More Mountain

Have you ever had the experience of knowing you had a particular photo in your collection and simply not being able to find it? It's a frustration that seems even more prominent in the digital age, with thousands of pictures in our hard drives. Well, this morning I stumbled upon some detail shots of Space Mountain at Disneyland that I had intended to share with you in last week's article. What is it they say? Better late than never!

As we discussed last week, Space Mountain is the space port of Tomorrowland, and quite a few details were added for the attraction's 2005 relaunch to help further support that story. The photo above, taken from the upper-level queue area, shows a landing platform for spacecraft. The platform and the queue are actually on the roof of the Magic Eye Theater (now showing Captain EO). When Space Mountain opened in 1977, this space was open, and guests waiting in line had a view of the live entertainment hosted down on the Space Stage.

This graphic seen just inside the building shows us how Space Station 77 appears from outer space, where it docks with other space stations. Look closely in the lower right corner, and you'll spot a cargo ship, just like the one that hangs overhead in the loading bay.

Passing through the queue, the wall finishes and details really make it feel as though you've entered a space station. There are even air locks and gantry elevator portals.

Oh, and speaking of that cargo ship...

While the number in Space Station 77 obviously refers to the attraction's opening date, the cargo vessel docked at the loading bay bears the designation DL05 for Disneyland and 2005, the year Space Mountain opened after a nearly two year refurbishment.