Yurt Camping With Kids at Mt. Madonna County Park: A Family Guide
Mount Madonna County Park is a redwood forest oasis located between Gilroy and Watsonville, California, just 1.5 hours south of the East Bay Area. Although Santa Clara County has many popular and fun campgrounds, Mt. Madonna is the only one where you can go yurt camping with your kids.
Yurts? Yes, yurts!
Yurts are a circular tents with canvas sides and wooden floors. They have windows, real doors, ten-foot ceilings, and real furniture inside, including bunkbeds with mattresses, pull out futons, and some even have tables.
Before this trip, I had never stayed in a yurt. I was so excited to try this new style of camping—something even easier than our roof top tent—over a long weekend with my preschooler and toddler. This felt like glamping at its finest! Here’s what you need to know:
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Quick Tips
Before You go
- Book a yurt campsite six months in advance. Mt. Madonna has only 5 yurts available in the entire campground. Sites are reserved quickly, especially for weekend stays. Plan to book six months in advance to get the dates you want.
- Bring your ID. The camp ranger will ask to see the ID of the person who’s name is on the reservation at the kiosk when you arrive.
What To Pack
- Standard diaper bag essentials
- Camping essentials (sleeping bags, pillows, or twin bedding)
- Sunscreen and hats
- A cooler with food for breakfasts, dinners, and smores
- Baby carrier
- Bikes & scooters
- Fun campground activities
What is a Yurt?
Yurts are a circular tents with canvas sides and wooden floors. They have windows, real doors, ten-foot ceilings, and real furniture inside, including bunkbeds with mattresses, pull out futons, and some even have tables.
Outside, each campsite has a fire ring and picnic table. There are clean and well-lit bathrooms for each campsite loop. The yurts at Mt. Madonna come in three sizes:
- Small is 16’ in diameter, sleeps 6 with two bunk beds and one pull-out futon (~$66/night)
- Medium is 20’ in diameter, sleeps 8 with three bunkbeds and one pull-out futon (~$81/night)
- Large is 24’ in diameter, sleeps 10 with four bunkbeds and one pull-out futon and a table in the middle (~$96/night)
Costs
| Item | base cost |
|---|---|
| Campground reservations | $35/night for a tent site plus $7.99 service fee |
| Yurt | $66 - $96 depending on size |
| For day-use parking | $8 |
| Add-Ons | |
| Meals from town (if not bringing your own) | |
Read on
Check out our children’s book recommendations that feature BIPOC voices to deepen our understanding of the experiences we share together at Bookshop.org.
Getting There
Mt. Madonna County Park is about a 1.5 hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area and a short 20 minute drive from Pajaro Dunes.
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What to do at Mt. Madonna County Park while Camping
Go for a hike
There are 14 miles of hiking trails in Mt. Madonna County Park; keep the Mt Madonna trail map handy on your travels. The Sprig Trail leaves from the Valley View campground where the yurts are located.
We walked from our yurt to the well-maintained trail one morning and checked out the neighboring campsites, which were under the canopy of tall trees.
Explore the ruins
The ruins of a cattle baron’s mansion are located inside the park. Take the short, one-mile Lower Miller trail to the house site and let your kiddos climb on the old steps, peep through the remaining windows, and imagine what it was like to live there a century ago.
Our kids enjoyed playing hide and seek behind the massive redwoods as we made our way back to the car.
Take a side-trip to Watsonville
We love Watsonville, and considered staying at this Mt. Madonna campsite just so we could spend a few days exploring all of the family-fun that Watsonville has to offer: berry picking, wine tasting, good food, beaches, and more. Make a day of it!
If you do plan on going into Watsonville, which is 20-30 minutes from Mt. Madonna, keep in mind that the weather in the mountains where the campsite is located can be cooler than down in the valley as you head west. I recommend dressing in layers.
Bring toys for campsite fun
The trees that surrounded our site were perfect for setting up a slack line and hammock. Our kids spent 80% of the time at the campsite either swinging in the hammock or balancing on the zip line.
Click here for a list of our favorite campsite activities for kids.
Enjoy a meal by the fire
The large picnic table was perfect to set up our camp stove and seat our entire family.
We brought food in a cooler to enjoy over the weekend and cooked all of our breakfasts and dinners at the campsite.
Purchase wood at the entrance to the park to enjoy the firepit and make smores with your kiddos.
History Corner
The Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay region are connected to the homelands of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other Ohlone peoples. Majority of these communities were removed from their homelands and displaced onto missions. The closest mission to Mt Madonna was Mission Santa Cruz, where Indigenous peoples were enslaved, forced to stop practicing their culture and speaking their language, and many died.
The land has passed from Spanish ranchers to Italian immigrants (where the name “Madonna” came from), to a rich cattle rancher who built a mansion you can hike to, and finally into county hands.
The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is around and still stewarding the land. Look below for opportunities to learn more and donate.
Our Experience
Many families camping at Mt Madonna were BIPOC. We felt safe in this environment and while traveling in the nearby towns.
Learn More
- Donate to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust
- Attend and volunteer at the Annual Honoring of the Elders to support local Indigenous communities
Antiracist Travel Considerations
Final Thoughts
My family loved our experience at Mt. Madonna so much that we are bringing more friends with us to try out one of their tent campsites in the fall. The yurts at Mt. Madonna added a bonus feel of “glamping” to our usual camping experience. The wrap-around deck was a perfect way to corral our kids—they ran circles around it! They called it our “house” for the weekend and enjoyed all the space the campsite provided. There were BIPOC families in the yurt next to us and throughout the campsite, as well as many BIPOC park-goers enjoying the trails. It is nice to see a county park so well accessed and utilized by the community.
Have you stayed in a yurt? What was your experience like? Share in the comments below.
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