The Enchanted Forest was designed and built to look bigger-than-life. At the time of the opening, only the Enchanted Forest area and Safari park were operational, with elements from five of the other planned parks being used to create the Enchanted Forest. After a 4,500 invitation-only guest opening on June 30, 1974, the Great Adventure entertainment complex opened to the general public on July 1, 1974, at a price tag of $10 million. Together, they set out to open the seven parks in stages over a 5-year period. LeRoy collaborated with Hardwicke Industries, who previously built safari parks in Canada and Europe.

Since the park's opening, it has been served by in-house emergency services composing of the Fire Department (Ocean County Station 58) and Emergency Medical Service (Ocean County Squad 80). The property on County Route 537 had easy access to the newly constructed Interstate 195, which connected central New Jersey to the New Jersey Turnpike ( Interstate 95) and would eventually (in 1981) connect to the Garden State Parkway.

He chose a property then owned by the Switlik family, in an area centrally located between the New York City and Philadelphia regions. LeRoy wanted his parks to flow naturally through the forest and lakes, capitalizing on the back-to-nature movement of the era. His proposal also included plans for hotels, which were connected to the parks and could be reached by boats, buses, a sky ride and/or a monorail. In 1972, entrepreneurial businessman Warner LeRoy developed concept plans for the Great Adventure entertainment complex, proposing seven parks be built within the complex: An amusement park, a safari park, a show park, a floral park, a sports complex, a shopping district, and a campground with beach/waterpark and stables. View of Great Adventure from the top of the Big Wheel, looking east Warner LeRoy era (1974–1977) ( December 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. This section needs additional citations for verification. At 510 acres (210 ha), it is the second-largest theme park in the world following Disney's Animal Kingdom. In 2012, Six Flags combined its 160-acre (65 ha) Great Adventure with its 350-acre (140 ha) Wild Safari animal park to form Six Flags Great Adventure & Safari park. The park is located right off of Interstate 195 and is along Monmouth Road ( County Route 537). It first opened to the public as simply Great Adventure in 1974 under the direction of restaurateur Warner LeRoy. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park complex is situated between New York City and Philadelphia and includes a water park named Hurricane Harbor.

Six Flags Great Adventure is an amusement park located approximately 20 miles southeast of Trenton in Jackson, New Jersey.

Not to be confused with Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois.

6 flag safari