Jellystone Campground, Cave City, KY

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park – Mammoth Cave, KY
1002 Mammoth Cave Road
Cave City, Kentucky 42127
Phone: (270) 773-3840
Toll Free: +1 (800) 523-1854
Email: yogi@jellystonemammothcave.com

www.jellystonemammothcave.com

This spring break we decided last minute to hit the road for a few days and head south. As a kid, we always ended up in Kentucky for the do-able drive and warmer weather. We didn’t want to drive to far with a 3 month old, so we decided Kentucky was a good place to check out since we’d never taken the boys. Since we were booking sort of last minute, we were lucky enough to find a site at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Campground in Cave City, KY.

We are big fans of Jellystone Park Campgrounds for their family friendly atmosphere and activities geared towards young ones. I read online the pools at this campground were open so we knew the boys would be hooked. Their website also showed a massive water slide and splash pad, which I knew would be fun. Unfortunately, although it was spring break, only one of the two pools were open. The splash pad and water slide were not yet open for the season. We did have fun hanging out at the heated pool that was open though.

The campground included a nice ranger station, rentable golf carts, bath houses, laundry facilities, playgrounds, jump pad, mini golf, outdoor theater, and fishing pond. The only complaint I have about the facilities is the hours of the camp store during the week. The store and food service closed down at 7 pm. We found the kitchen closed once at 630 when we went to order some snacks to go with our dinner, and another time at 7:03 when I sent Ethan down on his bike to get something. 7 pm seemed just a little early, especially for families who are out and about for the day and just making dinner around this time.

The campground hosted daily activities for kids, including craft time, meeting yogi, daily hay ride, and movie night. The grounds were really beautiful.

One thing we quickly learned was why so many people rent golf carts here! The hills were nothing to mess around with. My legs got a great work out and Ethan had a couple of scraped knees from falling off his bike. This is to be expected in this part of Kentucky though, and it really was beautiful. Overall, we loved this campground. A huge expansion is going on here, and they are building even more sites, pools, and fun. We plan to return again.

While visiting Cave City, there were quite a few fun things for kids to do. One of our adventures included Dinosaur World. From the outside, this place is cheesy, Im not going to sugar coat it. It really is fun for the littles though. The boys had a great time walking through the woods looking at all the large dinosaurs. There was also a fun playground, and they got to dig for bones.

Kentucky Action park was the place the boys really wanted to spend all of their time. The fun here included mini golf, go carts, a rock wall, and of course the alpine slide and chair lift. They would have done the slide all day if we let them.

There are a lot of cave tours, kayaking adventures, and many other fun things to do in the area. We were just a bit limited traveling with such a young one in tow, however, we still had a blast.

Last but not least- we had to visit Mammoth Cave National Park. We did the short self-guided tour here, after having a nice picnic lunch in the park. The self-guided tour is short but perfect for those with young children who don’t want to do a full tour. I highly reccomend reservations prior to your visit if you’re doing a cave tour, or you may not get a chance to go on one. The tours were mostly sold out when we were there through the following weekend. The self-guided tour does not require reservations, but it does require a ticket.