Jellystone Park Locations Offer Weekends Packed With Fall and Pre-Halloween Fun

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resorts
Published: August 30th, 2022

• Carnival weekends include apple bobbing and scarecrow decorating
• Halloween-themed weekends feature costume and campsite decorating contests, Halloween-theme crafts, haunted trails and haunted pavilions

CINCINNATI, Aug. 29, 2022 // GLOBE NEWSWIRE // - One of the busiest times of year at many Jellystone Park locations are the weeks leading up to Halloween. That’s when the Yogi Bear-themed parks offer a variety of fall and pre-Halloween activities ranging from making caramel apples and scarecrows to costume, campsite, and pumpkin-decorating contests to trick-or-treating. Some locations even offer zombie hunts, haunted hayrides, haunted houses, and haunted trails.

Some of our locations give families a taste of Halloween as early as Labor Day, but most roll out their best Halloween themed activities after a weekend or two of fall activities,” Trent Hershenson, vice president of Marketing for Camp Jellystone, which franchises Jellystone Park locations across North America.

The following is a sampling of the upcoming activities at Jellystone Park locations across the country:

• Big Prairie, Ohio: This location’s fall activities include a “Barnyard Weekend” Sept. 16-18 with a petting zoo, scarecrow face painting, a shucking corn competition and a straw bale toss. The park’s annual “Apple Dumpling Festival Weekend” will occur Sept. 23-25 with activities ranging from a kiddie tractor pull to horse-drawn dragon rides, and apple and fall festival activities, including an eight-acre corn maze. Mrs. Saurer’s famous apple dumplings will also be available for purchase. The park will have five consecutive weekends with Halloween-themed activities beginning Sept. 30-Oct. 2 with pumpkin tosses and pumpkin bowling among other events. The last weekend of October will feature mummy races, painting challenges and Halloween costume contests among other activities.
• Binghamton, New York: This new Jellystone Park location is celebrating its first Halloween with three weekends guaranteed to bring out the zombie in everyone. The scary fun begins Oct. 7-9 with Dia Del Los Muertos weekend, followed by Zombies Weekend Oct. 14-16 and Halloween Weekend Oct 21-23. Costume parades, campsite decorating contests, apple bobbing and Zombie Darts are just a few of the special activities on the calendar.
• Bloomington, Indiana: Autumn at this location begins with a fall art festival Sept. 16-18 that features local artisans bringing their creations to show how they make them as well as crafts in which everyone can participate, including wood burning and candle making. “The Great Scarecrow Weekend” will be Sept. 23-25 with a magic pumpkin patch, ghostly crafts, a scarecrow decorating contest and trick-or-treating Saturday night. There will also be Halloween-themed weekends every weekend in October with a magic pumpkin patch, caramel apples, contests for best costumes and best decorated campsites and trick-or-treating.
• Brandon, South Dakota: This Jellystone Park location has a seven-acre corn maze next door to complement the fall activities at the park. Three Halloween-themed weekends are scheduled beginning Sept. 9-11 with the fourth slated for the end of October. Activities will include campsite decorating, Halloween games, crafts and trick-or-treating.
• Chautauqua County, New York: Also new to the Jellystone Park system, this location will celebrate Halloween Oct. 8-11 with trick-or-treating, a costume contest, bobbing for donuts, a spider race, Halloween crafts and mummy making. Other special fall events include Grandparents Weekend, Hometown Hero’s Weekend, Fall Apple Weekend and Sports Spectacular Weekend.
• Greenfield Park, New York: This location will have four consecutive Halloween-themed weekends beginning Sept. 16-18 with pumpkin painting, pumpkin bowling, a campsite decorating contest and a costume contest during a Saturday night dance.
• Harrisville, Pennsylvania: This location has a variety of scary weekends starting Sept. 9-11 with the park’s “Zombie Weekend.” Activities include a “Zombie Takeover Hayride,” a game of “Pin the Brain on the Zombie” and a silly monster craft. Activities for the weekend of Sept. 16-18 include “eyeball and spider races” and creating your own Halloween mask. The weekend of Sept. 23-25 features a magic pumpkin patch, pumpkin chucking, pumpkin races, pumpkin games and a pumpkin patch picture frame craft. More Halloween themed activities are featured from Sept. 30-Oct. 2 through the end of October, including Halloween costume fashion shows, Halloween crafts and a haunted pavilion.
• Larkspur, Colorado: Fall activities at this location include four consecutive Halloween-themed weekends starting Oct. 7-9 that include decorated golf cart parades, campsite decorating contests, costume contests, trick-or-treating and Halloween-themed crafts and activities.
• Madison, Maine: This location offers three consecutive Halloween themed weekends starting Sept. 16-18. Activities include a “Nightmare Express” and a “Tour of Terror.” Prizes will be presented to the scariest and most creative campsites. There will also be trick-or-treating on Saturday nights. The weekend of Sept. 23-25 will be a “non-scary” weekend and will feature a magic pumpkin patch, pumpkin painting and fun games. Guests will be invited to dress up their pets for the “Tails and Treats Parade” on the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 2, which will also feature a haunted trail.
• Millbrook, Illinois: This location kicks off fall with a “Fall Fest Weekend” Sept. 23-25 with apple bobbing and scarecrow-making contests and a fall scavenger hunt. A “Friends Giving Weekend” will take place Sept. 30-Oct. 2 when park guests are invited to bring a dish to share in a park-wide potluck. Three Halloween-themed weekends will start Oct. 7-9 with non-scary activities, including magic pumpkin rides, costume contests and trick- or-treating. Halloween festivities Oct. 14-16 will include a “‘Boo!’ Boo Boogie” with a DJ and dancing, with the scariest weekend being Oct. 21-23 with a haunted forest walk.
• Mill Run, Pennsylvania: This location will have six Halloween-themed weekends beginning September 23. They will feature a campsite decorating competition, a haunted hayride and haunted trail, trick-or-treating, Yogi Bear’s Magical Pumpkin Ride and a costume parade.
• Pierceton, Indiana: The park’s “Fall Fest Farewell Weekend,” Sept. 16-18, includes a pumpkin patch for the kids, pumpkin carving contests for adults and children, an Oktoberfest celebration with sausages and kraut and a family movie night.
• Pittsfield, Illinois: This location will feature three consecutive Halloween-themed weekends starting Sept. 23-25 with activities that include decorating the Pine Lakes Witch House, a “witches house bonfire,” costume contests for adults and children, and a haunted trail maze at night. The park will also offer three consecutive non-scary Halloween-themed weekends beginning Oct. 14-16 with pumpkin painting, costume contests, trick-or-treating and wagon rides.
• Silver Lake, Michigan: On the weekend of Sept. 9-11, the park will have an “Apple BBQ Cook Off Weekend and will offer professional and amateur BBQ competitions with participants from all over the country, an apple pie contest, food booths, a craft show and live entertainment. Halloween-themed weekends will be held again Sept. 16-18 and Sept. 23-25 with a glow-in-the-dark wagon ride, pumpkin carving and Halloween crafts in addition to trick-or-treating.

SOURCE Camp Jellystone