the last one was the best & hardest to see. Towards the end of the ride (on the right) is the Triceratops & T-Rex fight scene.
As the cars turn right towards the Dinos,…we were seated in this tiny spot on the LHS that was literally CARVED INTO THE WALL.
That way,…if anyone tried to mess with the “T-Tops” or “Rex” 🦖 IT WAS ON!
Basically,…we’d just scare the hell outta them with our high powered flashlights 🔦and the Operator up front was tasked with telling them not to come back on the ride - or they’d be tossed from the park! 😆
Most ride operators HATED working on KOTD. All in all, I really liked it. (Mostly because I had a serious crush on an OLDER WOMAN 😳 I worked with! (I was 16 & she was 17 😂).
If you’ve made it this far - thx for reading! Hope you could feel the nostalgia of “easier times” in my diatribe. Peace & God Bless! ✌️😏
Lol I found out a funny lesson as I stood or tried to touch a scorpion in the tunnel and felt a hand on my shoulder gesturing me to sit down so when ride finished and they asked did we want to get off we said no so as going in that tunnel saw to the side a well disguised walkway and someone sitting on a chair to the side so that must have been the security guard hiding and watching lmao😂.
It's kind of ironic that I need a real life time machine to ride a ride about time travel!
Someone should get a petition together with signatures to get the Kingdom of Dinosaurs back and restored with new creatures. I always loved this ride and I remember riding it over and over at Knotts back in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
Maybe a VR 1:1 recreation.
I'm down to 3D model it all. We already have all of the original concept art and facility layouts for the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. I'm sure someone has access to the original audio tapes, or we at the very least could recreate all of the audio. Let's see if people would fund a VR experience in Unreal or Unity, then distribute it on Steam! Maybe an IOS or Google Cardboard version for mobile VR.
Brother Micheal…
I DO NOT disagree w/ ya one iota‼️‼️‼️
Before we were married, my first/now ex-wife (but STILL very good friends) & I went to Knott’s Berry Farm on our first date. We must’ve went on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs like, 3x-
1.) For the first time ever;
2.) Because we were just chillin’;
&
3.) We we’re makin’ out the entire third time (third one’s a charm I guess)…😁.
Good memories.
Afraid I missed Journey to the Iron Reef, and the new Beary Tales: Return to the Fair doesn’t hold a candle to the former…☹️.
For our honeymoon, my new wife & I, as well as my 3 kids (all grown up now & doing well in life) & my daughter’s 2 adopted kids went to USH this past summer, but unfortunately, didn’t get around to getting back to KBF.
HELL YES!!!
The song when you enter the realm of the dino's almost brings tears to my eyes. Rides like this is what caught my 9 year old imagination and got me loving dinosaurs
This video takes me back to the days when I started my journey on Knott's Bear-y Tales and this ride. Great times and I remember uploading the Bear-y Tales under the video responses to this video. God I feel old...
The one thing I do wanna see years later that remains unfulfilled is the soundtrack to this ride. Man, I would pay someone over a Grand just to find it.
Watching this makes me miss the late 1980s early 1990s time period when I lived in LA and used to go to Knotts Berryfarm to ride this ride all the time. Sigh.
I can't believe this ride is really gone. :'( I remember when I was 4 I used to make my grandma take me on this ride 5+ times in a row. It's so sad to know that it's really gone.
One of my favorite rides I rode back when I used to live in Long Beach, CA and would visit Knotts a few times a year.
Makes me wish I were smart enough to build a time machine like Doc Brown in Back to the Future then I could ride this fun and sentimental ride again. I need a time machine to ride a time travel ride, LOL. This was always one of my favorite rides.
this was my favorite, i miss the 90s man
If I have enough money someday I would buy Knott's Berry Farm and bring back this classic ride with some added scenes and characters. I always loved this ride!
You would have to persuade Ceder Fair parks to sell it to you, at least as of today. That will take some major convincing, maybe even over paying for it's value. Sadly, the Knott family sold it to Ceder Fair sometime in the early 2000's which they renamed it Knott's but, Knott's Berry Farm stuck with all the locals so they changed it back. A little story, Walter Disney's Disneyland would never have existed if it was not for Walter Knott (Creator of Knott's Berry Farm) and Mrs. Knott (I always known her as Mrs. Knott, never by her first name). If anyone is interested, hit me up and I will tell you the rest of the story but rather than bombard everyone with ancient history, I'll just let it go at that.
