ELYSBURG — For the last 21 years, Karl Hoffman of York has gone to Knoebels Amusement Resort with his family in the last week of July.

They stay at the same campsite every year, and “when we leave, we book it for the next year,” he said Thursday as he and his daughter, Sarah, took their two dogs, Molly and Ross, for a walk around the campground.

This current trip, though, has been a little different.

The amusement park has been closed since they arrived on Wednesday. That will change Friday, as Knoebels officials anticipate 90 percent of the park will be ready to go at its usual 11 a.m. opening time. There’s the possibility that other areas — mostly those through which the creek runs — will open later in the day.

But for the past few days, long-time visitors say the campground has been well below capacity.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it this empty,” Karl Hoffman said.

Even so, for many people like the Hoffmans who have made trips to Knoebels a summer staple, the amusement park’s closure hasn’t spoiled their vacation.

Card games, movies
Precipitation might not be drowning out tradition, but it led to more card games and movies, said Collin Smith, 15, of Muncy.
Smith arrived Sunday and is here with more than 20 members of his family — parents, cousins, second cousins, aunts and uncles. Smith’s cousin, Cole Blatt of Newmanstown, said the only thing inside the park they’ve been able to do is eat at the International Food Court.

“We haven’t ridden anything yet,” said Blatt, 19.

Instead, their time has been filled playing games like Apples to Apples and Thirty-one, and watching movies “21 Jump Street” and “Boat Trip.”

The park’s closure is “disappointing,” but the fact he’s able to spend time with family has been rewarding.

‘Still get a camping trip’
That’s been the case for Steve Biddison of Glen Arm, Maryland, who has been visiting and camping at Knoebels in the last week of July for the last eight years.

“When you go fishing from a boat, if don’t catch any fish, you still get a boat ride out of it,” Biddison said. “If you camp at an amusement park and don’t get to go to the amusement park because of the flooding, you still get a camping trip out of it.”

Biddison — who is here with his wife, Karly, and his 10-year-old son, Chase, as well as his in-laws and family friends — arrived Tuesday, when the park was still open. For about an hour, they were able to catch a few rides on the Twister and Phoenix.

Biddison thought his son would be a little disappointed by the closure, but that hasn’t been the case.

“Next year, maybe it will be dry,” Biddison recalls his son saying. “We’re still having a good camping trip out of it. We’re having fun and making the best out of it.”

Look inside
Inside Knoebels Amusement Resort Thursday, workers continued their efforts to make sure people — especially campers like Smith, Blatt, Biddison and the Hoffmans — would be able to enjoy the park Friday.

Spokeswoman Stacy Ososkie said the flooding didn’t cause damage, but it left behind a mess that needed to be cleaned up.

Gravel was being replaced, mud was being cleaned off walls and parts of rides and food stations were being sanitized.

Workers also were hosing down roadways, and minor work was being done on the park’s iconic covered bridge. Additionally, workers were putting rides back together that they had just disassembled a few days ago as the creeks grew threatening.

One of the most visible impacts of the flood was on the Crystal Pool, which was not living up to its name Thursday. There, the water — usually clear — was a muddy brown.

Back again
Camper Nicole Swietanski has made the three-hour drive from Westville, New Jersey, for the last eight years with her boys, ages 17 and 9.

They’ve been here and experienced rain, but this is the first time the park has been closed, she said.

Outside of not being able to experience the park, Swietanski, who also was here with her longtime boyfriend, Eric Reighn, said the weather changed the way she had to cook food.

Normally, she cooks over the bonfire, but that wasn’t possible Wednesday night.

“I’ve had to utilize my skillet cooking a lot more,” she joked as she sat on a bench in the campground near the playground, where her 9-year-old son was playing because “we needed something to do away from the cabin.” 

The steak she cooked on the skillet wasn’t bad —“I make steak good wherever it is cooked,”  she said —  but with the forecast Thursday night looking mostly clear, she hoped for open-flame cooking to be an option once again.

Swietanski and her family are leaving Knoebels this morning, so she wasn’t sure how much time — if any — they’d be able to spend in the park if it reopens as planned.

But when asked if this year’s rainy trip will cause her family to reconsider its tradition, she didn’t hesitate.

“No,” she said.