Grizzly Peak at California Adventure

Grizzly Peak is the one part of the original 2001 park that worked on opening day and has never needed rescuing. The mountain itself — a bear-shaped granite peak with a whitewater river running around its base — is the park's best piece of built landscape, and the surrounding pine and redwood planting has had twenty-five years to grow into something that genuinely reads as forest.

It holds two headliners. Soarin' Around the World is the hang-glider simulator in Grizzly Peak Airfield, and Grizzly River Run is the rapids ride that will soak you completely rather than splash you. Between them sits Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, a free-range climbing and zip-line playground that is the most underused acre at the Disneyland Resort.

This is the shadiest land in the park by a wide margin, and the only one where the shade comes from real trees. On a hot day it is where you should be at 2pm, and Redwood Creek is where your children should be while you sit on a bench.

The catch is food. There is exactly one substantial place to eat up here, so plan a Grizzly Peak stretch around Smokejumpers Grill rather than assuming you can grab something.

Do not miss

Soarin' Around the World, and the row B seat request that transforms it
Grizzly River Run on a hot afternoon
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail's climbing nets and zip line
The best real shade in the park
Smokejumpers Grill's free toppings bar

Grizzly Peak tips

Ask for row B, center at the Soarin' row-assignment podium. It is the difference between a good ride and the best ride in the park.
Grizzly River Run soaks you rather than splashing you. Use the lockers for phones and put dry socks in your bag.
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail closes before the park does, sometimes well before. Do it in the afternoon.
There is one real restaurant in this entire half of the park. Eat at Smokejumpers before you walk back toward the pier, not after.

Attractions in Grizzly Peak

Soarin' Around the World

40"102cm

Simulator · 5 min · Multi Pass

A hang-glider simulator over a domed screen, flying you across landmarks on five continents in five minutes.

Soarin' opened with the park in 2001 as Soarin' Over California, flying a single-state route that is still the version many locals prefer. In 2016 it was replaced with Soarin' Around the World, a globe-spanning film shot in higher resolution that visits sites across five continents.

Tips for Soarin' Around the World

Ask for row B, center. It is the difference between a good ride and the best ride at the park. Ask at the row-assignment podium, not in the main queue.
If you are in an outer seat of any row, the edge of the dome curves and the image distorts. It is worth waiting one extra cycle for a center seat if the cast member offers.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass covers this, and it is a strong pick because the standby wait is long all day and there is no single rider line.
Anyone bothered by heights should know the sensation is real, not simulated — you are genuinely lifted about forty feet with nothing under your feet. Closing your eyes removes the fear entirely and most people never think to try it.
Repeat visitors: the 2016 film replaced the original California route, which Disney has periodically brought back for limited runs. The permanent, year-round version is the around-the-world film.

Full guide to Soarin' Around the World →

Grizzly River Run

42"107cm

Water ride · 5 min · Multi Pass

A circular-raft rapids ride down a man-made river with two drops, and the wettest ride at either Disneyland Resort park.

Grizzly River Run opened with the park in 2001 and runs around the base of Grizzly Peak, the bear-shaped mountain that is the park's original visual anchor. Eight-passenger circular rafts float a course of rapids, past geysers and under waterfalls, with two drops — the second of which is taken while the raft spins.

Tips for Grizzly River Run

You will get soaked, not splashed. Bring a dry bag or use the lockers at the entrance for anything that must not get wet, including phones — a poncho will not save a pocket.
The dryer strategy that actually works is a change of socks in your bag. Wet shoes ruin an afternoon far more reliably than a wet shirt.
Ride it in the early afternoon on a hot day and it is the best attraction in the park. Ride it at 9pm in February and you will be miserable for the rest of the night.
There is no single rider line here, and Multi Pass is worth using because the queue is long, uphill, and largely unshaded.
Repeat visitors: the raft's rotation is determined by weight distribution, so a raft with an uneven load spins more and takes the second drop at a wilder angle. Loading with a heavy group on one side is how you get the good version.

Full guide to Grizzly River Run →

Redwood Creek Challenge Trail

42"107cm

Play area · 45 min

A free-range climbing, sliding and zip-lining play trail under real trees — the best hour in the park for kids aged 5 to 12.

Redwood Creek Challenge Trail opened with the park in 2001 and is the single most underused piece of real estate at the Disneyland Resort. It is a genuine adventure playground: rope bridges, a climbing net, cargo nets, log slides, a rock wall, a cave to crawl through, and two short zip lines, all laid out along a wooded trail on the slope of Grizzly Peak.

Tips for Redwood Creek Challenge Trail

This is the best shade in the park by a wide margin — real trees, not sail cloth. Use it as your midday base and let the kids burn off two hours of queue frustration.
The zip line has both a minimum and a maximum: 42 to 63 inches, and riders must be under 13. Tall 11-year-olds get turned away and it is worth warning them in advance.
The trail closes before park closing, often well before, and it does not always reopen after a weather closure. Do it in the afternoon rather than saving it for the evening.
Adults can walk the whole trail too, and the upper path gives the best ground-level views of Grizzly Peak's rockwork that exist anywhere in the park.
Repeat visitors: there is a small animatronic show at the top of the trail that runs on a loop and has essentially no audience. It is a legitimate hidden corner of the park and takes five minutes.

Full guide to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail →

Eating in Grizzly Peak

Quick service · Grizzly Peak

Smokejumpers Grill

The park's burger counter, themed to a wildland firefighting base, with a genuinely good toppings bar.

$$Mobile order

CuisineBurgers and American grill
ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

Bacon Cheeseburger

Smokejumpers Grill

$17.99

A cooked-to-order burger with bacon and cheese, finished at a free self-serve toppings bar with grilled onions, sauces and peppers.

Our take: The best burger at either Disneyland Resort park, largely because of the toppings bar most guests walk straight past. Use it.

Near the top of the list Savory

Plant-Based Burger

Smokejumpers Grill

$17.49

A plant-based patty served as a standard burger, with gluten-free buns available on request at the counter.

Our take: The same patty used at several resort locations, but this is the only counter that lets you dress it at the toppings bar, which changes it completely.

Savory Vegetarian

Nearby

Disney California Adventure map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disney California Adventure Buena Vista Street The park's entrance street, rebuilt in 2012 as 1920s Los Angeles as Walt Disney would have found it. Hollywood Land The park's studio district, now thinner than it has ever been and built almost entirely around theaters.