Kennolyn Camps

My 8-​year-​old daughter attended the Day Camp for a week last year and absolutely loved it. Who wouldn’t? It’s a kid’s paradise with access to horseback riding, swimming, archery and hikes into a fun area where the kids can be kids and have a true camp experience. Of all the camps we’ve experienced (Steve & Kate’s, soccer camp, Athena), this one was the one she said she absolutely wants to do again next year. We’ll be back for sure!

My grandkids spend every other week with us during the summer and to keep my 7 y/​o from going stark raving mad from boredom, we researched day camps and found Kennolyn to be rated among the best in the area. She was reluctant at first, probably because she didn’t know anyone. But after one day, she came home exhausted but excited and said she wanted to spend more time there. She is now enrolled in another week.
The counselors and office staff are top notch! The safety measures they take for pick up and transportation met with my extremely high expectations. The activities are fun, educational and age appropriate. The food is good. The view is beautiful. I WANT TO GO THERE!
The only thing you must remember, even if you forget everything else, is DO NOT send your child here in new clothes and shoes. They WILL come home unrecognizably filthy. When we pulled Emma’s name tag off to wash her clothes, I realized her shirt was a completely different color than I had thought. There was a little patch about 2“x3″ that looked clean and the rest was brownish black. But that’s a small price to pay for the look of pleasure on my grand daughter’s face when she told me about her day at Kennolyn.

My three kids have gone to Kennolyn for six years now (eldest is ten) and they love, love. love camp. It is all that camp should be – swimming, horses, hot, dusty — great, enthusiastic counsellors, singing too loud, popsicle in the hair fun. And for our generation of fussed over, protected children even more important. They’re wholly safe, and encouraged to climb higher, play harder than ever before and figure out how to get their own sunscreen on… I love that their counsellors are enthusiastic, silly and college age (great, great role models). My kids come home filthy, exhausted and grinning happily every time, with their heads held a little higher for the experience that’s all their own. Recommend, no reservations — !

I went to Kennolyn as a child and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I hold those memories close to my heart and always will.
Let me explain why Kennolyn is so special to me and can be for you too.
Nestled in the beautifully foggy Soquel mountains of the Monterey Bay in Northern California is Kennolyn. A small camp for kids and young adults that offers a day camp, a resident camp, as well as professional services for weddings, business meetings, gatherings, etc… Kennolyn is in the Northern California redwood forest line and offers a beautiful landscape to escape into.
Kennolyn helped prepare me with simple life lessons both emotionally and practically in ways that I still find helping me to this day. I constantly look back at my time at Kennolyn and yearn to be a kid again and experience the times spent there, but I still value each second I was there for I came out a happier and a more prepared person for the world ahead.
I was a resident camper (meaning I stayed overnight) for 4 non consecutive summers from the time I was 7 until I was 12 or 13. My first session there was 2 weeks, but as I grew to like Kennolyn I stayed longer sessions, my longest being a whole month away from home. Thanks again mom and dad! I believe the most common session is still two weeks. I remember feeling a bit burnt out after a whole month, but there are enough activities to enjoy for 3 months!
Bunking with your peers as a kid for weeks at a time in the forest… going on adventures, doing activities… it builds character. It prepares you for things later in life… dorm life for example. Being a young kid and learning how to live away from home is an important skill lots of kids are starting to learn to live without. It makes leaving home all that harder later on in life without being able to have done it while a youth.
The activities available are of every variety. Arts and crafts like stained glass making and woodworking to pot throwing and painting. Animal themed activities like animal care are also available, as well as a full equestrian camp with beautiful stables and wonderful horses. They have all the sports, including golf, fencing, swimming, diving too…
and.
RIFLERY. Riflery was just great. I see a crazy review here giving Kennolyn 2 stars because they teach riflery with AIR RIFLES and PELLETS. I understand some people can be afraid of weapons, but be assured Kennolyn takes EVERY precaution to ensure the safety of their campers. I learned how to shoot a Daisy air pellet gun when I was 7 at Kennolyn. The instructors they have teaching riflery are certified to do so and well trained as to prevent any injuries or stupid mistakes from happening. In my 4 summers at Kennolyn I NEVER saw or heard about any accidents from the riflery or archery ranges. In fact, I think more kids got hurt running and tripping and doing normal kid stuff than they did within any activities at Kennolyn. (I once accidentally thrust a door into a fellow camper’s head because he was standing right on the other side while I was walking through). My riflery instructor drilled the message into our little heads that guns were dangerous and we could die from them. We knew the risks and dangers of shooting and each and every one of us now knows how to shoot and shoot well for that matter. There is NOTHING wrong with knowing how to operate modern weapons/​technology. It’s a valuable skill to have regardless of your attitudes on weapons. Anything can happen in this world.
Archery as mentioned above was great fun. ALL the necessary safety precautions were taught and established to ensure the well being of the kids. I can also shoot a bow and arrow well too. Thanks Kennolyn.
They have an AMAZING ropes course and climbing wall set. They have beginner ropes and advanced ropes. Ropes was probably one of my most favorite (and scary) activities to do. You learn to conquer your fear of heights from an early age and also learn the extremely important value of teamwork and cooperation in whatever you are doing; in this case, it was climbing 20ft-​30ft redwood trees on harnesses and ropes, crossing wire bridges with vines and jumping from floating platform to floating platform, ziplining through the trees and smacking a volley ball 10 feet in front of you 20 feet from the forest floor… all the while the adults on the ground keeping your taught and safe. It sounds dangerous and scary, but all the necessary precautions are taken to ensure the safety of the kids. All their ropes instructors are professional climbers and love what they do. I enjoyed ropes more than anything at Kennolyn.
I have 5x more to write but Unilocal is cutting me off! I love Kennolyn and your kids will love it too! Kennolyn offers life shaping experiences and every summer I went home a stronger and happier person. I was/​am a happy camper! Go Kennolyn!
P. S. Uncle Max and Aunt Marion are in my memories. I’ll remember their Hilltop Hacienda anniversaries forever.

