Forest Home

I was talking to some friends about Forest Home and how much we loved our family camp experience in 2023 and the thought prompted me to leave a review. I had no idea what we would do or what the camp even really looked like prior to coming…so I thought I’d share some photos from our experience for people who are considering coming. This camp is AMAZING! I have visited several camps over the years in Washington, North Carolina, and throughout California and this one is extra special. The counselors are such kind and loving people. Their sincerity really was obvious and my 5 kids felt so loved by everyone. The camp food is delicious and the programming is top notch. Outdoor activities abound and it’s just truly a gem of a place. We would go back every summer if we could! For families with toddlers considering coming: there is a laundromat and there is a playground! They also have an indoor play area for little ones. For anyone: bring layers in early summer. We had several days where it was warm, but we had several foggy days as well, and I was really thankful I had a few sweatshirts to wear in rotation. There is a camp store though if you would like to buy some camp clothing—sweatshirts included! They also have a coffee shop and a grill where you can get fries and sodas (among other things I can’t quite remember.) This camp has it all.

We loved our Memorial weekend at Forest Home family camp! Great location, activities, food, people, etc. It's so great that they have times on the schedule where kids and adults are separated by age, but also times where families are doing activities together. And incredible how they have childcare in the evenings for adults to do their own thing!! The long weekend was definitely too short, so we would recommend doing the full week - although it's expensive. However, we would not recommend it for kids that still have to nap. We felt that we wasted a lot of the precious time by coming back to the cabin for naps, so we missed out on being able to do some free time activities. We will probably be back when all our kids are 5+.

Even though it's a religious camp, they rent out to non-religious groups for different events. We shared the lake area with a private college's water Athletics department for an annual retreat that they do. We also had to share the dining hall with them. It was frustrating to have to wait for them to get their food before we got ours, especially since they completely ignored the serving sizes. (A plate piled HIGH with scrambled eggs, for example, when we were only allowed a small scoop each). Want to go in the lake up to your ankles? NO! Not without a lifeguard present! Insert eye-roll here. The cabins were decent (do NOT plan on air conditioning), and the attractions were fun, but all in all, I was only moderately impressed.

We had an incredible experience on the mountain with Family Camp. The food was incredible. Literally each day was like a journey across the world. From ramen with nori and mushrooms to steak and potatoes. We even were served Mediterranean with hummus, pita and couscous salad. My children loved everything. Mainly the connections with the CCA babysitters, other kids and staff. There was a video they showed in the beginning of camp with Billy Graham testifying of his experience there, it was beautiful. There was also a speaker named Jo-Nathan Brown who by God brought depths of parenting knowledge that you could never put a price tag on. We were truly blessed here!!!

Wonderful and friendly staff. The facilities and housing are beautiful. The food is decent. Most importantly, I had great fellowship with others from my church.

Unfortunately this campsite brings shame to the Christian community when they didn’t provide assistance to the guests who were traumatized by a dead bat and multiple mice in 9 cabins. It was extremely disappointing when this campsite only sent a young intern to deal with the issues, even before we departed there was no explanation or apology from the management. Perhaps whoever runs this campsite should learn about hospitality first before they build more cabins.

Our family was surprised by how amazing our first family camp experience was. We thought it would be a fun week away but we were blown away, and ended up returning for a second year. The fellowship with other families, worship and teaching, outdoor activities, and food were all exceptional. The balance between leisure time and structured time was nice. The feeling of being “away from it all” but being only a short drive from the major freeways was convenient. But the best part, and what really seems to set Forest Home family camp apart is the CCA (childcare assistant) program, which was such a huge blessing to our family. We got to basically have date nights every night and enjoy solid teaching while our kids enjoyed time with the young lady who was assigned to our family for the week. The CCAs are well-trained to handle challenges (and when to call in for backup like when my son got an altitude-induced bloody nose) and we’ll prepared to have fun with the kids. They also made an effort to connect more with our families during free time and generally make the kids feel special. Also, the milkshakes and fries are delicious and the water slide is super fun! 😊