Last month I found myself photographing a place long forgotten by tourists but not yet erased by time—a crumbling waterpark nestled in the shifting sands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The abandoned Waterfall Action Park in Rodanthe sits on both sides of Highway 12, surrounded by the haunting beauty of the barrier island landscape: sea oats swaying in the wind, dunes rolling like waves, and the ceaseless rhythm of the Atlantic just beyond the horizon. This park is a decaying relic of the past, slowly being reclaimed by time and nature. With my Fujifilm GFX100S II camera and Fujinon 80mm f/1.7 lens, I set out to capture not just the decay, but the story of a place where summer joy once echoed through salty humid air.

Waterfall Action Park opened in the late 1980s during a time when beach tourism in the Outer Banks was booming. Situated right off the main road, it became a beloved summer destination for both locals and tourists. The park featured two massive water slides, go-karts, bumper boats, miniature golf, a small pool, and even a bungee-jumping tower. There was no admission fee—just pay for the attractions you wanted to experience. It wasn’t fancy, but it was fun. For many, it was the highlight of summer trips to Hatteras Island. At least that’s what the internet says, as this was my first time to the area.

Time, tides, and hurricanes spare nothing on the Outer Banks. By 2010, the park had closed, apparently due to declining popularity. Hurricane Irene in 2011 and later Sandy in 2012 inflicted heavy damage—the slides collapsed, the buildings buckled, and nature began its slow reclamation. Without repairs or investment, the park was left to rot, and it quickly became an eerie shell of its former self. It wasn’t just closed—it had become a ghost town, surrounded by the wild beauty of Hatteras Island.

While the park property is fenced, much of it is visible from the roadway—there’s no need to trespass. In several instances I used the fence as a compositional element. While the GFX100S II allows plenty of room for significant cropping, I rarely needed it, as the 80mm lens offered plenty of reach for most pictures at this location. The main challenge was the harsh late-morning light, which was not ideal, but perhaps contributed to the mood of neglect. The Film Simulation Recipes I used were Fujicolor PRO 160C Warm, Velvia Film, Superia Negative (all three of which are Film Dial Recipes), and Kodak Tri-X 400.

Places like this are part of the invisible history of the Outer Banks. Tourists come for lighthouses, kite flying, and sandy beaches. Quiet corners where the past lingers are easy to miss. The Waterfall Action Park may be gone from brochures and maps, but it lives on in the echoes of summer, as well as in the photographs that I brought home. Sometimes the soul of a place isn’t found in its peak moments, but in what’s left behind. Occasionally the most interesting pictures aren’t of epic landscapes or dramatic street scenes, but of broken waterslides on an overgrown lot in a forgotten corner of the Atlantic coast.

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Fujifilm GFX100S II:
Amazon, B&H, Nuzira
Fujinon GF 80mm f/1.7:
Amazon, B&H, Nuzira