Backpacking Camps in California

Go backpacking and whitewater rafting with your church youth group! We take care of all the logistics in order to lead you and your youth on an amazing backpacking trip. Your students will embark on wilderness adventures of rock climbing, rappelling, white water rafting, and of course backpacking.Backpacking trips are limited to groups of 10-24 people. Check out our summer adventure camps if you have more or less people.

Christian Backpacking Camps

Explore God’s Creation

Take off with your youth group on a backpacking trip into the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Each of our backpacking adventure trips spend 4 days hiking and exploring in the high country just West of South Lake Tahoe. Youth will hike through beautiful river canyons, jump off of rocks into deep alpine lakes, and challenge themselves as we rock climb. There will be a chance to overcome your fears as we rappel down a 90 foot cliff. Then we top it all off with a day of whitewater rafting!

Your group will get to explore God’s playground, and challenge themselves to grow in Christian faith and leadership skills. In addition, we’ve set aside quiet times, campfire devotionals and outdoor challenges. Furthermore, the group will get to learn some of the basics of outdoor adventuring as they set up base camp and learn principles of “leave no trace” We believe this camp experience is simply… Unbeatable!

We take care of all the details

Backpacking with a youth group in God’s creation is an amazing ministry opportunity, but it can also be a logistical nightmare. At Rock-N-Water we take care of all of the planning and implementation details. We want you to focus on the things that matter most. Hopefully, you will have the time and the energy to develop positive relationships with your students.

We provide all the backpacking related gear that your students might not have (including backpacking backpacks, tents, cooking equipment, rock climbing gear…). Preparing for a backpacking trip is as simple as getting ready to take your kids to any normal summer camp.

Regarding backpacking backpacks: If you or a student happens to own their own hiking backpack, then yes, we’d encourage them to bring it. Most likely your personal backpack will fit you better than the very nice, but not personally tailored, backpacks that we have. We also have a complete what to bring check-list, to help make packing easy too. Note: We only recommend hiking boots if you are used to wearing them. In most cases, just a solid regular shoe you are used to wearing will typically be the best option.

Fully Customizable

As with all of our trips, you can customize our backpacking camps to best fit the needs of your group. We want to provide opportunities to work on the goals you hope to accomplish during your adventure. To that end, you can modify your backpacking summer camp to end with an exciting day of Class III California River Rafting or a more advanced day of Class IV California Rafting. With our unique camp program you can also end your trip with a day of Class III Inflatable Kayak Trips if your group is up for a more adventurous challenge.

Campfire programming at night and morning devotionals can be lead by our camp counselors, or by your staff. Our goal is to provide you with the best possible adventure programming. Note: We limit backpacking trips to just one group per week, so dates disappear quickly.

T-Shirts are included by default for all backpacking trips, but can be removed for a savings of $15/person.