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Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Franchise Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Franchise
  • Home
  • Why Choose Us?
    • Growth Potential
    • Experienced Team
    • Brand Recognition
    • Key Performance Indicators
    • Testimonials
  • Tools & Support
    • Training
    • Merchandise
    • Operations
    • Marketing
    • Club Yogi™ Rewards
    • Theming
  • Franchise Opportunities
    • Convert Your Campground
    • Purchase for Conversion
    • Build
    • Prospective Owners Workshop
  • REIT
    • Revenue Flexibility
  • Parks For Sale
  • Resources
    • Press Room
    • FAQs
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    • Videos
    • Our History
  • Contact Us

THE JELLYSTONE PARK IN AUSTIN IS BECOMING A WEEKEND GETAWAY FOR TWIN CITIES RESIDENTS WHO LOVE THEMED WEEKENDS AND ACTIVITIES WITH YOGI BEAR

May 23, 2016 | Posted by Michele Wisher |
AUSTIN, Minn., May 23, 2016 — Camping has always been a wonderful way to promote family bonding.

And Jellystone Parks take it a step further by offering organized activities for children and families that keep everybody so engaged that they set their cellphones aside and spend quality time with one another, without electronic distractions.

“That’s the way we like it,” said Ken and Tammy Westrich, who operate the Beaver Trails Jellystone Park in Austin, Minn. with her parents and owners Don and Laura Tolner.

Westrich and her family have not only created an environment for parents to strengthen their relationship with their children. They’ve also created a unique vacation setting where different families from Minnesota and surrounding states bond with one another.

“We have such a big seasonal family down there that we all get together in February at a hotel because we can’t wait to see each other again before the park reopens,” said Kelly Lucken, a Twin Cities resident who has been camping at the Austin campground with her 13-year-old daughter for the past six years.

She said as many as 50 seasonal campers from the Beaver Trails Jellystone participate in the mid-winter rendezvous.

The Luckens used to make the 90-minute drive from the Twin Cities area to the Beaver Trails Jellystone on weekends. But now she’s a “seasonal camper,” and rents a site for her trailer and leaves it at the campground for the entire season, from April 15th to Oct. 15th.

Westrich said more and more residents from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota are seasonal camping.

“I love it,” Lucken said. “We get there Friday night and we can stay there until Monday and I can still make it to work on time.”           Jellystone Parks are famous for providing fun, family activities and themed weekends that include everything from crafts and games to wagon rides. Birthday parties with the bears and daily appearances by Yogi Bear are also very popular.           Themed weekend activities are scheduled from April to October, including polar plunge weekends; Mardi Gras themed weekends with parades, cookouts and dances; Wild West weekends; pirate themed weekends; and fall festival weekends.

Lucken said her favorite themed weekends are retro weekends, when everyone dresses up in ‘70s and ‘80s attire and dances to period music.

New attractions at the Beaver Trails Jellystone for this year include an inflatable “Polar Vortex Water Slide,” which has its own blow up rock climbing wall as well as an obstacle course. This new attraction complements the park’s giant slip and slide and 24-foot tall dual racing slides.

The campground also has a mining sluice, playgrounds, a jumping pillow, a pirate bounce house, and a 3,000-square foot pavilion area so that activities can continue during inclement weather.

You don’t even need a tent or RV to camp there. The campground just added three new cabins with kitchens and bathrooms, each of which can sleep six. These complement a dozen existing cabins.            “We also added another building that features 11 showers with all brand new beautiful stamped concrete floors,” Westrich said.

For more information, please visit www.beavertrailsjellystone.com.

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Roger & Anna Barry – Fremont, IN

When we joined the Jellystone Park™ system in 1980, we were a small operation without a plan. What we have learned through the years from LSI and our fellow Yogi Bear™ owners and operators has been extremely valuable. We now have over 500 sites, RV Sales, waterslides, and a seven family member team of owners and operating managers. We couldn’t have done it w…

Roger & Anna Barry

Erv & Marilyn Banes – Frankenmuth, MI

We decided to convert to the Jellystone Park™ system in 1996 because the market conditions were changing. Several of our colleagues had converted and grown in the process. We found that by changing our customer base to families, rather than seniors, we expanded.

The advantage of a Jellystone Park™ is that it is so much more alive than the average park. Plu…

Erv & Marilyn Banes

Theresa Isaacson – Caledonia, WI

We’re going to be entering our 13th season, and I sure would hate to own a property without being Yogi branded. The reason we really like Jellystone Parks is because of the support behind us. With 80 other parks in the system, we have 80 sources of question-and-answer type people to go to. The support is wonderful. The franchise, the LSI system itself – their …

Theresa Isaacson

Joey Coleman & Rick Coleman – Tabor City, NC

In 2001, we began a unique challenge to build a campground on our family farm 35 miles inland from Myrtle Beach. People responded to our design of large concrete pads, full hook-ups, plenty of open space, and ultimate customer service. But we soon had “growing pains” with procedures and operations.

In 2003, we joined Jellystone Park™. The operations…

Joey Coleman & Rick Coleman

Ian & Sally Steyn – Larkspur, CO

2009 was our first year as a Jellystone Park™ and since then we have experienced double digit growth.  For 2012, our revenues were up 33% and net operating income was up more than that, year over year! After almost four decades of owning various businesses, converting our campground to a Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort ranks among the smartest decisions.
Ian & Sally Steyn

Bill Pott – Cave City, KY

I really like the way it brings me a nice class of customers. I get happy families. I get people who want to come and to spend money to have fun. They enjoy our park. It’s just wonderful they way they come in, and you get so many that want to meet the other guests, they want to go have fun on the Jumping Pillow, then they want to go to the Splash Pad – and they want …
Bill Pott

Chip Smith – Monticello, IA

We got into the Jellystone brand at the beginning of last year. This is the end of our first season. We are pretty excited about it. What I like most about the brand is the fact that they are drawing in families from three hours away. They all know what we’re there for, and they’re willing to spend a longer time at our park than just the weekend. The investme…
Chip Smith

Rick Spear – Estes Park, CO

We’ve been in the Jellystone franchise system for 20 years this year. It was a family endeavor to begin with, but over those 20 years we’ve seen significant growth of our campground. In particular, just the last three years in a row we’ve been up double digits, 10-11% points three years in a row. We’ve really been coming on strong, and continue to see good grow…
Rick Spear

Denny Quigley & Tami Alessio – Harrisville, PA

2011 was our first year as a Jellystone Park™. Since then, we have definitely noticed that we are attracting a lot more guests from a much larger radius that extends nationwide. And we are seeing more guests from Canada. Over this three year time period, our store sales have increased almost 45%! The increased business also helped to allow us to do…
Denny Quigley & Tami Alessio

Brent Fannin – Delaware Beaches

2011 was our first year as a Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™.  We saw record occupancy levels with increases of more than 35% year over year! The addition of nine cabins to our park yielded occupancy levels well over 90% each weekend!  The conversion to a Jellystone Park™ did exactly what we expected – it grew our business.

Brent Fannin

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