I vaguely remember this, I think I was 11 or 12 at the time, it was like the second year my dad and I had season passes. But we didn't know about the entrance until the middle of the summer and then, like you had said, it just closed one day. I still think they should have something like that. And it was always a ghost town that dumped you into the middle of a dead area. Brings back some good memories though!