Orange County Great Balloon

What it is:
This property is the former home of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which is now in the process of being converted into the Orange County Great Park. A total of over 1,300 acres is now public. The Orange County Great Park Corporation is a non-profit corporation. The Orange Balloon is new and is just the first major attraction of the Orange County Great Park. (Other attractions are planned, but not yet completed. Some of those will be a 2.5-mile tree-lined canyon, picnic areas, a huge sports park, a lake and a botanical garden.) This is going to be a wonderful metropolitan park when it is finished. I'm happy to see this large area of land being put to good use since the Air Station closed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Mom, in particular, has been talking about going to the Orange County Great Balloon Park to see what the "great balloon" is all about. We had tried to go around Thanksgiving and Christmas time, but the weather hadn't been the most favorable conditions during those times. We were down in Orange County visiting with my folks this past weekend and we finally got the chance to go check out the "Last Big Orange in Orange County", as my Mom heard it called in reference to the slow disappearance of all the orange groves that used to be here.

The Orange County Great Balloon Park is only about 20 minutes from where my parents live, so it was easy to jump on the 5 freeway north and head there last Sunday Morning. (We exited at Sand Canyon Avenue and from there, you can actually see the huge orange balloon.) They open at 9 am and we arrived about 9:30. There were already some people ahead of us, some with young children, but not too many, so lines were not unbearable. I don't feel that many people know about this new attraction yet, which may also account for it being manageable as far as crowds.

All we had to do was go inside the Visitor's Center and sign a waiver (for legal purposes). There are some brochures that tell about the park and the Balloon ride in particular, so I picked up one of those. I also asked a couple of questions of one of the young employees and was told that they've already served 30,000 people who have been there to ride the balloon since it opened last summer. (I was surprised to hear that!) The Great Park Balloon ride can hold between 10-30 people at one time and the ride lasts about 10 minutes. The balloon can go as high as 650 feet, as our "driver" told us, but with passengers, it is only allowed to go up to a max of 450 feet.

This is a huge, orange tethered balloon that goes up and down but does not free float all over the sky. The many tethers are very strong wires, not just ropes. I had no fear whatsoever at the thought of going up, up, up.

As our turn came, we noticed that the length of each group's trip up in the tethered balloon was only about 5 minutes that day. We wondered why, but when our numbers were called, we went ahead and boarded.

We just walked up a short ramp and onto the circular "path" underneath the balloon. The center area was open, but the path was a waist high solid metal fenced bar, that was very safe. Looking above us, I was amazed at the size of this immense, orange Great Balloon! I snapped a few photos to remember the moment.

Facts:
Balloon Height: 118 feet
Diameter of Balloon: 72 feet
Volume: 210,000 Cubic Feet
Passengers: up to 30
Height of Gondola at Peak: 400 feet
Typical Soaring Height: between 250-400 feet
View Distance: 20 miles

This attraction is free for the time being, but we were told that they are considering charging a fee (of perhaps $20) sometime after summer 2008.

Our ride lasted about 8 minutes. We noticed that our soaring experience was longer than the previous people, but this was because our "driver" was waiting for the wind to settle down. As we floated just a few feet off the ground, we were swaying somewhat, a similar feeling you get as if on a boat. We had to wait a bit for the wind to settle down and then he gave us the okay to hold the railing as we soared up to about 75 feet. Unfortunately, this was as high as he could allow up to go that particular day due to increasing winds.

We enjoyed the views and got a few photos as well. One photo that I took was of the old runway of the retired air station.

This ride is very much dependent on the winds and weather. In fact, we were the last group to be able to go at that time on that day. Just after we disembarked, they started to turn people away and closed the ride. I'm not sure if they were able to re-open it later in the day. I knew those that were turned away had to be disappointed. I was a little sorry we weren't able to soar higher, but at least we got the chance to go up in this new attraction and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes. We all enjoyed ourselves. Parking was easy and not a very long walk. If more visitors had been there, it would have been a much longer walk, as the parking lot is huge.

Children would enjoy this ride very much. Actually, anyone would enjoy the great views and soaring in the Great Park Balloon as long as they were not afraid of heights. If you are in Southern California anytime soon, you can enjoy this fun new ride for free before more people find out about it.

Hours:
Thursday and Friday - 10 am - 3 pm
Saturday and Sunday 9 am - 3 pm

For more information, please call 866-829-3829.

www.GreatParkBalloon.org


(I've included a photo of yours truly taken at the Great Balloon Park last Sunday on my profile page.)

(Thank you Di" SurgRN911 for adding this new attraction to the database for me.)



~thanks for reading~


&;gkm.


.





Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime