Under Canvas announces plans for 50-tent ‘glamping’ site in White Salmon.
The upscale hospitality firm Under Canvas announced plans Tuesday to open a 50-tent luxury camping site in the Columbia River Gorge in May 2025.
The site, situated on 120 acres outside White Salmon, Wash., will be the 13th for the Denver-based company, which launched in 2012 with a 102-tent site in Yellowstone, and the first in the Pacific Northwest.
The idea behind glamping is to offer the best of both worlds — an immersive experience not found in a climate-controlled hotel room or even a rustic cabin — but with some of the comforts not found in the traditional camping experience, including hot showers, flush toilets and USB battery packs to charge devices. (There is no wifi, though, and cell service is spotty — a selling point for many guests.)
Guests at the White Salmon site will even be able to rent a “stargazer” tent, which includes a window over the king-sized bed; the company partners with Dark Sky International to minimize light pollution at its sites.
“You’ve got the best of camping without the worst of it,” says chief marketing officer May Lilley.
It’s not the first glamping site in the area — nearby Skamania Lodge announced last year that it would soon offer similar options at its site. It does mark Under Canvas’ first foray into the region, however; most of its other properties are situated in national parks. That includes a 12th site announced earlier this year at Yosemite.
Tent rentals at the site, which began accepting reservations Tuesday, start at $299 before taxes and fees. That’s comparable to a hotel or cabin rental in many of the areas where Under Canvas operates, and in some cases more expensive.
Lilley says most of Under Canvas’ customers are people who have experience with traditional camping. Some have “aged out” due to joint or back problems. Often, a more upscale setting is more appealing to families traveling with small children or multiple generations, or to groups of friends traveling together.
Most are educated and have higher-than-average incomes, Lilley says. The model also appeals to people who lead a “faster paced lifestyle” that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to traditional camping, which can be laborious.
“Comfort in nature, I guess, is what we’re about,” Lilley says.
The company also offers onsite meals cooked with local ingredients and programming that can include yoga, hikes, whitewater rafting and mountain biking — which customers can either do on their own time or as part of guided expeditions conducted in partnership with local outfitters. Lilley says she can also envision holding outings to breweries or wineries in the Columbia Gorge area.
Under Canvas also offers some of the amenities one might associate with a hotel, like a small gift shop, a 24-hour reception desk and housekeeping on request.
The buildout for the White Salmon site will begin in early spring. According to Lilley, permanent structures at Under Canvas’ sites are minimal, and since all of its locations include some snowfall, the tents are only up seasonally (with the length of season varying depending on the location). In the spring, she says, the company sends a team around the country to install that summer’s tents.
The company is now accepting reservations for the White Salmon site, beginning May 29. For more information, visit https://www.undercanvas.com/.
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