I miss this ride. I absolutely LOVED this ride as a kid. It was fantastic! Slow, yes, but incredibly cool! My favorite part was the beginning where you hear the constant chiming of the clock as you move through the laboratory and go back in time. Very ominous and sci-fi-ish. This ride was also very educational. I learned about evolution from this ride! *sigh* They need to bring these kinds of rides back.
This was my favorite ride at Knott’s when I was a kid. It’s too bad they shut it down. For some reason, the bicycle at 0:42 always fascinated me. After this ride closed, that was one of the few things that stood out in my mind. I wonder if it still exists somewhere.
Wow! I've been looking all over the place trying to find a video of this ride! Kingdom of the Dinosaurs used to be one of my favorite attractions at Knott's, apart from the Calico Mine Train. I don't much like thrill rides, so this was one of the only rides I enjoyed. I'm so sad it's gone. I love that mysterious flute music that plays when you first encounter the dinosaurs. Very cool!
Still can't believe this ride is gone💔. I get major nostalgia watching this 😭
I miss it 💖
SIGN the petition, if you want this ride and KBT to return as one ride, then sign. your support is needed to convince cedar fair, once and for all, that they need to take care of knotts professionally. there will be a new ride system, pre show, and new special effects. also, old and new animatronics.
This ride used to break-down every time I rode it in 2002-2003, I remember the ride getting stuck in the dinosaur part and seeing a huge dino head right over my face for many minutes :P
Best way to cool off during a long day at Knott's.
The dinosaurs were SO COOL!!
I can remember what it smelled like in there! It was my favorite ride ever!
Im 20 and i never get tired of that ride.
I remember being very fond of this ride in the 90s, but it was starting to get a little rundown by 2000.
It seems like the maintenance wasn't kept up on the ride after a while. I remember one time the T-Rex did not have eyes. For some reason there was just this hollow sockets for eyes T-Rex an operation. It startled me but my mom downplayed it pretty well.
I always liked this ride. It helps to go on this ride after you eat to let your stomach settle.
I miss this ride so much : ( ...this is such a classic from my childhood! This ride was infamous for people getting out of the cars while the ride was going haha. I remember during Halloween Haunt two years in a row some girls jumped out of their car to join my buddies and I in our car. Ahh the late 90's/early 2000's when you could still get away with shit. You're going the wrong way! (flails arms around hilariously)
"Your going back TIME! to the ICE AGE" lol my friends and I used that one for years. This was fun ride.
Thank you so much for uploading this video takes me back to when i was a toddler. This is one of the greatest rides ever made cant believe they closed it down... i wish i could Download it
This was the one ride i always looked forward to whenever we went to knotts when I was a kid
The building is still standing. The downstairs area is an arcade, like it always has been. I don't know how much is left upstairs of the old ride, but there's plenty of room for a new dark ride if they want to gut the building and start fresh.
Knott's seems more interested in coasters now, though, so it's hard to say if they'll ever do anything ith this space.
My favorite ride at Knotts Berry Farm. Brings me so much nostalgic memories as kid during first and only visits to the theme park. But now that it's extinct, I don't see any point coming back. It's not the same. 🦖🦕🦣🦤
i wish this ride was still there so i can experience that magical feeling once more. i miss this ride especially since i have always loved dinosaurs.
omg I miss this ride so much I have been looking EVERYWHERE for a ride through--thank you SO much
Aw, that bring back so many happy memories. I'm so sad it's closed :(
Thanks for posting this footage. This brings back so many cherished memories of when I used to go to Knott's Berry Farm as a kid every Summer. It's sad that they tore shut down this ride.
Thank you very much for uploading this video. It really brings back wonderful memories from when I was growing up. I was sad watching the full ride through, it feels as if I was riding it myself.
This ride was almost like a moving museum exhibit to me seeing all the creatures from the prehistoric age
I REALLY miss this ride. It was always my favorite ride.
I remember this ride having a very museum feel to it. I haven't been to Knott's in over 12 years only cause I personally think the park is small and the rides suck. Don't hate me, I just think Disneyland and Six Flags have a lot more to offer.
