Jellystone Park™ Estes Park — Hotel in Four Corners States

First off I have to say that we LOVED Jellystone and were returning guests this year. Unfortunately I have to give 1 star due to the brazen black bear located on the property. Our second night there, we grilled steak outdoors. We finished dinner and dishes as it was getting dark, about 8:45-9:00pm. We had kids ages 11, 9, 4, 23 mo and 6 mo with us outside. The baby was in a high chair at the table and the 11 yr old was paired with the 4 year and the 9 yr old paired with the 23 mo old. They played innocently in the twilight amongst our campsite. We prepared beds and set out pj's. We sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and made smores. I put the kids to bed around 10:20pm while my husband walked the trash down the hill to the front of Jellystone, to the dumpster. After a 5 min bedtime story, I awaited my husbands return by peering out of the window into the darkness. I stared in shock as a big bear, black as the night, stood on hind legs over-looking the picnic table (we had just been sitting at). He sniffed our lantern that was lit up and hanging from our canopy. I quickly locked the door and then...panicked!!! I couldn't believe we had only been in the camper a few minutes and now this scary looking black bear was a few feet away. I turned on the porch light and yelled from the window to no avail. I yelled out our bathroom window to alert the family in a tent next to us. I saw a man with a flashlight standing outside the tent, only about 20ft from this bear. I also noticed some people a few sites away down the hill from us out and about with their lights on too. I perceived the bear as too bold and definitely a danger. I searched for the after hours phone number I thought I had read over in the paperwork given to us. It said something like "the after-hours phone number is located on the bulletin board on front of the ranger station". A lot of good that did us - there was a BEAR between me and the ranger station! My mind then turned to the real possibility that I would have to try and help my husband fight this bear off if he attacked him as he returned. As I searched for a bat, hammer, etc we prayed for protection of my husband. Our nephew was watching the bear and noted he'd just left our campsite. A minute later, i heard someone try to open the camper door, it was my husband, unscathed!! Thank God, he never saw the bear! I believe the bear was attracted to our site due to the smell from grilling steaks. We did have smores makings still on the picnic table since my husband and I intended on making our own once all the kids were in bed which just took a few minutes. I think the dessert was a bonus for the bear as he did take off with the bag of marshmallows and graham crackers but left the chocolate (what!?) I informed a woman at the ranger station the next day. She was very nonchalant about the whole thing, stating that he's the "community bear" and "visits every night" and insisted I could have scared him off had I attempted to open up my door and scream/yell at him (yeah right! I had little kids to protect in there!) This bear displayed an obvious lack of fear around humans. Don't bears with these types of behaviors pose a threat? She didn't seemed concerned at all! This campground is designed with kids in mind and has a certain obligation to its guests to protect them by making sure they're informed and educated. They should have precautionary safety guidelines in place and/or policy and procedures that guests can follow should a bear come into their campsite. I fear you could have a Disney World/Alligator situation on your hands if you don't do something, God forbid! The signs that say Beware of active bear on property are not enough. In my opinion that bear needs captured and relocated. We love Jellystone Estes but what I thought would be an annual camping trip just doesn't seem safe there with...

