Friday, July 13, 2007

Paraskavedekatriaphobia!

Did you know that "paraskavedekatriaphobia" means "Fear of Friday the 13th"? I'm not afraid of Friday the 13th, but I am afraid of long words like "paraskavedekatriaphobia". Which ironically means that I suffer from "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia". YIKES!

But I digress. The Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland presented Disneyland guests with all kinds of assorted eye candy, from bubbling colored "mud pots", anthropomorphic cactii, geysers, tumbling boulders, battling elk, fishing bears, and so on. What could possibly top all of that? How about a dark cavern filled with glowing pools, colorful fountains, and shimmering waterfalls in all of the hues of....well, the rainbow? And let's not forget the unearthly chorus that was heard echoing through the caves!


You'd never know it by looking at these two rare interior photos, but Rainbow Caverns really was spectacular, in my memory at least. Only when seen by "black light" though...flash photography pretty much ruined the effect, as you can see!


I am including this scan of a slide dated April 1962 that relates to yesterday's photo. As you can see, the bandstand is considerably different from the one that the Trio Gonzales used two years later. Is that the Strawhatter's performing? A few of you may have seen this image before, as it was contributed to another, much-missed blog.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The colored water was a great effect. I remember it well. I read somewhere that one of the challenges was to keep the different colors separate. I remember one area where a bunch of colors flowed side by side, each in it's own little tributary.

thepicklebarrel said...

holy crap!

what great shots of rainbow caverns!

Hrundi V. Bakshi said...

Awesome! I've been waiting to see some great photos of the inside of Rainbow Caverns.

Thanks Major!