Best family memories ever with this ride
this was my all time favorite ride as a child
I MISS THIS :( ♥♥ Fav ride
yeah, you're lucky this was the 2001 recording, if you saw it during it's final years you'd get a better idea of why the thing was shut down. They put the individual carts together (7 in a row), added seat belts, added more people to check to make sure everyone stayed in, and they even had a checkpoint in the middle so they could see that you were wearing their seat belts. I haven't the slightest idea why, but that really ruined it for me.
It's cool to see all the different items in I. F. Wells laboratory! I used to ride it over and over just to look at the different items!
I used to have dreams about this ride where the professor got up out of his chair and chased me through the ride. That is a dream I had in about 1995, 1996 or possibly 1997.
this ride was always so awesome, I wish I could've ridden it one last time before it closed. :(
This scarred the crap out of me when i was little.
Really sad for me when I went yesterday only to find this ride was gone. Made even more nostalgic by the fact that I looked up above right above the laser tag sign and I could still see the Sabertooth tiger sign.
Actually I remember in 1996 when I dreamed that I rode a version of this ride where you went through scenes of construction, a blend between this ride and the min cart ride and the king kong ride at Universal and the Dr anamatronic got up out of his chair and was following and dance walking around you as you rode through the ride. This was one of three dreams I had of this ride that is how much I liked it.
the iron reef ride is there. and when it first opened. i noticed alot if the ride was not gutted out.
if you step on certain parts of the rug from waiting in line you cqn notice the rails for the ride is still there. i actaully fell over them while waiting because there was a huge bump in the carpet. so the original ride is still there. you also might not think so but the iron reef never used all the space for the ride. there is a hidden door which leads to items left behind from the ride.
also if you want to find old stuff from the ride go behind the sherrifs office in the main street of ghost town there is a storage house with some stuff from the ride. i have discovered it recently. and my mum has confirmed that they are old stuff from the ride.
Theres a door when you standing in line in the big room where you learn the backstory of the ride. There is spare space back there. Theres extra stprage over there. Also i found recently that they sold some of the dinosaur stuff at a auction. They also kept the beary tales characters in the local barn. The barn is located across the old school house. Sometimes they turn on the machine to have memories of the old ride
+AlTheGameFreak also another thing. there is a employee area out on ghost town. if you head back there, there is another storage area. right now as far as i can tell they have 2 skeletons in the windows. they are holding stuff in there from a ride that was like a long ago. i cant tell what ride excatly but it looks old. im guessing from this ride (video) or even older than that. also they have a bear thing inside but im not sure if its from beary tales.
when i go to knotts again i will find out for you. i should be going next saturday. so wait until then. :D
Luala lu I found them thank you
For real?
OH NO! You're SIXTY THOUSAND years back! Hopefully ALIVE...
whoa i remember getting on this 1st grade and coming out crying:P
I was talking to an employee that I knew from Knott's Scary Farm. Apparently the building is one giant hazard. When it rains, the ceiling leaks, and there are puddles of black mold that form all over the place.
this ride was the best, i remember when i was a kid this was my fav ride at Knott's i would want to go on this ride first every time and when i got older i still liked it up in till it was removed. i wish some one would bring it back
I can't believe I used to be scared of this ride. When I was little I thought this ride was a coaster and did loops and stuff. Now I wish it really did, that sound so much more fun.
I went on the ride many times in the 90s, and even during the summer it was always a walk-on. I used to ride five times in one visit. But connecting all the cars into "trains" was complete idiocy. Disneyland and DisneyWorld have omnimover rides and have never had to do that. They just bring the whole ride to a stop when someone needs assistance boarding.
The fossils at the end made me sad :(
i miss this ride so much. i always remember it and with all the trips i take to disneyland with all of its "dark rides" it makes me want to ride this. :(
The every year people are going to get bored of a dark ride because of the little thrill, and they visit the park so much.
omg I miss this ride soooo much! T.T
I used to love it as a kid!
wow...i just teared up a little. I mss this ride. It was my Childhood at the farm
Seeing and enjoying this ride makes me wish I were smart enough to build a working time machine. I would go back to the 1990's just to ride this ride, yeah I thought it was that awesome and worth while!
Well, there are two sides to that coin... Maybe the time machine has been invented in the future but you would think that we would see the future earthling at one time or another. Then again, convert millenniums into minutes or even seconds, this individual(s) may have chosen a time before you were born or after you have died. Besides, just like 2000 years ago, someone who had Schizophrenia was considered to have a demon in him or her, we would just count him as a mental patient or crackpot today and have him committed to where he would not be able to get to his time machine that he hid in the deserts of the middle east where in the year 3015, there is a bustling casino town called Las Iraq or Atlantic Afghanistan.
i remember this ride...man its been a long time!
