YOGI BEAR'S JELLYSTONE PARK AT LARKSPUR

Last fall, when jobs for workampers began appearing online, we had several opportunities of locations in the country to go and work. We choose to work in Larkspur, Colorado, because we wanted to be near mountains yet close to civilization. Larkspur is a very small town located halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. We were located about a 45 minute drive to either downtown area. More importantly, we were 7 miles from Castle Rock, which had several nice grocery stores, a great library, several restaurants, and a modern hospital which we utilized when Ann dislocated her elbow in early July.

In the late 1800's, this land was first explored by mountain men like Kit Carson and Jim Baker. Later, Carson led John Fremont, a noted explorer and American military officer,  through this valley. The first white woman in the region was Sarah Coberly, who joined DC Oakes and his wife homesteading along East Plum Creek near Castle Rock. The cabins at Jellystone were named after these people.

The campground is one of 80 Jellystone campgrounds all across the country. A lot of what takes place in the way of activities, what is sold in the camp store, etc. has a Yogi Bear theme to it.

For example, Yogi and Boo Boo raise the American flag and the Jellystone flag every morning at 9 am. Yogi picks a camper to lead the gathering of campers in the Pledge of Allegiance. This photo was taken on a weekday when there weren't as many children in the campground.

We serve an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast every morning during the summer. Ranger Paul is standing at the pancake wagon waiting for some breakfast.

From our observations, Yogi is a huge hit with children, even children who might be too young to have seen any of the cartoon movies.

Yogi poses with our Yogi statue for a classic photo op.

Yogi gives Paul a hug after stealing his cap.

Yogi and Boo Boo have their own cabin. Below, Ranger Kevin is tucking Yogi into his cabin for his morning nap.

This photo of Ann and Paul was taken earlier in the season and appeared on the Facebook page for the campground. This was a simulation of "American Gothic" by Grant Wood.

The campground has many varieties of accommodations ranging from basic tent sites to RV sites,as well as a selection of cabins. We have basic cabins that sleep four with no bathroom all the way up to super cottages sleeping 6 that are like a hotel suite. Unique to this campground are tipi's.

The tipi below has a canvas floor. The flap in the front is the door and yes, there is a hole in the top where rain water can come in. If you have gone camping and had a leaky tent, you know how uncomfortable the night can be.

We have continued to be amused by the hummingbirds, as we attract them with hummingbird feeders at the campground. The liquid food that these hummingbirds consume is sugar water.  All summer long, we observed hummingbirds hover in mid-air, fly straight up and straight down, forwards, sideways and even fly backwards!  Did you know a hummingbird weighs about as much as a nickel?

Each Saturday we have a large sheet cake for all our guests to enjoy. As you can see, our campground was a winner of a Travel Channel Top Ten award for 2015.

We have a small fishing pond for beginning fishermen to try their luck. Recently, this little boy caught a rather large catfish. Mom was so proud of her son.

Our campsite was located about 50 yards from a major north-south railroad line. This is an example of the freight trains, most of which carried coal, that would pass by at all times of the day. There was no schedule. After a few days, the noise of the diesel engines became white noise. Many of these freight trains were over 100 cars in length, with two diesel engines in the front and two in the back.  

Ranger Kevin, our activities director, found this four foot bull snake. Bull snakes are good in that they help keep down the rodent population. Bull snakes do confuse some of our guests because bull snakes look similar to a diamondback rattlesnake.

In early August, we had a visitor at the Saturday evening movie. Yes, this 200 plus pound black bear was in a tree across from the 0pvilion where the movies are shown.

We had a much larger black bear, estimated by our neighbor to be over 500 pounds, ransack our neighbor's trash. Some campers just don't understand about leaving garbage out overnight. During the summer, the bears are trying to get all the food they can in preparation for hibernating over the winter. This bear left his calling card behind our RV.

The busy summer camping season has ended as schools are in session all across the country. Our co-workers who are students have gone back to school and most workampers are leaving soon for winter jobs in Arizona, South Texas, or Florida. We have completed our work in Colorado and have begun our journey home to Florida. We have scheduled stops to see family in Norman, OK and Dallas, TX.