Tree Frog Treks

My 6 yo daughter attended Tree Frog Treks at the McClaren Park location for two weeks this summer and absolutely loved it! She specifically asked to go to a camp where she could look at bugs, climb trees, and collect leaves all day long-- TFT delivered and then some! My daughter came home every day with a huge smile on her face, messy hair, dirty clothes, and lots of new facts about bugs and animals. It is exactly what you picture when you think of summer camp.

The camp is well-organized. Good communication before and during camp sessions. The counselors are incredibly nice and you can tell that they love their jobs. I would happily re-enroll her at TFT next summer.

Note: my daughter is fairly independent and responsible for her age. She enjoys imaginative play, makes friends easily, and speaks up when she needs help. Kids who need structure or hand-holding may not do as well in this camp.

Our 6 year old daughter just completed a 2 week summer camp with Tree Frog Treks at the Christopher Playground location, and we were very impressed with the entire experience! The camp counselors - Najia, David, and Zita - were awesome. The kids were outdoors and active all day, learning about nature and the environment. Our daughter really enjoyed the field trips to Ocean Beach and Marin. As a 2 working parent family, we also appreciated the 9-5pm full day coverage (the only thing better would be an 8:30am start)! I'd highly recommend this summer camp, and look forward to returning next year.

This company is not following any guidelines administered by the San Francisco Department Of Public Health for COVID reopening. From the week of the 22nd-26th of June 2020 in McLaren Park the kids gathered in a group exceeding 50 kids without being spaced apart in the ampitheater for a bird demonstration. On other days the kids are bused there in smaller groups and then they all gather together.

The camp counselors ARE NOT wearing masks around the children and conducting close interactions with them. Calling 311 to report this with the City, they said Park Rangers have already been out before responding to a previous report

Furthermore the kids are allowed to use the public restroom with adults not associated with the camp unsupervised.

If you have a child enrolled or think about enrolling your child in this camp you need to question their ability to care for your child.

Tree Frog Treks offers supremely inventive summer camps for kids K-5 with a focus on science and nature.

Kids meet up in Golden Gate Park and then disseminate into groups- or over-the-bridge organized day trips- to spend lots and lots of time outdoors hiking, exploring, collecting, drawing and creating art from objects in nature.

Every week has a theme (this week was "Climate Pirates, 21st Century Conservationists!") with events and activities organized around that week's theme.

Whether it's getting your kids excited about nature and the ecosystem by dressing up as pirates and picking up trash as "booty" to see what can be reduced/reused/recycled or a day trip to Pescadero to learn about watersheds, every day is a fun adventure.

I've never seen my child get so dirty or have so much fun outdoors.

A very talented staff of counselors insures your child is safe and well-cared for. All seem to have college degrees in biology and the sciences- and all are early 20-something's to keep up with energetic groups of youngsters.

(I couldn't do it!)

There are 7 groups (from Roly Polies to Pythons), broken up by age group in groups of about 16 children.

2015 cost was $425/week for full day camp 9am-4pm. There is before and after camp care for an extra, reasonable cost.

I highly recommend this smart, fun, high energy camp that will both happily engage and exhaust your little darlings!

Initially nervous about sending my non-athletic son to this camp, he ended up having a great time exploring, building a fort with tree branches and climbing trees. The counselors found ways to keep the kids engaged, educated (about science and nature) and most importantly keeping them active (every day involved trekking to a different part of the park).

My daughter has been attending TFT for the past 6 months and has absolutely LOVED it.

The McLaren camp is entirely outdoors and is a mix of chillaxing on the hill with TFT's own reptiles, snakes and turtles... then eventually hiking to explore trees, wildlife, anything really.

They have a good ratio of campers to counselors and communication with them is super easy if you need to drop off late or pick up early.

There are CoVid protocols in place (masks at all times and hand sanitizer) so my anxious mind was immediately at ease... my daughter has been attending since Oct 2020 and we're sad our time together is wrapping up.

Highly recommended!

This is the best special education and summer camp around! My kids look forward to it every year and it just gets better with the Teen summer camp!
Chris Giorni, the founder, is high positive energy, highly intelligent, and highly loveable! You can't help but just want to hang out with this guy! And if you do get the chance to hang out with him you will learn more about reptiles, amphibians, well any animal then you ever thought of! He keeps the kids active and learning with his motto, "Science is everywhere!" He has the coolest animals and places to go to explore, learn, and have the most fun of the kids summer!

A few years ago, when my daughter was about 6, she did a TFT summer program in GGP. She enjoyed it and was happy to go each morning. On the 4th afternoon I got a call that she had been stung by a wasp and wasn't feeling great; would I mind coming to get her early?

I left work and headed over. When I arrived I learned that she had inadvertently sat on a wasps' nest. Okay, it happens. She had been stung not once, but several times, and those stings were where you might expect if you were sitting on a wasps' nest - her bottom and genitals. (Makes me want to curl up in a fetal position just thinking about it!)

So here is why they get only two stars: because checking the injured area and removing the stingers and the 2 (by now, thankfully dead wasps) would have involved removing her underwear, the counselors - even the female ones - opted not to do it, but to wait until I could get there some 45 minutes after they called me and have me do it. They thought it would be open to "misinterpretation!" I mean, really? You are charged with ensuring a child's safety and you are too worried about how looking "down there" might appear to actually provide basic First Aid? You even spoke to me by phone and neither mentioned this nor asked my permission to examine her? No thanks. No amount of fun could make up for deliberately opting to not provide basic care and thereby endangering my child.

Tree Frog Treks is the best. We have hired them several times for years at our school. I have also been lucky to attend events at libraries with my own family where they were present.

The staff is so professional, responsive, warm, great with kids, knowledgeable, and have such an infectious love and care for animals, the outdoors, science and the environment.

I tend to be weary and try to balance a love for animals with how we use them for our own entertainment (aka zoos). But it's clear the team here have a mission to serve animals and really care for them as generous as they can.

I haven't used it myself but have also heard great things from our families about their summer camps.

This camp is like Wild Kratts but in real life! Our daughter comes home every day full of stories and new wondrous facts about the natural world. The counselors are dedicated and long-term employees, not like other camps.