You should see the state of the inside of the attraction now. It's pretty sad. Professor Wells is now nothing but a torso, one arm, and one leg. The dinosaurs are disintegrating down to their machinery, the walls have been stripped, countless places have been tagged by disrespectful employees. It's just tragic.
Memories with my mom :/ I used to love this ride.
Wow when we used to come here I would always want to go on this ride. *sigh* those were great times...but now we find that Knott's is more for younger kids now lol.
wow I remember going on this when I was five years old! The beginning (ice age) scared me haha, but I remember loving the dinosaurs.
I am sad happy you put this up cuz the ride is now gone forever. It's history :(
This defintely being back memories of the Old Knotts as a child... and whats strange about me saying this... I am only 21... yeah... a lot of changes at Knotts have been made since I was a kid and not all of them were for the better! This ride was a classic, and what is it used for now... storage space for Haunt props... and now cedar fair has taken out all the good stuff, reflection lake, the chapel, the cemetary, the haunted shack, the soap box racers (actually the Knott family did that one)
This was one of my favorite rides there.
Oh memories! I remember this ride. I used to scream whenever the electricity went off for the time travelling, because I was afraid I would never come back. (Travelling through time is freaky.)
Nonetheless, they took out the best ride in that damn park. ;_; (At least they still have the Calico Mine Ride.)
R.I.P. Kingdom of the Dinosaurs 1984-2004
MY FAVORITE RIDE!! GONE!!! :'(
I always used to enjoy riding this ride on loops over and over again when the park was not very crowded! I never had to get off. I think I rode this ride about 9 or ten times in a row.
I totally forgot about that... yeah, they would lets us just go for rides over and over... I seem to remember they gave us like a 20 time limit though. Haha!
Me too. This was my dad's favorite Knott's ride...he flipped when I told him it closed.
good lord, i remember being a kid and my mom took me to Knotts scary farm, they did this ride up with monsters and people inside, scared the crap out of me. Loved this ride however.
I remember riding this with my cousins and my grandma every year, we also loved it and fought over what the dinosaurs were, I believe the set is rotting right now, that's what happened to the Submarine Voyage at Disneyland.
@KODfreak That's Fantastic! Thanks for the info!
This ride was one of those rides that I really enjoyed at Knotts when I was younger. It reminded me of the type of ride that you'd find only at Disneyland. Unfortunately, most of the rides now at Knotts are roller-coaster and thrill rides. While they still have the log ride (which is another one of my favorites) it's sad to this one gone. While I doubt we will ever see it again, although it would be nice, hopefully down the road Knotts will bring in a few more rides in the future to the old Dinosaur ride from the past. While roller coaster rides are always fun... it's nice to see rides similar to Disney's the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.... but then again... I guess that's what makes Disneyland, Disneyland. Although I would like Knotts to offer similar attractions and not only Six Flags style rides.
This is one of my all time favorite rides. Reminds me of my childhood. Going to knots like 4 times a year every year lol. I went on this ride soo many times. I even remember when the big TRex had his eye missing lol and it was like that for like 5 years lol.
Ahh I just went this Sunday 3/16/14 and found out it was not working no more memories this ride was perfect to relax hug the girlfriend miss the music it play through out the ride just really sad to see it gone memories memories my wife ask why are you so sad to see it gone I said ahh I miss the dinosaurs lol
"Stop, come back! How'd did you ;people get in here? MY time machine is on! It's not finished yet! Come BACK!!!!!"
love the music that comes in at 5:14! fond memories of this as a kid.... reminds me alot of disneyland...the ride before this (bear-y tales) was created by an old disney employee....and also there was talks of disney buying knotts in 97? its a shame they didnt because we might still have this ride and many others
as a kid i used to actually try and do the voice of the professor, all my friends loved my impression lol.
wow i used to love this ride so much. the last time i went on it was during Halloween Haunt in 2003, then i went again last yr and it was gone. :( i remember going on this when it was first opened as a little kid.
You know what the junglish areas remind me of that really fancy bathroom near Mrs. Knotts. I love this ride.
