“WilderSkills provides access to the natural world and expertly nurtures many fundamental aspects of what it takes to help children become well-balanced, skilled, and fundamentally happy human beings in a rapidly shifting modern environment.”

– David Lee, Education Counselor

General Summer Camp Sessions

General Summer Camp Session Adventures: Our courses offer kids the chance to familiarize themselves with nature by learning different aspects of ancient survival and daily living. All of the sessions cover survival basics, like knife safety, first-aid, water, shelter-building, and food, as well as storytelling, ancient culture and philosophy, and games.

Session Details: Our main camp programs at WilderSkills run Monday – Friday from 9am to 3pm.

Advance Sessions! For campers who have completed at least one basic session with WilderSkills, advanced outdoor skills summer camp sessions are now available! See course calendar for more details.

Age Groups: WilderSkills is designed for youth ages 7 to 13, with campers sub-divided into age appropriate groups (roughly 7-9, 10-13,). Session content is customized for each age group, with each age group focusing on wilderness lessons and activities on par with their maturity level and interests.

Location: WilderSkills courses take place at various locations through the SF Bay Area. At present, we have locations in the among the redwoods of Saratoga, CA,  as will as in the foothills of Redwood City, Ca. Review specific program location details on our program pages for further detail.

What To Bring: Campers should come to camp with a lunch +snacks and plenty of water (3 bottles). Campers should also come dressed for spending all day outdoors (Shoes, pants, shirt, sweater).

Facilities Available:Bathroom and washroom facilities are available on-site for campers and their families. Parking access to our activity sites is generally only a short walk.

General Cancellation Policy: WilderSkills incurs most program expenses while preparing for camp adventures. Our cancellation and refund policies reflect the fact that it is impossible to recover these costs for late cancellations or withdrawals from ongoing courses. As such, there is a 60-Day cancellation policy for all summer camp registrations, group events and overnight events. Any cancellation made before this time will receive a full refund (minus a $30 per person cancellation transaction fee for single day events and a $65 cancellation fee for multi-day events). Reschedules/transfers will also be charged the applicable processing fee outside of the 60 day period as well. Once within the cancellation period (60 days), there will be no refunds allowed. (However, full refunds or reschedules free of charge will be made if WilderSkills is forced to cancel a program).

Click here for WilderSkill COVID Updates / Illness & Covid-19 Refunds

WilderSkills Jr. Trail Guides Sessions

How Is Jr. Trail Guides Different From Traditional WilderSkills Summer Programs?
While many skills and the core philosophies of our traditional summer camp program and the Jr Trail Guide’s Program remain the in-sync, the Junior Trail guides program offers campers a more focused opportunity to learn outdoor skills specifically applicable to being an outdoor guide in a roving summer camp environment within the Stulsaft Park Wildspace areas. We think families who know and love WilderSkills already, will love the new curriculum addition and adventure opportunities this provides their campers.

Taught by some of the most experience back-country guides, nature specialists, and primitive survival skills experts in the United States, this summer training program teaches Campers Ages 7-13 real-world outdoor guiding and adventure skills

WilderSkills Trail Adventure Programs Help Jr Guides Develop REAL WORLD Skills Like:

• Wilderness First Aid & Survival Techniques
• Outdoor Cooking & Wild Foods
• How To Research & Plan Outdoor Adventures
• Plant Identification & Uses
• How to make Improvised Primitive Emergency Shelters, Hiking Packs + Other Gear.
• Traditional Outdoor Tool Construction & Methodologies
• Wilderness Emergency Response Protocols
• Back-country Navigation
• Animal Sign, Tracking, & Behavior
• How to prepare for All-weather adventures
• Outdoor Games
• Knife & Outdoor Tool Safety + Care

Outdoor time with WilderSkills also fosters HIGH VALUE SOFT SKILLS such as: Unstructured problem-solving capabilities, Independence and self-regulating behavior development, Critical early development physical strength & coordination, Self-expression, AND HOW TO HAVE FUN OUTDOORS IN REAL NATURE.

Age Groups: 
WilderSkills is designed for youth ages 7 to 13, with campers sub-divided into age appropriate groups (roughly 7-9, 10-13,). Session content is customized for each age group, with each age group focusing on wilderness lessons and activities on par with their maturity level and interests.

Click here for WilderSkill COVID Updates / Illness & Covid-19 Refunds

Location:
WilderSkills Trail Camp Courses take place in our beautiful Redwood City location among 40 open acres of trails and wild space at Stulsaft Park, as well as on the open space trails of Quarry Park in Saratoga.

Advanced WilderSkills Sessions

Advanced Summer Adventures: WilderSkills advanced camp sessions are for campers who have completed at least one general session of WilderSkills camp during either a previous camp year or the same summer season.

Advanced sessions will focus on advanced wilderness activities like constructing hunter-gatherer travel kits, wilderness first-aid, advanced animal sign & tracking, land navigation, advanced shelter making, traditional hunting & small-game traps, pottery, advanced stone tools and more. The advanced skills taught during each session will vary depending on the interest of advanced students and the instructor’s discretion.