This 160-acre, landscaped park combines three distinct elements-it's a zoo, an oceanarium and an amusement park rolled into one. Beginning as a modest theme park in 1968 in Redwood City, 25mi south of San Francisco, it merged with a wildlife park in 1972, relocated to its present site in 1986, and became a part of the Six Flags group in 1999.A visit is best structured around the live animal performances, presented several times daily in various outdoor amphitheaters (shows last 20-30min; map & schedule available at entrance). Prominent among these are the bottle-nosed acrobats of Dolphin Harbor; and the Wildlife Theater, presenting exotic endangered species from around the world. Visitors can team up in a game of tug-of-war with pachyderms at Elephant Encounter.Among the most popular rides are: the DinoSphere Turboride, which scoots passengers past a life-sized, mechanical tyrannosaurus and through an erupting volcano; Kong, a suspended roller-coaster that corkscrews and drops more than 10 stories at speeds above 50mph; and the splashing plunge of Monsoon Falls.