I can only imagine what this attraction could have been like if they had updated it rather than scrapping the whole thing. This was in my opinion the best attraction at Knotts and is a shame that they got rid of it. Just listen to the soundtrack how wonderful it is, it always gave me chills. They had a golden opportunity to create something similar to Dinosaur at WDW but they chose to do nothing. Haven't been back to knotts unpurposely since they decided to close this I wont be back.
When I went to the park as a little kid, this ride scared the shit out of me. When I went back to the park when I was older I eagerly searched for this ride. I looked around the entire park until I came to realize that they took it down. Damn disappointing, especially since the ride was still listed on the map so I was given false hope.
Best atmosphere ever
...I will definately look out for that! I used to be the Easter Bunny in the craft barn, and had never noticed!
I remember I went on this ride a long time ago when I was little and we got stuck right near the the saber tooth tiger, it was so scary cuz the music kept playing and all the animals kept making noises and there was just a bunch of yellow and red eyes stairing at us, it was so creepy!
I remember beary tales, but never heard of Tim Van Gorder..Yeah dinosaur ride ended due to a lawsuit. My grandfather knew a manager there, and he told us the story on what happened during a family event. The lawsuit caused the ride to Connect all of the carts together, and it became to much of a hassle, and people started to complain due to the frequent stops of loading and unloading..I heard the guy got millions. Bastard took one of my favorite rides away as a kid.
I guess I know what I would do if I won the power ball or huge lottery. I would buy Knott's Berry Farm, I always loved this theme park. It's one of my favorites.
wow, that brings back memories.
I miss this ride. It was a total classic ans shouldn't have been removed. :(
It was cheesy, but dammit, it was a part of my history.
Oh!!! I thought they changed the log ride, but I didn't realize that...wow!!
The ride is still officially closed. I work at Knotts, I managed to slip into the ride area during my break; It appears that they attempted to disassemble the ride after they closed it, because massive parts of the laboratory have been removed.
Most of the Ice Age area has been completely removed as well; save the last part just before the dinosaurs (the area with the wooly mammoth sinking).
I barely remember this ride as a kid. I think it creeped me out a bit.
I really, really, really miss this ride. :(
My mom used to work at the Knott's Family Steak House and so I got to go to Knott's quite often... and there would never be a trip that goes by that I would not hit this ride. It is cool and very informative, although as a kid you don't see it as that way. To be honest, I didn't fully understand the center strobe tunnel (going back in time further) until maybe the last year I got to go on it just before they closed it. Anyways, I was talking to one of the employees and he might have either slipped or intentionally let the cat out of the bag on the real reason it closed but he told me that the real reason was... teenagers was doing shameful things while riding that ride. Maybe not so shameful since as you get on, you can clearly see about 40 monitors that showed various areas of the ride which means there was at least forty (maybe more that was not so much obvious or in the back room) night vision cameras in there... the moron's But, what a story to tell your kid that he was, eh hem, chosen to become existed, 38 million years ago.
Chad Bronswick Another contributing factor was LOTS and LOTS of asbestos. Probably the biggest factor
They wouldn't shut a ride down for that reason. Weirdos still try doing it on Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean etc.
I get your point but two different companies, two different policies. Maybe Disney is acceptable to shameful acts while Ceder Point is not.
Chad Bronswick Disney does not accept behavior like that. I had a friend that worked on the Haunted Mansion for years and while he said people did try that they managed to tag those people at the end of the ride and punish them appropriately, which was usually a talk with security and a warning about being removed from the park.
The reason the dinosaur ride was shut down was not enough foot traffic and the ridiculous amounts of asbestos, which is toxic and costly to fix for a ride that no longer had a lot of attention in the first place.
I remember that old bicycle at 0:42. Dang I wish this ride was still at Knotts.
@0mikr0n
I dont think you really needed to be old to enjoy the kingdom of the dinosaurs ride or appreciate it, when i was like 3-4 years old i loved the ride didnt go back to the park until i was about 7-8 ( I live in a different state I have family in southern california) and it was gone and i was pretty bummed didnt find out the name until now
This was the best ride at Knott's!!
Oh, and I was a bit nervous at first but then I got used to walking around in there. I'm not very superstitious, my only worries involved injuring myself (because if I got hurt, no one would find me).
Oh! I also found out that the park's local cat population uses it as a hideout / home; I saw a few of them in there. If you didn't know, the park has quite a few wild housecats. Next time you go, keep an eye out for them. They're often more visible during less-busy days for the park.
my childhood in 8 minutes 11 seconds