Glamping Powerhouse Under Canvas To Open Four California Camps

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Sarah Feldberg
Photo: Under Canvas, the safari-inspired glamping company with eight camps across the U.S., is preparing to open four new locations in California over the next two years. (The Nomadic People)

Type the words “glamping in California” into Google, and in 0.67 seconds you will be greeted with approximately 15 million results.

You can, the internet suggests, sleep in a canvas-sided cabin high in Giant Sequoia National Monument, rent an Airstream trailer steps from the Russian River or bunk in a “human nest” perched above the Big Sur coast. According to photos, these accommodations are somehow perpetually cloaked in soft twilight or glowing against dark night skies.

For outdoors-inclined travelers who aren’t inclined to rough it, there’s no dearth of glamping options in the Golden State. But missing from those 15 million hits has been Under Canvas, a 10-year-old company that helped pioneer the glamping industry in the United States and is about to embark on a major California expansion.

In 2020, Under Canvas will open a tented resort just outside Yosemite National Park. Over the next two years, new camps in Joshua Tree, Catalina Island and Sonoma will follow. CEO and co-founder Sarah Dusek says Under Canvas focused on locations that are naturally spectacular and unique to the state — “iconic outdoor destinations that have wild beauty to them that we can help our guests’ experience in a really authentic way.”

“We’ve been looking at California for a long time,” she says. “A lot of our client base comes from California.”

At all Under Canvas resorts, guests stay in spacious safari tents appointed with king beds, luxe linens and wood-burning stoves. Some include full en suite bathrooms and private decks. An on-site kitchen prepares hot breakfast and dinner and sends guests out on activities like rock climbing and kayaking armed with packed lunches. Rates average $199 per night.

The Yosemite camp will be 20 minutes from the national park’s entrance and will include 90 tents on 85 acres. On Catalina Island, the resort will boast beachfront, while the Sonoma location will stretch across 140 acres of rolling hills close to Highway 12. At Joshua Tree, Under Canvas is building its camp on 640 acres of desert landscape, a 15-minute drive to the national park’s main entrance.

Under Canvas launched in 2009, opening its first camp just outside Yellowstone National Park in 2012. Today, the company has eight glamping resorts that resemble high-end African safari camps, including locations close to Zion National Park, Moab, Glacier National Park, the Grand Canyon, the Great Smoky Mountains, Mount Rushmore and Tucson. The expansion into California will mark a 50% increase in the company’s offerings.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Glamping-powerhouse-Under-Canvas-to-open-four