In 2005, hurricane Katrina pretty much completely demolished the Gulf Coast. The day they evacuated was the last day anyone would ride any rides at Six Flags, NOLA.
It took a few minutes to actually find the place on a GPS. Paul just said “Six Flags, New Orleans” into his phone, and it literally showed up as ‘(Closed)’. We had two other people with us at the time (Nicholas and Dawn), so for some reason I felt safer. We had to park the car in some bushes and walk about a quarter of a mile up the median to get there. As we were walking, a guy rolled his window down and yelled at us – “DON’T GET CAUGHT!”
After I heard that, shit got real. My heart started pounding and I started to walk faster. There was a bus stop right outside of the entrance, and I had a backpack full of cameras. We all sat down inside on one of the benches and waited until there were no cars coming from both sides. As soon as I saw an opportunity, I ran as fast as I could through the broken fence and into the parking lot towards brush where I couldn’t be seen, and when that happened, I knew it was time to get down to business. I felt like a kid in a candy store. This was _amazing_.
Everything was broken, almost every wall tagged, and you could hear the wind whistling through the rollercoasters. At one point I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to cry, but then I stepped on some glass and it went through my shoe. Most of the images I shot were digital. I also had a Holga 120N, a Pentax K1000, and a Polaroid Sun 660 (you can find those polaroids in another blog HERE).
Gotham City
I didn’t get very far up. I used to be fearless as a child but for some odd reason I’m scared of heights now. Regardless, it was beautiful.
This is Nick, a wonderful friend who let us crash at his place while we were in NOLA. He has a dragonfly on his face because he is a gangster.
The Jester
There’s a lot of ground we didn’t cover. I couldn’t really step where there was a lot of glass (which was everywhere.) I could probably go again, but next time bring a video camera. I’d love to make a tour of the place.
You can view the rest of the set on flickr HERE. See ya.
-ash
Amazing experience! Creepy. I can hear the echoes…
Thanks for publishing!
Todd
http://mappingTheEdge.com/
Holy fuck so awesome. I need to go there now. Looks like you had a great time, glass included.
One of my favorite explores was at Six Flags back in August. It is nice to read someone else’s account of getting in and out. Here’s my flickr set:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvMSg4X
I’m fascinated by Six Flags NOLA, so every six months or so I go looking for new photos. I’ve seen a lot of photos by now, definitely hundreds. Your photo of the abandoned toys is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It’s evocative of photos of human massacres, with bodies lying in a pit. It doesn’t even have any architecture in the photo and yet it perfectly captures the sorrow and pathos of Six Flags NOLA. Many of these shots are great, but that one impressed me so much that I had to leave a comment.
thank you so much. That means a great deal to me! I have gotten a lot of very good feedback about that photo specifically. I hope to go back one day, unless they decide to finally tear it down.