Summer is over, fall is here, and Enchanted Forest Water Safari is closed. Summer workers have gone back to class, the water is shut off, the gates are locked and it sits quietly now until June.

Hold on, now……that’s not what happens, at least not the last part.

Yes, the park is closed and there are no visitors but it’s far from vacant. Crews are hard at work, getting the park ready to make sure next season’s fun never stops.

To begin with, everything needs to be cleaned and put away. Imagine deflating more than 830 tubes. Try stacking 450 picnic tables and scrubbing 160 large garbage can. Next comes the more than 1,200 lounge and beach chairs that need to be cleaned and stacked. (It sure doesn’t seem like that many, does it?)

Next, comes signage and other items that are better off not facing the Old Forge winter. And since the trees don’t realize that we’re closed, they drop their leaves that all need to be raked and collected.

Now, what about the water? Winterizing the water park is a long process, sometimes it takes until Thanksgiving or early December. Since temperatures in the winter frequently fall below zero, all the water must be drained from everywhere, everywhere from the Amazon ride to bathroom faucets. The water in all pipes is then replaced with more than 980 gallons of antifreeze. Throughout the winter, all pipes need to be constantly checked for any sign of water seepage.

Well, this is just glimpse of what happens when the park closes; but when you consider all of the departments at Water Safari Resort, you can imagine that there is much more that happens behind the scenes… think of it! Dry Rides, Water Rides, Gifts, Games, Food Service, Safari Snapshots, Office Management, Marketing, HR [yes we need lots of smiling faces to work here], Art/Paint Department, Information Technology, Finance, Maintenance/Grounds, Admissions, Sales, Parking Lot and then of course there are the other members of WSR – Calypso’s Cove, the Old Forge Camping Resort and Water’s Edge Inn – which are open year round (I think I got it all, whew!). Lots of planning and preparing and making our Resort better year after year!

Then, come spring, all of what was done in the fall has to be reversed…enjoy your fall, we’ll be thinking of winter!