A Birthday Trip To Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Camp-Resort
If you’re looking for a fun place to camp this summer around western North Carolina, you’ve got to check out Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Bostic, NC. The large park features a big recreational lake for swimming, fishing, paddle boarding, and even zip-lining. There are two restaurants, a convenience store and gift shop, a jumping pad for high energy kiddos, along with two pools featuring mini-water parks. They have campsites, RV sites, and cabin rentals. The rangers host tons of activities for kids and they can even meet Yogi Bear and his friends throughout the park. Our family of three spent the night at a red-carpet tent site and fell in love. It was so much fun that when we went to checkout on Sunday, we extended our stay for the rest of the day to spend some extra time fishing. It was so hard to leave!
Since we took our impromptu trip in spring, the pools weren’t open for another week, but that was probably a good thing for us. We had a hard enough time leaving without the splash pads involved. WE also scored a pretty nice “double discount”. Visiting outside of peak season, which runs between June 3rd and August 15th, meant the prices were already lower. On top of that, they were offering a twenty percent discount for that weekend. What a bargain!
I have to give Mike credit for this trip. It was very spontaneous, which I’m a sucker for, and he really committed to this park. We were looking for a special way to celebrate Silas’s third birthday when we realized we were way overdue for his first camping trip. We are typically terrible at planning things in advance as our compass often leads us in a different direction, or we skip the trip altogether. I was completely surprised when I got the green light to book our site. We couldn’t wait to experience this new adventure together.
Our site almost felt like we weren’t technically camping because it was so nice! The red carpet site was beautifully built. There was a bed of gravel to protect our things from getting dirty, which was really nice with a toddler in tow. The tent sites around us were identical, each equipped with a grill, fire ring, picnic table, and 30Amp hookup. That night, as we sat by the fire we could see the moonlight glistening off the water through the trees below us. Everyone around us were friendly and the night was filled with music and laughter coming in from every direction, until around ten or so when everything settled into a quiet and peaceful night beneath the stars.
The site provided ample space and fit our tent like a glove. Thankfully, I had thought to check the size of the tent site, before we purchased our tent. We were seconds away from grabbing an eight-person tent to give Mike some extra legroom -six foot eight can be tricky to accommodate. Thankfully, we went one-size smaller which still provided ample room, but more importantly fit our camp site. Can you imagine if it didn’t fit? Awkward.
You can check out this list for the exact camping gear we purchased from Walmart the night before our unplanned trip. The only things we forgot were the marshmallow forks and firewood. Luckily the general store had a couple of options for the forks. We picked up some cool bamboo skewers, that worked like a charm, along with a bundle of wood.
Does anything beat roasting marshmallows over a campfire on a cool spring night? Maybe swimming in an ice-cold lake on a hot day. Okay, maybe the lake was a little too chilly. The breeze was surely to blame, still the cold did not deter us from getting in the water. Even though we live pretty far from any large body of water, you never know where you might end up. For this reason, it’s important to us to teach Silas to swim safely. We introduced him to the water the first day. At first, he begged me not to let him sink. As soon as he was used to the water, I had a hard time getting him out and back to our campsite.
The next morning was beautiful. We took a short trip to the bathroom. The bathrooms were private and spacious and included showers. We were only there for the night, so we skipped taking showers, but the bathrooms were so clean, I wouldn’t have minded using them. We opted for a filling breakfast at The Scout’s Table after someone got really hungry in the middle of the night and ate our breakfast. I won’t call out the midnight muncher, but it worked out. We had a great breakfast. While I can count the number of restaurants we’ve been to in the past year on one hand, I haven’t seen servers smile so genuinely since before 2020. Our waitress was so welcoming, and multiple people checked on us with real smiles on their faces. The food was delicious, and came out quickly despite the open room being packed with families. When we were almost finished eating, Silas got to meet Cindy Bear, sort of.
Riding around on the back of a golf cart was fun and undoubtedly essential for a short stay. It made getting around the park a breeze, especially, with a little one –oh, excuse me “big boy”. He’s a big boy now. We probably would have skipped out on the jump pads if we had to walk the entire park. Silas had so much fun jumping with his dad. A big group of kids showed up and he had so much fun with them, he hardly noticed that we left him by himself to play. The only downfall to the jump pads were, of course, leaving.
It was time for the best part of the whole trip. Can you guess what that might be?
If you said fishing, we should be friends. Hey there, have we met before? While the odds of hooking a trophy fish are slim to none, the bank is the perfect place for little anglers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard our son squeal, and I mean SQUEAL with such delight quite the way he did as he reeled in his very first fish. I didn’t take him seriously when he claimed he had another one hooked a few moments later, but he sure did. It was so special to watch him handle his first catch with a little help from Dad.
I still can’t get over how cute he looked in his park ranger hat, as he showed off his very first fish.
Checkout was at one, and even though I had the bright idea to pack up our tent and gear before we left for breakfast, it was hard to stop fishing. Originally, we were going to fish until eleven-thirty, and then spend a half-hour swimming at the dock, again. Instead, we fished until nearly twelve-thirty and made it to check out at exactly one.
After purchasing an extended access pass for dirt cheap, we headed straight back to the lake sans golf cart. This is where I really noticed the difference the golf cart had made. There was a steep set of stairs from where we had camped leading straight down to the lake. Climbing them reminded me of the Manitou Incline. Of course, they weren’t that intense, but they were steep enough to feel the burn and pretty fun to climb down. I don’t think I’d enjoy climbing them more than once, though!
I took Silas back into the lake while Mike fished the bank nearby. This time he was a pro and decided to stop clinging to me. He was so brave, he nearly followed two little girls into the water by himself after we borrowed a life jacket from the park rangers. Although, he eventually got a little too brave and misstepped the corner of the dock. He got a little scrape, but it didn’t deter him from jumping back into the water one last time.
Even though it was a short trip, it was a ton of fun. We loved seeing Yogi Bear riding around the park on his own golfcart, and it was so nice to see so many kids being kids after everything that’s happened these last couple of years. Next time, around we will definitely snag one of the extended stay deals so we can enjoy a few more nights around the campfire. Until then, we have an awesome memory of our first trip to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park.
If you find yourselves there, we’d love to hear about your stay. Leave a comment below, or tag us on Facebook or Instagram to share the fun!
