Yogi Bear's Jellystone Parkâ Camp-Resort: Natural Bridge

This was the 2nd year that we have been to Jelllystone Park at Natural Bridge. Last fall we went during the Halloween season and the activities were geared around the holiday. Lots of other campers had their site decked out with the Halloween theme. The kids had a great time trick-or-treating and participating in the other games, activities and dance.
This year we went in the early summer and the water venues were open. Everyone loved the pool, lake and water slides. We even rafted down the James River one day. It runs right by the campground.
One note: this is not a quiet, laid back camping experience. There is something happening all the time here. We found it to be a great place for multi-generational gatherings because of all the things to do.

We enjoyed our stay. Lots of activities for kids. Next time we will stay across the street in the more wooded campsites for more of a “camping” experience. We were directly across from the pool during this stay with easy access to everything. Golf carts are available for rent for sites not as close to all the amenities.

Camp is awesome for kids. Lake, slides, pool, splash pad, arcade, mini golf, yogi bear rides around. Now the negative- spaces are tight, showers are dirty and closed at bad times ( 7am). Camp is so large you realistically need to rent a golf cart to get around (76 dollars a night ). Main water slides are broken. Level site for us, people across the road needed 6 blocks to level.

Date of stay July 3-7th. The place was PACKED (as to be expected for the 4th of July weekend). It finally cleared out on the 5th.

Access to the campground: This place is back off the beaten path. The road to it is narrow and makes some tight turns so brining your big rig can be tricky. That did not stop people though. There were some monstrous trailers and couch busses at the camp ground during our stay.

Site: Our site sucked! all dirt, not level, full of tree roots and rocks. It was narrow so is felt like our neighbors and I were sharing a camp site. They do have "VIP" sites but they cost more $ and at $100 a night I did not feel like spending the extra cash just for a graved or concrete pad site.

Amenities: True to Yogi Bear, the amount of things to do for the kids was plentiful. The pool was clean and well kept. There are 2 water slides that looked like a lot of fun for the adults and older kids. There is also a splash pad with a smaller water slide for the little ones. The swimming pond hand had a bunch of green algae floating around. It was mostly on one sided of the lake so it didn't stop us from swimming in the pond. The sand was a mix of construction grade sand and dirt. The swimming pond also had a large blowup jungle gym/ slide that you could pay extra to use for 45 min. The fishing pond was loaded with weeds so any spinner bait would not work well.

WiFi: there was internet access for those rainy days. It was fast enough to stream low def movies for the kids if need be.

In the end, the kids had fun but we will not be going back.

We needed to get away semi-last minute & we were lucky to find the last open spot for our dates as like most campgrounds, they were fully booked. We arrived on a Monday & most of the campground was empty & the Halloween activities didn’t start until Friday. It was quite peaceful & allowed us to explore the area & we got to know the staff, who were friendly, helpful, and just quite awesome. Gary, the manager, clearly take pride in his work & runs a great campground. The Halloween decor was awesome. They really did a fantastic job decorating everywhere!

Coming here for Halloween weekend was the best decision! Trick-or-treating was a blast & I never want to do Halloween at home again! Almost everyone had their sites decorated, and a lot of people went all out. It was awesome! There were some other cute & simple activities for kids to do, which is exactly what I had hoped for when I booked. Don’t be late to the activities, there are a lot of kids! We did the hay ride around the campground & got to see all of the decorated sites. We didn’t get to do the haunted trail because our little one was too scared but maybe next time.

The campground itself is well kept & clean, the playgrounds are newer, the arcade kept our little one busy while we had to do a little laundry. Speaking of which, the laundry was reasonably priced as were the detergent & dryer sheets at the camp store. I was pleasantly surprised by how reasonable the camp store prices were. We didn’t have time to grab some firewood from home so we just bought it from the store everyday and it turned out to be decent wood.

We were happy with our campsite. There was a good balance of grass & gravel/stone. We did not have any issues with the size or leveling our 40’ rig. Our site fit our trailer & truck nicely. Our site was located adjacent to the camp store/pool area.

If you want to venture out, I highly recommend going down the road to see the Natural Bridge. It’s pretty & a nice little hike. Most of the other local activities were closed until the weekend when the campground activities started (zoo & dinosaur park) so we didn’t go to either. We did go see the caves which were pretty cool too & I recommend.

While I recommend camping for the Halloween weekend, I can’t wait to come back to try out their waterslides, pool, splash pad, lake, and maybe canoe down the river during the warmer months!

Not a bad stay overall. We stayed 7-9 July 2023 for $113.40 per night (5 of us). The road there from the highway is curvy and hilly if you come in from the west. It is about 10 minutes from the highway. If you are heading in from the east (we left to the east) you will encounter some twisty-turny mountain passes, so beware.
The positives: lots to do. Tubing or just chilling in the James River; pool is inviting even if a bit small for the size of the campground; splash pad was a hit; the water slides were open and fast; the lake/pond was warm but the inflatable obstacle course is no longer there; fishing pond was busy; arcade was well used; plus more. Also it isn’t far from the local attractions. Definitely recommend the safari park.
The negatives: sites were tight. We were in L3. It was paved but between sites was gravel so we had to walk a bit for the pups; the internet never worked and had practically no cell reception. Internet worked in the lodge but not at the sites.
Was great to get the kids off the devices though.

We stayed here for my son’s spring break so that we can visit the attractions in the area (natural bridge state park, caverns, zoo, boxerwood gardens in Lexington). The park staff was very friendly and helpful. There are a ton of amenities including playgrounds, jumping pillows, arcade, camp store, catch and release fishing, pool, water slides, and a splash pad (the water attractions were still closed for the season while we visited). The campground is pretty dispersed and it seems like a lot of folks rent or have brought golf carts. I paid the lock fee to get a site close to all of the amenities and I’m glad I did. The bathhouse was clean. The WiFi is a little slow and cell signal was minimal on T-Mobile. Overall we’re very happy with our stay!