July 28th is National Water Park Day and it’s a great day to spotlight Six Flags White Water, which feels like a water park built in the woods. As you drive in the parking lot is your typical sea of concrete, but from the moment you step through security and towards the park entrance you’ll be walking through a forest of trees. This continues throughout the park with really only the wave pool and a few of the kids play areas not being tree covered. If you look at a Google Maps satellite view you’ll see the wave pool and a few patches of concrete elsewhere, but the rest is trees with hints of blue slides and water peeking through the gaps. This article is part history, part review and part looking towards the park’s future which may unfortunately be uncertain.

Six Flags White Water is located in Marietta, Georgia, adjacent to Interstate 75 and just north of the city of Atlanta. It is 69 acres and opened in 1984 as White Water Atlanta before being bought by Six Flags and becoming Six Flags White Water in 1999. It’s unique in the Six Flags chain in that all the other water parks carry the Hurricane Harbor name. White Water Atlanta was actually built by Silver Dollar City (known today as Herschend Family Entertainment) as a sister to water park at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri also known as White Water.

The trees at White Water really help set a different atmosphere compared to many water parks and almost make you forget you are next to a huge interstate. In fact the only place in the park you’re really aware of the hustle and bustle of Cobb County around you is on Wahoo Racer which is the attraction they sandwiched between the edge of the park and the interstate in 2016. The shade also helps keep many of the pathways cooler for bare feet on hot summer days. Many of the water parks I have been to recently have essentially been a flat piece of concrete with minimal trees and shade. It does make logical sense as trees have needles, leaves and limbs that can fall and make quite a mess, but they can also be beautiful and add much needed shade. A young park may also hope to look like Six Flags White Water too, it just may take a decade or two as it’s often easier to clear-cut, bulldoze flat and replant than try to retain the original trees. Aquatica in Orlando is the only thing that even comes close to the serene and beautiful atmosphere of Six Flag’s White Water.

White Water is a huge park with an excellent selection of rides. We recently reviewed Island H2O in Orlando and although we thought it was excellent, it only has 11 attractions compared to 27 at Six Flags White Water. Major attractions can get long lines, but with so many attractions you can almost always find a reasonable line somewhere. This park is much more substantial than your standard Hurricane Harbor addition adjacent a theme park. White Water still has all but a few of its opening day attractions and many of the “defunct” attractions were more major refurbishments such as 100-meter splash into Wahoo Racers or Cliffhanger into Dive Bomber. The other couple losses of Secret Passage and Escape Chute (great old video) were very unique with successive drops and landing pools down the side of a hill. These slides were perhaps a bit too 1980’s from a safety perspective and surely a staffing nightmare with the extra lifeguards required that were replaced with Python Plunge, one of the park’s best slides today. The park’s assortment of flumes, slides and attractions is excellent, with nearly one of everything you’d expect. There are several family raft slides, a great lazy river, wave pool, several large kids areas, bunches of traditional body flume slides and tons of tube slides. Nearly all the gimmicks are here too such as an excellent version of a tornado, a drop capsule slide, high speed slides, dark slides and “toilet bowl” slides. The only thing the park could really benefit from would be a “water coaster”.

Six Flags White Water walks a fine line between feeling like an old school water park in the best way, but feeling a bit dated in other ways. The park has added many new attractions over the years, but many of the slides were there on opening day 39 years ago, with only a handful of opening day attractions retired. White Water is in great condition physically with everything being kept up well by maintenance, but some things feel a bit dated (or nostalgic depending upon your perspective). The food and beverage options may also not be up to the same standard as some of the newest parks. White Water has the standard Dippin’ Dots, chicken tenders, burgers, etc., but it comes from walk-up outdoor food stands no real options to sit down at the dining locations. Several water parks have really raised their game in food as has Six Flags themselves at Six Flags Over Georgia new food options for 2025, but this hasn’t made its way to White Water yet. Granted, such dining options were not an normal 40 years ago when White Water was built, but some guests may expect more now than stereotypical theme park food.

Last year was the park’s 40th birthday, but there is part of me that fears it may not be around for 40 more years. It’s attendance appears to be quite good, ranked #17 in the USA for water park attendance in a 2023 survey, but it sits on 69 acres of prime real estate that is interstate adjacent and in a rapidly growing area of Atlanta. The value of this land for use as a water park open early May through early September (4 months) may soon be exceeded by use for other development. Six Flags also added a Hurricane Harbor addition onto Six Flags Over Georgia several years ago whose expansion could be seen as a logical replacement. I sincerely hope this isn’t going to be the case and that White Water’s future is bright, but the closures of Six Flags America and the expected closure of California’s Great America in 2027 give reason for worry. In the current environment every enthusiast is a little worried about the potential closure, sale or other changes to their local Six Flags park. The loss of this beautiful location would be sad to see, but hopefully something like a new attraction announcement, the first since Python Plunge in 2022, will put the worry to rest.

Six Flags White Water really is a water park in a forest. From the moment you walk in this will be apparent to you and you’ll notice it over and over as paths up to the top of slides traverse through trees. It makes it both beautiful and has a degree of functionality in keeping guests cool in the hot Georgia summer. This does have a feel of a water park from a different era, but that can be a good thing. If you want a unique and beautiful water park experience, be sure to check out Six Flags White Water.