I attended Kennolyn as a child and loved it. So I was pleased to have my daughter attend as well. She had a great experience for many years. That is until a male counselor was discovered giving my teenage daughter and her cabin mate alcohol. The counselor was fired. We picked up our daughter immediately. We decided not to pursue legal action but this was a parents worst nightmare.

My daughters have just got back from two weeks at Kennolyn — my oldest (now a «senior camper») has been there five times, and my younger daughter has been three times.
I can’t say enough good things about Kennolyn. My older daughter has a medical condition that is self-​managed but which needs some care and supervision. Kennolyn always has two nurses resident on staff (they are typically school nurses) and we’ve had consistently great experiences working with them. In the first couple of years, we spent time on the phone with the nurses before the camp session explaining what our daughter’s régime should be. These days, they know us and greet her like an old friend. They give her a lot of freedom, but make sure they know what is going on.
The activity range at Kennolyn is extremely good. It ranges from arts activities like silk painting, pottery, carpentry, jazz dance, and guitar, to sports like fencing, archery, yoga and soccer, and adventure activities like climbing, ropes, mountain biking and more.
This summer my older one participated in the enormously scary (for parents) high ropes course, senior climbing, pottery, and «senior pool hangout», as well as going on «Outpost» (overnight camping without tents) twice, a visit to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, and two trips to the beach.
The younger one participated in a special equestrian camp — just 9 girls — which used all the activity time. She also did outpost, beach day, etc, but the rest of the time she was horses, horses, horses; from cleaning the tack, to dressage and jumping instruction, trail rides, overnight camping on horseback, and even a bit of vaulting.
All in all, a terrific experience, well worth the money. The kids will still be talking about it at Christmas time, and we’ll be booking next summer in January!

I can’t say enough good things about this camp. My kids just returned for their 4^th summer. They have tried other camps, but only choose to return to Kennolyn. This is the best summer camp around.

My two girls (ages 5 & 10) attended Kennolyn’s summer day camp in July. 5 months later, they still talk about Kennolyn all the time.
A few things as a parent that I most appreciate about Kennolyn:
1) Exposure to so many great activities: fencing, vaulting (tricks on the back of a horse), ropes course, art, archery, team sport games… Children get to experience everything. I’ll never forget one kid say to their mom after coming off the bus the first day, «I can’t believe it, I got to try everything I have always wanted to do in one day!» This boy was so excited and bubbling over it just made an impression on me.
2) Great staff — My kids really felt like the counselors cared about them. There’s nothing more important to me than knowing this. Most of the counselors seem to be college-​aged, one of my daughter’s counselors was heading to Harvard University this past Fall. There were also some younger counselors-​in-​training that were a part of the group. They provided extra support to the counselors and kids, my girls really liked them.
3) Beautiful location — There’s just nothing like sending your kids to the Redwoods for a summer camp. The air is so fresh and I think every child should be able to experience a setting like this sometime in their childhood. The kids get to spend time at a beautiful pond, hunting for frogs and tadpoles. And they spend time in the redwood forest learning about the ancient trees and the plant life.
4) Great services — loved the bus service from near our house. My kids loved the ride to camp — singing counselor led songs and making friends. I also appreciated the lunch service. My girls really enjoyed the food and I felt good knowing they would have a nice, healthy meal each day.
I am so happy we found Kennolyn and I know my girls will be back for years to come.

I love this camp! I have been attending Kennolyn for nine years in a row and have made so many great lifelong friends! Every single year the counselors remember my name and greet me. No other camp I have been to had as great of a family connection as Kennolyn does. Best camp you could ever go to/​send your children to! They have fantastic counselors and best of all, INTERNATIONAL counselors! Who could have any more fun then fencing with a Hungarian man, horse back riding with an English woman, climbing trees with an Australian man, or dancing with an African woman? No one I’ve met at this amazing camp.

Kennolyn deserves five gold stars! Our 11-​year-​old son recently went for a two week summer sleepaway session, and contracted acute appendicitis on the fourth day there. All the staff at Kennolyn handled his health crisis with compassion and caring — he was brought to the hospital in a timely manner, a camp nurse or senior camp administrator was with him at all times, and their communication with us was first-​rate.
We have the utmost trust and respect for the entire camp staff in every way.

I went to Kennolyn Camp for a few summers as a child and greatly enjoyed it. I would go for two-​week sessions which was the right amount of time for me. I think this camp is particularly great for younger children too who are ready for sleep-​over camp. It might seem a little too sheltered and not exciting enough for some older campers…
My favorite activities were the amazing climbing wall, ropes course, vaulting (gymnastics on horseback), ceramics, and trip to the Beach Boardwalk. When I took a fall from a horse, the nurse was great at comforting and taking care of me.
The staff was also fabulous. I always loved my counselors!
My only big complaint is that Kennolyn is expensive. Another summer, I went on a two-​week program to Australia which was the same price (including airfare!) as Kennolyn. So, send your children because you want them to enjoy a fun, safe camp experience but definitely not to save any money!

See also my review for Kennolyn … the camps themselves are awesome too. Each summer, they offer Day Camp for local children, Resident Camp for children who sleep over in at least one week sessions, and Family Camp for families to spend together.