Flintstones theme park / camp ground in Custer, South Dakota

For a taste of what's in store for you when you camp at Bedrock City in Custer, South Dakota, check out the photo gallery.

Bedrock City

[#1 posted by MrJM, January 14, 2009 2:13 PM]

I actually visited Bedrock, SD when I was a kid.

The most vivid memory was of a tiny child who had dropped his pants and was pooping at the bottom of the dinosaur slide.

I didn't actually witness the inevitable... but it was inevitable.

-- MrJM

[#2 posted by Brainspore, January 14, 2009 2:19 PM]

I hear they have a similar theme park in Kentucky.

[#3 posted by Antinous / Moderator, January 14, 2009 2:23 PM]

It beats the hell out of this.

[#4 posted by kellythewriter, January 14, 2009 2:24 PM]

I've been there! It was such a long time ago...my youngest sister wasn't even born yet. I had to be about 6 years old. My step-dad got this train engineer's hat from there that he wore for like 10 years. Pretty cool place if you're a little kid!

[#5 posted by noen, January 14, 2009 2:26 PM]

Wow, that website is bad. The images don't fill me with a desire to go there either. I want to stay far, far away from that nightmare.

[#6 posted by wolfiesma, January 14, 2009 2:27 PM]

The adobe is nice.

[#7 posted by loraksus, January 14, 2009 2:35 PM]

There used to be one up here in Kelowna, BC.

It was torn down basically because of intellectual property issues. Basically the IP changed hands a bunch of times in the 80s and 90s and the situation developed into a bit of a clusterfuck.

A movie theater is now in it's place (exciting)

Kind of hard to say it was only IP though, the tourism industry in Kelowna has shifted a lot in the last 2 decades.
Now it seems the target market is douchebags who want to come and get shitfaced before going out to rent fast boats.

I ♥ this city so much ;)

[#8 posted by Anonymous, January 14, 2009 2:37 PM]

And how! I thought that "Jellystone Park", the yogi bear themed camp grounds were bad (and they are).

[#9 posted by terranwannabe, January 14, 2009 2:40 PM]

I've been there too! We were on a road trip through SD and my sisters convinced my mom to pull over - I think it cost $20 for us all to get in. If you think it looks depressing as it is, imagine what it looks like in the rain...although, there was a theater that showed old Flintstones eps and sold popcorn. That was the high point of it for me.

[#10 posted by Bevin, January 14, 2009 2:45 PM]

There was one in Hope, B.C. too. I loved it, and we always begged our parents to stop there on our way to Vancouver from Kamloops. It is now renamed Dinotown and I imagine it probably has to do with the same issues Loraksus mentioned.

[#11 posted by loraksus, January 14, 2009 2:49 PM]

I guess BB blocks the heart thingy

But yes, I love this city

And yes, IP issues caused the one in Hope to get renamed too.

[#12 posted by Blake Himsl Hunter, January 14, 2009 2:55 PM]

I grew up in Rapid City and it looks like they are keeping in good shape. It would always rain when we went there as kids.

[#13 posted by Spoon Armada, January 14, 2009 3:03 PM]

This is on an unfortunate lower tier of South Dakota tourist attractions under Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, Mayan Corn Palace, and the Reptile Gardens.

[#14 posted by Mister Staal, January 14, 2009 3:06 PM]

I used to go to the one in Hope with my family whenever we went to the Interior too! That place sure was fun. It's not as cool now that I'm pushing 30 and it's just Dinotown. Maybe some mushrooms will fix that...

[#15 posted by pork musket, January 14, 2009 3:07 PM]

@10 - It works fine if you use the HTML entity code for less than. Otherwise it parses it as an unclosed tag.

I

[#16 posted by loraksus, January 14, 2009 3:13 PM]

LOL. Some serious hate for the heart symbol apparantly :)

[#17 posted by Antinous / Moderator, January 14, 2009 3:18 PM]

Alt plus 3 (on the number pad) equals ♥.

[#18 posted by Kristi, January 14, 2009 3:18 PM]

We have one in Arizona near the Grand Canyon, but it's no where near the cleanliness that the SD park seems to have achieved. I visited once for sheer laughs, but it was mostly run down and abandoned. My friend and I felt it was the perfect setting for a psycho killer film, especially with the pure fetishism of the place.

[#19 posted by alpacawacka, January 14, 2009 3:19 PM]

Oh the memories! I grew up in Custer. Flintstones was cool when I was a kid-I particularly liked the playground. I'm not sure BB is gonna let me tell you about the annual senior prank to paint a giant purple ***K on Dino though...

[#20 posted by pork musket, January 14, 2009 3:25 PM]

Well I'll be... it parsed with the HTML entity in the preview mode, but not when I actually posted the comment. ♥ it is.

[#21 posted by Antinous / Moderator, January 14, 2009 3:26 PM]

This place would be great if they picked up some leftover velociraptor models from Jurassic Park and various 90s museum exhibits. They could have Flintstones in Flight, Herding Homo Erectus and the Evisceration Village.

[#22 posted by Kristi, January 14, 2009 3:26 PM]

For some reason the on here in AZ also has an area where they keep goats, if I'm remembering correctly.

