Theme & Amusement Parks in Palm Springs

Water features lace throughout Boomers! miniature-golf courses, gurgling cheerfully as putters attempt to elude windmill blades and wacky hazards. These carefully designed courses populate numerous national locations, running parallel to go-kart tracks or lawless bumper-boat lagoons abandoned by the Coast Guard. Inside old-fashioned arcade rooms, video games chirp in response to players' shouts of victory or defeat.

The parks' parent company—Palace Entertainment—maintains 8 theme parks, 11 water parks, and 21 family-entertainment centers tucked into various corners of the nation, making it an expert on providing family-style fun and laundering towels.

At The Living Desert, a dedicated conservation team tends to plants and animals populating more than 1,800 acres of desert—1,000 of which remain in their natural, undisturbed state. In addition to protecting the Colorado Desert's native population of birds, wolves, reptiles, and minotaurs, The Living Desert houses bighorn sheep, cheetahs, striped hyenas, leopards, and parrots from arid regions throughout the globe. Through annual contributions, members of the nonprofit organization help preserve the Colorado Desert and bolster the population of endangered desert species. Members also gain unlimited access to the park, discounts in the gift shop, and invitations to special events, such as the annual member-cheetah race.

The twists and turns of SB Raceway's indoor track challenge drivers seated behind the wheel of speedy Sodikarts. After garbing their brain-cages with Snell-approved helmets and liners, adrenaline-seekers age 8 and older can gain speed on straightaways and hug corners like a lonely carpenter. Each 17-lap experience features up to 15 karts whizzing around the track at the same time, and concludes with a post-race printout with individual lap-times and the right to chug a gallon of milk. Patrons over the age of 16 can come in on Saturdays for cosmic karting, which remixes classic races with black and neon lights and live, DJ-spun tunes.

At the recently opened SkyTown Trampoline Park, kids and adults find plenty of ways to burn off excess energy in a clean, safe environment. Jumpers ricochet off various padded surfaces, including the very walls themselves. A rebound might send them hurtling toward a cushy foam pit or a basketball hoop poised for a perfect slam dunk. Youngsters can also exercise their throwing arms on the dodgeball court, and wee ones who are too small for the main court find their own fun in the tamer Jump-A-Roo area.

Because the trampoline-filled center is a part of Splash Kingdom water park, kids are only a few steps away from go-karts, mini golf, and bumper boats; water slides and other aquatic attractions keep things cool during the summer months. While tots refuel with pizza and corn dogs at the Splashin' Café, adults can head to the Upper Deck Sports Lounge to count their favorite quarterback's pores on one of five massive 15-foot high-definition projection screens.

In 2005, Jason Williams and Ken Faught assembled a team of experienced racers and designers to create the driving experience at Pole Position Raceway. Williams, a motocross racer since 1984, and Faught, a three-time land-speed record holder at the Bonneville Salt Flats, recruited professional drivers Kurt Busch and Jeremy McGrath to help their engineers. They reimagined every detail of the track from the ground up, creating indoor courses that balance the grip of asphalt with the swervy fun of polished, concrete slick tracks. Pole Position’s Formula EK20 Pro Karts rumble over the track powered by 18-horsepower motors (nearly triple that of average gas karts), which reach speeds up to 45 miles per hour without filling the temperature-controlled arenas with fumes.

After the first Pole Position Raceway opened in Corona, California, it soon spawned eight locations stretching to the Atlantic. Technicians maintain the fleet via handheld computers, and top drivers are regularly sent out to evaluate karts’ handling and reading comprehension. During races, up to 12 guests compete in contests that last about 10 minutes.

Mulligan Family Fun Center's three locations surround parents and kids with sprawling smorgasbords of kinetic entertainment. Outside, each park's sunny grounds encourage healthy activity with putt-testing miniature-golf courses and the hairpin turns of go-kart tracks. In the batting cages, aspiring sluggers test their swing while recognized major-league sluggers test their disguise against the park's do-not-admit posters. Back inside, climbers scale the rock wall’s vertical challenges and friends battle friends in laser tag’s intense light-based combat.

Each location also has its own signature activities. The Torrance location's rookie go-karts, for example, enable younger drivers to take a turn down the track, whereas the Palmdale location boasts a longer, 1,500-foot track for children and adults alike. At the Murrieta location, mini-bowling offers bumpers and kid-size balls, letting the whole family angle for strikes, and warm weather opens water slides so that wee ones can prevent their engines from overheating.