Abandoned waterpark in Mojave Desert

Emily Green, the water journalist and gardening writer who blogs at Chance of Rain, took some pictures this week at the defunct “Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark“ at Newberry Springs in the eastern Mojave. The derelict park, which used groundwater from the Mojave Aquifer, has also operated as Lake Dolores and the Discovery Waterpark. It has been closed since 2004, per Wikipedia, but Green has heard chatter about a possible reopening. She has more photos.

She frames the park's future in the context of the west's dismal water situation: "Lake Mead dropped roughly five and a half feet in April, 2013, leaving the largest storage reservoir in the U.S. 50% full. At the end of April, its sister reservoir upstream on the Colorado River, Lake Powell, was 48% full."