[#23 posted by Antinous / Moderator, January 14, 2009 3:29 PM]

MT's been a little twitchy about that lately. I've had random failures several times in the last few weeks.

[#24 posted by kiint, January 14, 2009 3:42 PM]

if you click on the middle bottom picture, you get to see what your room will REALLY look like

[#25 posted by chetspartan, January 14, 2009 4:51 PM]

OMG fond memories. My family stopped there on our way out West from MN when I was little. I'm the youngest in these pics.

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/6196/jasonchelseyandi236xw5.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/7286/chelseyjasonandi035po4.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/8838/chelseyandi234uu9.jpg

[#26 posted by Drew Blood, January 14, 2009 5:31 PM]

Great memories of this place when driving between home in MT and grandparents in MN as a kiddo, fits right in with trips to Bullwinkle's in Alberta!

[#27 posted by CourtMerrigan, January 14, 2009 5:36 PM]

Went there as a very young kid - absolutely fantastic. The site doesn't do it justice.

[#28 posted by darren, January 14, 2009 6:18 PM]

Yes, I have fond memories of visiting the one in BC as well. I sincerely doubt "Dinoland" any good.

Do kids these day even know about the Flintstones, or is this now just an ironic theme park for jaded Gen-Xers?

[#29 posted by Anonymous, January 14, 2009 6:19 PM]

I've been there! I used to live in Winnipeg and we took a trip to the Dakotas when I was 6 and one of my most vivid memories was a visit to this park.

I don't remember much, other than it was awesome, and I have a photo of me and my sister with a giant Fred Flintstone.

[#30 posted by Anonymous, January 14, 2009 8:52 PM]

The one is Az is a dump... It used to be nice back in the day tho. Last time I was there was right after the flintstones movie came out.. they were packed with movie junk in the gift shop, but all the buildings and such were in BAD shape... paint peeling off and nothing worked right. wonder if it's still there.

[#31 posted by Anonymous, January 15, 2009 1:32 AM]

Funnily enough, it was recently reported that Dubai Television was refused permission to broadcast 'The Flintstones', by the owners Hannah-Barbera (a unit of MGM).

A spokesman for the channel said 'A claim was made that people in Dubai would not understand the humour, but we know that people in Abu Dhabi Do."

[#32 posted by alikzam, January 15, 2009 1:58 AM]

I remember the one in Kelowna too! When I was little it was one of my favorite places to go.

There was mini-golf but it was free with admission. There wasn't even an attendant or anything, just a stone desk area that had all the balls and putters. I remember running around with my friends and not going in the proper order at all. There was also a little movie theater place. It was small, just 6 stone benches that were very uncomfortable, but they used to play Flintstones episodes back to back with no commercials. Well, it was a big deal back in those days.

[#33 posted by reginald, January 15, 2009 4:46 AM]

bedrock is just a state of mind

[#34 posted by zish, January 15, 2009 6:29 AM]

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota...
I wonder if they know Rocky Racoon.

[#35 posted by zish, January 15, 2009 6:33 AM]

Cool! Now I have a place to stop on my family's annual trip to Minnesota's largest twine ball!

Massachusetts to Minnesota is a long car ride, y'know. Maybe the kids will stop singing 99 Bottles of Beer 27 times a day.

[#36 posted by GP, January 15, 2009 8:40 AM]

I have a home movie of my brother and I flying around a muddy oval dirt track in a log car. Or was it a figure 8? No doors or roof on the car and those d-ring web belts holding us in. Does anyone else remember that? Our grand 70's vacation to the Black Hills.

[#37 posted by Bray_beast, January 15, 2009 9:00 AM]

Is Barney looking for a dap, or making a sassy limp wristed motion? I can't tell. He sure isn't waving though.

[#38 posted by mdh, January 15, 2009 9:58 AM]

BB should organize a field trip - we could dress as the Jetsons.

[#39 posted by Phil_A_Minion, January 15, 2009 12:01 PM]

Thank you Kristi @ 18 for reminding me that I'm not completely hallucinatory. I had vague memories of being at this place when I was a wee bairn, but I hadn't been through SD until my mid-20s. The AZ locale explains it!

[#40 posted by themadpriest, January 15, 2009 1:24 PM]

Perhaps I should direct you all to an old post from John K:http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2008/11/our-evolutionary-heritage-blasphemed.html

[#41 posted by Anonymous, January 15, 2009 1:41 PM]

I've been there too! My mom still has all the pictures of me and my little brother playing and hanging out in Bedrock. I'm sure I'd have forgotten all about it if it weren't for the sticker I kept stuck to my desk at home from my visit. (Good grief... that sticker has been there for almost fifteen years.)

[#42 posted by spynotebook, January 17, 2009 3:14 AM]

My wife and I went to the one in Arizona as part of our honeymoon a few months ago. We were the only customers in the park. They told us to find the guy pulling weeds if we wanted to go on the ride.

We posted some pictures to flickr.

Bedrock City

It was pretty awesome.

[#43 posted by Anonymous, January 17, 2009 12:05 PM]

there's one in Colombia too!