Cave City’s Jellystone Park expands with new campsites and cabins

CAVE CITY Ky. – An expansion to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park means more to do for those who visit. The Cave City location of the park is nearly ready to open 103 additional campsites and 20 new cabins. The new additions are the final part of the first phase of a multi-million-dollar expansion that also includes last summer’s opening of Karst beach and the opening of a Nathan’s famous hot dog franchise.

Jellystone recreation director Christina Lorenzana said this expansion will not only benefit the park but also Cave City as a whole.

“We do a lot for the community, and I know Jellystone is one of Cave City’s economy boosters, so it’s really nice. I know how much love and effort the owners put into this. It’s nice to see it grow and kind of make their dreams come true,” said Lorenzana.

Jellystone Park owner Bill Pott says an important factor in the park’s development is what his campers want to see.

“We try to anticipate what the campers want. We hope we’ve got it right since it took so long beyond our original plans to get it ready. We’ll sit back and wait a year or two before phase two,” Pott said.

With a large park expansion, Pott emphasizes the impact the project will have on Cave City.

“Tourism in Cave City is our main business. It’s not just a matter of bringing people into Jellystone. We get guests in here, and we feed them out to Kentucky Down Under, Mammoth Cave National Park. We all are a joint effort of the tourism business. We’re very very pleased to have this coming to fruition finally and get everything open. We think it’s gonna be absolutely wonderful for Cave City, Barren County, and this whole region of Kentucky,” Pott said.