Lakeside Amusement Park - (303) 477-1621

I have been going to Lakeside most of my life and the place itself is awesome. It is like stepping into the past.. full of history and great times that have been had there. There is so much personality and charm attached to the place, everyone should visit at least once to understand this. My complaint about it is the fact that the people in charge of it dont seem to realize this. It doesnt seem like anyone takes any kind of pride in keeping it cleaned up and safe. They are letting it die a slow death. Half of the rides dont work, most of the games are out of order and they have some of the rudest employees I have encountered in a long time. The ones that arent necessarily rude, dont care. It is obvious they are there to collect a pay check and have no regard for customer service. The park itself would be truly unbelievable if someone took the time to restore it, clean it up and keep it in shape. How sad it is that we live in a time where places like this go so unappreciated. Its not the park that deserves the bad rap it is getting, its the owners

This place has great rides and is a real "amusement park" - not some "theme" park that's primary purpose is to extract green-backs from your pocket. What is sad about this park is that when I read other reviews talking about it being "dirty" or old- what you really see is that its not just plastic and steel themes. Underlying this is that a multi-ethnic mix or people go to this park. Here, my 5 year old blonde/blue son rides with all ethnicities and all economic backgrounds. When we go to Elitches its suburban white families, standing in line for endless hours. So back to the place- whether its the great steel ferris wheel (which my son says "we can see the whole world" - not quite ;-) ) or the authentic steam locomotive, 2 fantastic coaster (yes- the Wild Chipmunk is worth its name!) or variations on traditional carnival rides, the underlying theme is fun at the park. Catch this park before it becomes history- undoubtedly it will.

Yes, Lakeside is old, but that is what makes it Lakeside, the entire park is living history today. The rides are older, not the highest, nor fastest, but you can go to this park with the entire family and not take out a second mortgage on the house. And if you have any interest in american amusement park history---WOW, you can spend an entire day just looking at it all.