The Lost World Adventure River Ride at Astroworld

The Lost World Adventure river ride was one of the original installations at Astroworld, and was there for opening day. Similar to the Jungle Cruise ride in Disneyland, the Lost World Adventure river ride took families of explorers down the Rio Misterio, down an African river, and past many ancient wonders. It was a favorite of early visitors.

It was located in the Plaze de Fiesta area of the park.

In 1969 it was joined to the south by the Bamboo Shoot log ride.

The ride itself was quite enjoyable. One of the main features was the fact that the boats, even though they were open on the sides and fronts, they were air conditioned! Astroworld was famous for pumping tons of outdoor air conditioning into the park, and this ride was no exception. It truly made for an enjoyable experience.

The ride took you past nine different scenes, complete with "animatronic" figures and different visual and sound effects.

In 1976, the ride underwent a name change and became The River of No Return.

In 1984 or 1985, the ride was repurposed into an exhibit called The Wetlands and even though it used the same boats, the experience was different. It was basically a ride that showed you some wildlife.

The Lost World Adventure river ride didn't last as long as some of the other attractions (it was replaced with a rollercoaster eventually, and some of the river boat ride became the site of the Tidal Wave), perhaps because it took up so much property space and was a slower-moving ride and not quite as "thrilling" as some of the other things that were appearing in theme parks across America. It wasn't as "high-capacity" either, since each boat trip took awhile and could only carry up to 25 passengers.

One interesting piece of trivia is that the ride was featured in the movie Brewster McCloud, a movie made in 1970 by Robert Altman starring Bud Cort as Brewster McCloud. The film is a cult favorite, and is finally available on DVD (on-demand from Warner Classics). If you're a fan of 1970's Houston (and if you're not, what are you doing on this page?), check it out! It's got tons of old images of Astroworld, the Astrodome, south Houston, buildings, highways, etc. It was the first movie made inside the Astrodome! We'll have a couple screen grabs from it soon.