Riverside's Castle Park Is Pausing Its Rides on November 2 for a Rebuild in Its 50th Year
The park Knott's legend Bud Hurlbut opened in 1976 is shutting its ride park for a reimagining by new owner Lucky Strike. Mini golf and the arcade stay open. Here's what we know and the park's history.
One of Southern California's oldest family fun parks is about to go quiet, at least partly. Castle Park in Riverside will pause its ride park after November 1, 2026, so its owners can rebuild it into what they're calling a reimagined experience for guests and the Riverside community.
The park hasn't announced a reopening date for the rides, and it says it doesn't yet know how long the closure will last. More details are promised as the plans take shape.
What stays open
Not everything is closing. The mini golf courses and the arcade inside the castle will keep welcoming guests during the rebuild. Buccaneer Cove, the park's water area, is still expected back for its regular May through September season in 2027.
Castle Dark, the park's Halloween event, runs as scheduled through November 1, so the last nights on the rides before the break will be spooky ones.
Who's behind the change
Castle Park is owned by Lucky Strike Entertainment, the company formerly known as Bowlero, which bought it in July 2025. Lucky Strike runs more than 350 bowling centers and has been expanding into water parks and family entertainment. The park draws roughly 250,000 visitors a year.
Lucky Strike has already put money into the park. Visitors have noticed a cleaner, updated arcade inside the castle. Today a single day ride park ticket costs $49.99, unlimited mini golf is $14.99 and parking starts at $20 most days, a long way from the free admission the park was known for for decades.
Built by a Knott's legend
Castle Park's story starts with Wendell Bud Hurlbut, one of the most important ride builders in Southern California history. Hurlbut worked closely with Walter Knott at Knott's Berry Farm, where he built the Calico Mine Ride and the Timber Mountain Log Ride in the 1960s, along with work on Fiesta Village.
Hurlbut's Calico Mine Ride opened at Knott's in 1960 and the Timber Mountain Log Ride in 1969, and both are still running today. He kept working with Knott's until 1983, even after opening his own park.
In 1976 he opened his own park off the Polk Street exit of the Riverside Freeway. He paid for the land in cash and financed the park himself. It opened as Castle Park Golf-n-Fun, with 72 holes of mini golf spread across four color coded courses full of lakes, waterfalls, haunted houses and oddities, each hole with its own sound system.
The park sits at 3500 Polk Street, right by the 91, and its first general manager was Tom Guagliardo, who ran it from 1976 to 1988. He came from Golf-N-Stuff, the company Hurlbut hired to build the castle and the mini golf courses.
The centerpiece was the three level medieval castle that still stands today. Inside it held an arcade with Skee Ball, air hockey, pinball and eventually around 400 games, decorated like a 1920s movie palace with chandeliers and tapestries. In the 1980s it was the place to be for Inland Empire teenagers.
The ride park
Hurlbut added the ride park west of the castle and golf courses in 1985, after two years of construction. It opened with 17 rides, including two trains and a carousel he built from pieces of two century old carousels, with 52 hand carved, hand painted animals. A log ride followed in 1991, and the Buccaneer Cove water area came later.
The carousel has deep Southern California roots of its own. One of the carousels that went into it had been among the first rides at Knott's Berry Farm's original lagoon area before moving to Riverside. Western Train Company, which bought Hurlbut's rides division in 2011, began restoring the carousel in 2021, and it has stayed one of the park's most loved rides.
For decades, getting in and parking were free, and you paid for each ride or round of golf. A family of four could still have a full night out for under $50 into the early 2000s.
It wasn't the only game in town. By the mid 1990s Castle Park was competing with Scandia in Ontario and the Upland Family Fun Center for the region's mini golf crowd, but the castle, the rides and the free admission kept it a local favorite for generations of Inland Empire families.
Changing hands
Hurlbut sold Castle Park in 1999, when he was in his 80s, and died in 2011 at 92. The park passed through six owners over the next 25 years or so, and longtime fans say the rides, golf courses and arcade slowly wore down along the way.
That history is why the rebuild could be good news. Lucky Strike hasn't said which rides will stay, go or be added, but fans are hoping the company restores the classic golf course themes and leans into the park's Knott's connection rather than replacing it.
If you want one last ride
The ride park's final day before the pause is Sunday, November 1, which is also the last night of Castle Dark. If you want one more spin on the carousel, the trains or the log ride, check the park's hours for that last weekend and plan accordingly.
After that, the castle arcade and mini golf carry on as usual, so the park won't be dark. We'll update this story when Castle Park shares what the reimagined ride park will look like and when it will reopen.
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