First time I've ever had to wear ear plugs to go to sleep in a campground, both nights. Hardsided camper. Not tent or tent trailer. When I arrived Friday to check in, I couldn't hear what the lady was trying to tell me, so she just pushed the packet to me. Got to the site, the site number post was knocked down, so i had to get out and figure out which site #21 was. After getting setup around 3pm, I sent my daughter down to get signed up for candy bar bingo and the musical chairs, for her to be told those activities were full. A little while later, the people on site 20 showed up. Little did i know this was going to be the "Party site." We then had to run to Estes to pick up some forgotten grocery items. On the return (Friday night) i told my daughter we should stop and get signed up for Saturday's activities, since everything was filling up. We stopped in the ranger station, we were told it was pretty full already, but they could get us in at 8:25 Saturday night. Yes, the Saturday night event was almost full Friday night. When we arrived back at our site, an extra car belonging to the site 14 had parked on the side of the road, requiring me to do a 4-5 point turn to back into my site. This car sat parked on the side of the road all weekend, despite the rules saying all extra cars must be parked in the overflow lot. It was a huge inconvenience, everytime i left and returned to my site. After supper, the party in site 20 kicked off. Beer bong and shot time was announced. I didn't care, it was about 8-9pm. About 10 pm, we decided to go to bed. After listening to the party in site 20 for an hour, i went to my truck and got ear plugs. Once we put them in, we were able to go to sleep. Saturday morning, i realised the wifi booster was in site 22 and i had full bars on the wifi. Saturday night we showed up for the haunted hike and i noticed the was hardly anyone there. I looked at my cell phone and it said 8:24. My daughter told the lady we were there for the hike, and was told our group had already left. We were 1 minute early, and missed the hike. I an x military and i loath being late. But with all the other stuff this weekend, I figured it was par for course. But they did get us on the next one. The hike was pretty good, it was the highlight for my daughter. But back at the site (once i did my 5 point turn to back into the site, due to the car being parked on the road) the party at site 20 was in full swing, once again. I guess the guy doing the nightly checked made my neighbors in site 23 turn off the movie and Bluetooth speaker at 10:30, but let the party in site 20 continue. I guess bluetooth speakers are bad, but parties and inconveniently parked cars are ok. Anyways, to get to sleep on saturday night, we again had to use earplugs. On Sunday morning, the illegally parked car left to take the trash away, and parked elsewhere when they returned so i could get out. I think this place has potential but the staff needs extra training to make everyone's stay comfortable, extra times add to events, security to enforce rules. At $75 a night, i would find a KOA or other campground. If the management of jellystone wants to contact me I was in site 21...

We stayed here the second week of June. Overall, the staff was very kind and pleasant, but we definitely would not stay here again. We were limited due to the size of our in-laws RV and the desire for full hookups, which can be hard to come by in Estes Park. However, for the price of this place compared to the usual state parks we stay out, we did not see the value at all. I can't believe we paid that much for this place! The spaces are very close together and tight, some looked quite difficult to get into. We luckily had pull throughs because I would not want to back in to some of the spots there. The two sites we had were incredibly unlevel, although I thought our spots looked a lot better than many others there. No grassy areas or space for kids to run around and play or throw a ball. So yes, you have a jumpad, playground, (very tiny)pool, and basic mini golf-- but the way the campground is laid out going up a big hill, and with all the traffic going through at all times, we didn't feel comfortable sending our kids to go on their own to the kid area. So, instead of us hanging by the fire while the kids played together, it required us to sit around outside of a jump pad with tons of crazy kids when we'd rather be at our site hanging with our family. Fire pit in our site (again this appeared true of many sites on the campground not just ours) was partially on a muddy hill (not flat) so we weren't able to get our family to sit around the campfire, it would not have been safe because camping chairs need a flat surface or kids would tip forward into fire. Campsites are narrow, many including ours, couldn't fit the picnic table next to RV under awning, instead had to have the picnic table in front of the RV, and with rain it was pretty much unusable because it wasn't under awning. There are also golf carts with people riding up and down at all times, which you can imagine the chain of dog barking. One of the sites right across from us had like 4 cars parked in its site, and cars were constantly coming and going so we couldn't let kids be outside our site without constant supervision. It was quite rainy when we were there so the mud couldn't be helped, however the grounds were pretty weedy and not well taken care of. We had just come from Boyd Lake State Park and let's just say that campground was much better taken care of, better and larger bathrooms, and better playgrounds but less than half the cost. We spent so much time exploring RMNP and Estes Park, that we found the kid amenities they offered weren't really worth it anyways. I'm surprised by all the positive reviews honestly. Maybe if you are only interested in full hook up, private-style RV parks you would enjoy this, but if a fire truck blaring through the campground throwing candy at children multiple times a day seems counterintuitive to the type of camping experience you desire (yes, even those of us with kids) then you might want to consider...