Camping in a Treenet: A Review

Sleeping High in the Skies

Have you ever heard of a treenet? It is almost exactly what it sounds like: a net woven in and among trees! They are considered a form of art, while also being a functional structure that you can sit and/or stand in. I learned about them recently while my partner and I were looking for places to stay during a weekend getaway recently.

We had planned to visit Bodega Bay since we both hadn’t been there before, but we couldn’t decide on where we could stay for a decent price. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at Hipcamp (which is pretty much the Airbnb of camping), and I came across an advertisement to Sleep Up High in a Redwood Tree Net. Naturally, I thought to myself “What the heck is a tree net?” and I immediately clicked on it for more details. According to the site, the treenet is “[a custom woven net that is] suspended 20 feet off the ground in the middle of 14 redwood trees [and] provides a trampoline-like surface to hang out and sleep up to 5 people on”. I was very excited with the idea and after showing it to my partner, we immediately booked the spot!

Since the campsite itself is located in San Geronimo, we ended up spending most of the day visiting Bodega Bay and some of the nearby coastal towns before making our way over to the campsite. One of our stops included visiting The Children’s Bell Tower in Bodega Bay, which is a sculpture of bells that are dedicated to a 7 year old boy named Nicholas Green who was killed during a botched armed robbery in Italy. His parents kindly decided to donate his organs to seven Italian patients, which in turn spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations throughout Europe. Despite the sad nature surrounding the sculpture, it was a very peaceful spot and I was glad to have stopped by.

After visiting The Children’s Bell Tower and a few more gift shops, we decided to make our way over to the treenet to set up our stuff. It was a very beautiful drive, going through the redwoods and seeing the different houses on the way. Upon arriving at the treenet, I immediately felt excited to climb up and see it. I was a little nervous to go on the net at first; the host had mentioned that we make sure that small items such as your phone and keys were secure, as they could fall through the net holes and get lost amongst the trees. However, the excitement of being high up in the trees overrode that nervousness and I made the climb up.

My first impression was of how bouncy the floor of the treenet was; it felt like I was on a trampoline! I made a few test jumps before looking down and realizing how high up I was. The multiple sharp tree stumps located directly below the net also made me a bit more cautious with the jumping. As the advertisement suggested, we’d decided to forgo a tent and sleep in the open air which made setting up very simple and gave us some spare time to drive back to the coast and watch the sunset. It was super cold and windy, but definitely worth the beautiful photos we got out of it.

By the time we got back to the treenet, it was already dark outside so we decided to start getting ready for bed. I was a little nervous about sleeping without a tent at first, but I was able to get to sleep after a while and except for an occasional animal sound in the distance, it was a fairly peaceful night. I think arguably the best part of the trip was watching the glow of the sunrise from under the tree canopy. I’d gone camping before and I’ve seen sunrises, but nothing compares to waking up and seeing the sunlight dancing across the leaves above you. After watching the sunrise for a while, we realized we were a bit hungry and decided to pack up and say goodbye to the treenet.

While it may not be the most conventional way of camping, I would love to visit again sometime soon. Despite being in the open air, it felt very secluded and the view was breathtaking. If you ever find yourself wanting to try something new, I would highly recommend camping in a treenet in the redwoods!

Want to Sleep in a Treenet?

If you're interested in camping or even sleeping in a Treenet overnight, I would highly recommend checking out Hipcamp. The site has a similar function to Airbnb, in that you are able to book directly from whoever is hosting the site. The only difference is that rather than showing available houses/rooms, they list available tent sites and/or RV spots so that you camp your own way!