About Our Catskills Campground
The Zalkin Family invites you and your family to have fun and make memories at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in the Catskill Mountains. With our extensive recreation program and facilities, Jellystone Park isn't just a New York campground…it's a resort vacation. Our guests value the way our family and staff care for them and for our park. Parents feel good about having their children in Jellystone Park's warm environment. When kids go home from Jellystone Park, it'll be "Thanks, Mom and Dad!"
Our Catskills campground is top-rated by Woodalls (5W / 5W) and has received Jellystone's top inspection award
10 years in a row! We're only 2 hours from New York City and 90 minutes from Binghamton or Albany. Yogi Bear and Boo Boo are waiting for you! Come and see why we're the best NY camping resort in the Catskills!
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About the Catskill Mountains (Catskills)
 Just over 100 miles northwest of the crowds, cabs and chaotic pace of New York City, there is a haven of natural beauty and relaxation. This pocket of peace is called the Catskill Mountains. Known to many as "the Catskills", these are not mountains by standard geological definition; the Catskills are a matured dissected plateau, an uplifted region that natural erosion formed into a sharp relief. Because of their geographical proximity to the Appalachian Mountains, this area is often thought to be an extension of the Appalachian Trail. However, this area of New York State is simply a continuation of the Allegheny Plateau and bears no direct relation to the Appalachians.
Many people call this area home during the summers, and others flock to the Catskills for vacations. The refreshing atmosphere attracts countless visitors each year. While the Catskills originally enjoyed their most popular time during the summer months, today most resorts hope to capitalize on year-round business and remain open for winter sports. With over 30 peaks that top heights above 3,500 feet, winter skiing and hiking are popular outdoor activities in the Catskills. Campgrounds line the region, including Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in the Catskill Mountains, allowing vacationing families and rigorous solo hikers alike to enjoy the stars of the New York skies.
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In the first half of the 20th century, the Catskills were known for their ethnically centered makeup. Many people of German, Jewish, and Czechoslovakian descent arranged summer resort towns. The "Borsch Belt", a well-known area where many comedians earned their entrance into the humor business, was a collection of Jewish resorts. However, most of these towns are no longer dominated by one particular ethnicity.
 Because the Catskills continue southwest into Pennsylvania in an area known as the Poconos, the boundaries of this region are difficult to determine. One traditional saying reads, "When you have two rocks for every dirt, you are in the Catskills." However, for those searching for more definable borders, six counties share parts of the Catskills. The counties, Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Schoharie, Greene, and Ulster, all lie west of the Hudson River. The mountainous terrain begins in the East at the Catskill Escarpment, where the land rises from the Hudson Valley and extends to the West until a gradual descent. Few agree on definitive southern and northern borders, but Interstate 88, the Delaware River and Shawangunk Ridge mark certain ends to the territory.
Catskills Park, a section of New York's Forest Preserve that lies mainly in Ulster County, contains the region's tallest peak. Slide Mountain is 4,180 feet tall, making it a popular destination for hikers. John Burroughs (1837-1921), a notable writer from the area, wrote "The Southern Catskills", in which he describes climbing the beautiful peak. The privilege of the privacy that the Catskills offer can be found atop this landmark. While much of this section of the wilderness is protected by the state, approximately 60 percent of the park remains under private ownership.
Catskills? Cats Kills? Where does the unique name originate?
 Originally settled by the Dutch and given this name which means "cat creek", the area was not commonly referred to as the Catskills until the latter half of the 19th century. When the British controlled the colony, most residents considered the term indicative of the area's local farming population, and the name was largely abandoned. Many replaced the region's name as the Blue Mountains in accordance with the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. However, famous author Washington Irving (1783-1859) helped the current name gain widespread acceptance with his use of the Catskills as a setting in his narratives such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.
The reasons for this name seem equally as difficult to pinpoint as the region's boundaries. A story of the sighting of bobcats near Catskill Creek seems the most logical reason for the name, but there is no record of a large bobcat population anywhere near the Hudson River. Many have investigated other theories and possibilities in efforts to trace the name's history.
- Some believe the name pays tribute to Dutch poet Jacob Cats (1577-1660) whose understanding of real estate allowed him to profit from speculation in the lands reclaimed from the sea.
- Some attribute the name to a ship named The Cat that had traveled the Hudson River just before the first recorded use of the term in 1665.
- Some believe the name demonstrates the early inhabitants love for lacrosse. Dutch settlers witnessed the Iroquois natives playing the sport, and the word "kat" can be used to refer to a tennis racket, which shares a similar appearance as a tennis racket. These settlers named the town where they first watched the sport Kaatsbaan, which can be translated in English to "tennis court."
- Some believe that the name had no significance to anything feline-related or a specific person. The term was merely an accident, a mispronounced version of "kasteel", the Dutch sailors' term for the Indian stockades on the banks of the Hudson.
Even more confusing in the early years of the Dutch colony was the spelling of the name. Kaatskill and Kaaterskill are still used today as the name of a regional magazine and the name of a creek and mountain, respectively. The supposed Indian name for the range, Onteora or "land in the sky" was actually created by a white man in the mid-19 th century to drum up business for a resort. It, too, persists today as the name of a school district.
While many questions surround the exact location of the Catskills and the reasons for their name, one fact remains certain: this inspiring area is one of New York's greatest treasures.
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