The soundtrack of Flinstones cartoons broadcast continuously over the park’s tinny loudspeakers, echoing eerily between the dusty, dilapidating houses of Bedrock’s famous residents from a bygone era. Built over 40 years ago during the Route 66 roadside attraction craze, this lonely concrete replica of a cartoon town has seen better days.
You can only wonder how Bedrock City in Arizona even still exists and if was it ever a popular stop for tourists on their way to the Grand Canyon? Isolated in the middle of the Arizona desert, a giant Fred Flintstone cutout prevails over the thirsty landscape. The park employs a staff of two or three people at best. Infrequent curious visitors drift in and out of multicolor concrete bungalows and survey the neglect that marks the expiration date of a 1960s cult animated series so many grew up with.
Barney’s house:
The golf cart stone-age car has taken it’s last tour of the park…
Fred’s House:
5 Cent coffee? Dimly lit and selling bizarre souvenirs that might just be straight from the 1960s; the shop clerk is also the diner’s chef.
The Bedrock Grocery Store:
The Barber Shop:
Goats:
The yellow school bus:
Inside the Bedrock school:
Bedrock Boulevard:
Post office:
I found this amateur video of some friends passing through the bizarre Bedrock City:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsRwV5Ia9t8]
Bedrock theatre where they play Flinstones cartoon all day:
Bedrock city is no doubt a time capsule amusement park from another era, fantastically weird and garishly kitsch. It’s open every day of the year except Christmas day for a $5 entry fee. And you haven’t really lived until you’ve explored a creepy cement clone town of a 1960s cartoon at sunset.
Images thanks to Matt High, view the full set on Flickr.
