Ancient Skills
Track a fox, navigate by the stars, turn leaves into a home, and make tools from only natural materials. Students at WilderSkills develop a strong connection to outdoor spaces and the ability to meet basic living needs wherever they are through hands-on exposure primitive living technologies and nature awareness practices. Learning these skills prepares students for a lifetime of rich outdoor experiences.
Wild Adventures
When creativity fueled know-how turns sticks and rocks into the functional basis for building anything, adventure chases boredom outside in a hurry! New awareness helps to completely transform sterile outdoor experiences into regular and meaningful family adventures. Our challenging courses push students to build confidence, trust, and to combat fear while experiencing the exciting wild unknown.
Deep Connection
Balance out modern tech-life overload with nature-based activities that positively impact mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Consistent, meaningful connection with wild outdoor spaces will not only spark creativity and imagination, it reduces symptoms of depression, ADHD, bullying, and obesity, and increases levels of self-confidence, cooperation, reasoning and observation skills, and overall fitness.
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.
WilderSkills Junior Trail Guides AdventuresFor Summer 2020, WilderSkills is excited to announce this brand new program offering. Full details here.
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).
Covid-19 Camp Adjustments: At present, group sizes will be limited to 12 campers per guidance requirements given. We will also be looking to make reasonable efforts to maintain social distancing during programs. Groups for camp will be stable for the entire week (Same kids and instructors).
***That said – There are no guarantees possible when it comes to being 100% certain that social distancing will be 100% maintained in all camp activities 100% of the time. It must be understood by families, that risk is always present when gathering in public. We recognize that the campers are kids, and that there is a possibility that they may come into closer contact with other campers. We expect that in sending a child to camp, that families recognize this. WilderSkills also asks that families comply with the advice of your family’s medical physician in determining if your child should attend due to inherent risks with regard to public gatherings. This is especially important if anyone in the house is potentially immunocompromised.
Illness & Covid-19 Refunds: As a precaution, if a camper becomes ill for any reason during camp, we ask that they do not attend again until a doctor has provided written documentation that they are safe to come back to camp. Additionally, if a camper or family member is diagnosed with COVID-19, we ask that the camper no longer attend the camp session. A refund will be granted in such a case, with written proof of positive COVID-19 test results of a household member or the camper being provided.
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