Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Quarryville, Pennsylvania is one of the most impressive resort-style campgrounds in the Northeast. If your family is looking for a camping experience with off-the-hook amenities and non-stop activities then this is the place. We pulled in on a Friday afternoon and didn’t leave the campground until checkout on Monday morning. Our three-day weekend was like a journey into a magical and adventurous kingdom made for families.
The first thing that impressed us was the size and quality of our site on Boo Boo Circle. It was much larger than the sites that you typically see at a private resort campground. The RVs on either side were not directly lined up with ours so we weren’t looking at sewer hookups while sitting around our campfire. This is a fatal flaw at so many private campgrounds—but not here.
During our stay we walked around and saw that the vast majority of sites were just as nice as ours. We also noticed a lot of “buddy site” options. These allow you to camp with friends and have your awnings facing each other so you can create a large, private space in the middle. Many of these “buddy sites” were also located next to cabins—making this campground a near perfect place for a vacation with friends and family in small or large groups.
We met up with friends at Jellystone Quarryville, and all of our kids had non-stop fun. Our three-year-old son loved that there was a flat, mellow “jump pad” next to the more adventurous “bounce pillow.” This allowed him to jump with kids his own age instead of the older kids that gravitated towards the pillow. All of the campground amenities had a similar feel—something for the little kids and something for the older kids. There were teenagers playing a competitive basketball game right around the corner from toddlers having a blast at the large, modern playground. There were also “Hey” rides at 4pm and 9pm—so you could choose based on your kids’ bedtime schedule. Our boys range from 3-7 years old and Jellystone Quarryville was perfect for them. But we could also bring them back as teenagers and have just as much fun.
The resort style amenities and optional add-ons also make this Jellystone a particularly luxurious campground if you want to splurge and treat your family. We decided to rent a golf cart, and we all loved driving around the campground from one activity to the next. The cart also made it easier to get the whole crew from our campsite to the pool. Jellystone Quarryville takes things way over the top, actually renting out hot tubs and delivering them to your site. We were tempted to rent one for a day, because our boys would have totally flipped out, but they were sold out for the weekend. Hopefully next time!
The weather was warm during our stay and we spent hours and hours at the pool each day, so we opted to rent a private poolside cabana and share it with friends on Saturday. This allowed all of us to take relaxing, shaded breaks between trips to the pool, hot tubs, and water slides, which were all super fun and world class. We also bought a surprisingly tasty lunch from Yogi’s “Pic-A-Nic Basket.” I ordered a turkey club, mom got a wrap, and the boys all got cheeseburgers. We also bought delicious homemade Amish bake goods one morning. The quality of the amenities and food really made us feel like we were staying at a luxurious resort hotel—but we weren’t! Our comfortable and cozy RV was right around the corner.
On our last morning at the campground I took a golf cart drive around the campground with my friend Bill. We wrote down the numbers of some of our favorite sites for a return trip. Dutch Country is beautiful in the fall and this Yogi is open for business. Hopefully they rent those hot tubs in October. If so we’ll treat our crew to another special weekend that they will remember forever!
Jeremy and Stephanie Puglisi are the co hosts of the weekly RV Family Travel Atlas and Campground of the Week podcasts, as well as the creators of the RVFTA Podcast Network. They are also the authors of The Idiots Guide to RV Vacations and the Acadia National Park Adventure Guide. After buying their very first pop up camper six years ago, Jeremy and Stephanie caught the RV bug in a big way, and now spend over 70 nights a year in their travel trailer with their three sons, Theo, Max, and Wes, and sweet Maggie the pup. You can follow along on their adventures (and misadventures) at rvfamilytravelatlas.com.
