Pioneer spirit

Yosemite resort updates covered wagons for glamping

CROSSING the bumpy prairies in covered wagons would have been so much nicer for the pioneers if those prairie schooners had air conditioning.

Maybe even a Keurig coffeemaker.

Alas, they did not. But this is 2018, and covered wagons can be tricked out with all manner of modern-day amenities.

Yosemite Pines RV Resort and Family Lodging in Groveland, California, has done it.

The resort, 22 miles from Yosemite National Park’s western entrance, made over six Conestoga covered wagons for glamping — camping with creature comforts.

The wagons “look like an incredible way to live out your Wild West fantasies,” Travel + Leisure writes.

Each wagon has a kingsize bed, one or two sets of bunk beds, heating, AC, a refrigerator and a microwave, according to a Yosemite Pines news release.

“If guests don’t want to make coffee over the morning campfire in the fire ring next to each wagon while enjoying breakfast at the picnic table, they will be able to use the provided modern Keurig coffeemaker,” the release says.

The one drawback, noted Afar travel magazine, “is that they don’t have private en suite bathrooms, but restrooms and showers are located just a few steps away.”

The Conestogas — American-made, the resort says — are wider and deeper than the ones the pioneers traveled in. Horse-drawn Conestogas like these, with their iconic heavy canvas covers, were used to haul freight — not people — from town to town in Pennsylvania and other Eastern states in the early to mid-1800s, according to History.com.

They are not to be confused, the History website says, with the smaller, lighter-weight, more agile prairie schooners that carried pioneers west.

Thrillist called the new glamping wagons “essentially decked-out rustic tents on wheels. They look just like the ox-pulled covered carts you remember from the 8-bit “Oregon Trail” game you may have played in elementary school, except they’re outfitted with modern-day amenities, and your chances of contracting yellow fever are significantly lower.

“There’s even a community swimming pool and volleyball courts on-site, which may not be authentic to the pioneer era, but hey, neither is penicillin.”

The resort has received hundreds of responses on its Facebook page since announcing the installation of the wagons last month.

A stay in one of the wagons costs $139 to $279 a night depending on the season, according to the resort’s website.

What would Laura Ingalls Wilder say?

Yosemite Pines Resort Yosemite Pines Resort in Groveland, Calif., 22 miles from the western gate of Yosemite National Park, has six Conestoga Wagons that people can camp in.