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Hipcamp?

rkerber

rkerber

Newbie
Does anyone use Hipcamp? Since we were starting out our travels in a pandemic year, and had mostly avoided campgrounds in our tent-camping past, we had some anxiety about park, national forest, and private campgrounds (BLM would have been an exception, maybe, if we'd been out West). We found that Hipcamp sites in the Midwest covered our travel needs very well, it was very easy to isolate, and the hosts were very accomodating. The adventure/scenery level does not compare to Yellowstone or Zion, but we are not in that part of the country (yet!).

The long-term plan is to be out West for at least half the year. Family ties point East. It's good to have wheels.
 
The sites offered in So Cal are not very nice, I wasn’t impressed. Other areas may offer good sites.

Looked into Harvest Hosts also, unfortunately they don’t allow teardrops with porta potties in privacy tents Your rig has to have an internal bathroom.

This surge in camping is definitely making things difficult. Sadly they are closing some BLM and National Forest lands in the West because people are trashing the sites and overstaying the 14 day limit. I would like to see public lands require a permit at a nominal fee to fund more enforcement and as a deterrent to those trying to use public lands as permanent residency.
 
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Hipcamp and similar apps might work best where real estate is relatively cheap, I suppose. Of course, what looks nice in Indiana might not look so great in California. One thing we have found is that many hosts are doing Hipcamp and Harvest Hosts, so the sites aren't terribly different (right down to the pit toilet) although my sense is that Harvest Hosts has more high-end hosts like vineyards and the like.
 
Hipcamp is a great concept, I hope it really takes off. With reservations so hard to come by this year the more options the better.
 
I think it’s like AirBnB. Some are much nicer than others. We stayed at one near Gainesville, FL because we couldn’t get a site at any State Park or National park in a resasonble distance on short notice. It was nice, it was in the 6 acre backyard of an old 1911 home that was not lived in but being renovated. It butted up against Paynes Prairie SP land and was quite near a Rails to Trails. We set up away from the electric/water site he had available because that was too near the busy (during the week) road out front. Outdoor enclosed shower, indoor toilet & sink off the standalone garage. It was weird to be the only campers in a backyard but we kind of liked it. Rather expensive though, compared to SP’s.

I think it’s a good alternative if you’re in a bind and I’ll bet there are some real stellar ones and some real dogs. :)
 
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I’ve been looking at them as an option in areas with limited summer availability. While I probably won’t use them on my upcoming journey, some of them sound very nice. I could see using them sometime in the future.
 
I’ll try them. Just like Airbnb I think research will be key….it can’t be much worse then some state parks … the only difference is security. You don’t have a ranger evey hour or two, nor protected guarded entrances…

I think that would be the only thing that would worry me at all. Sleeping with one eye open….

We stayed at a campground on some ones land in Tennessee....that had a beautiful single spot campground. Magnificent actually. Full hook-up, private pavilion, stream running around the camp site, firepit with wood provided..perfect. But the first night was a little disconcerting….just you. No security. Strange place.

I'm curious, if you can get addresses and do google map views easily….hmmm
 
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Maybe I'm naive, but I'm thinking being parked on somebody's private property is probably more safe than BLM or boondocking areas.
 
JohnC said:
Maybe I'm naive, but I'm thinking being parked on somebody's private property is probably more safe than BLM or boondocking areas.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely say so...a friend stayed on BLM living an at least partially nomadic lifestyle in her T@B - On at last one occasion a person walked by her camp and was acting very strangely. Not really physicall threatening, but a little bit. It could have been with violent intent, or intent to rob.

She being an older (but not old) woman, had to display a firearm (not brandish, or draw...simply to display it by pulling back a shirt showing its presence) to convince a ner-do-well that it would be wise to move on. It turned out well, but BLM is not 'safe' -- you do need to take accountability and maintain situational awareness at a higher level then you would in 'safe' surroundings.

I sincerely doubt anything like that would ever happen in a state park, or any gated campground. But even there, I've seen things not go very well, in fact it was in our loop on our trip just a few weeks ago to a State Park we've visited probably 50 times.

HipCamp or any private property clearly would fall somewhere in between. You're not completely alone, but you don't have security either. But you are at obscured in the visual noise around a farm, or hidden behind some trees in some ones back 40. So you're somewhere between the relative safety of a campground and the wild-west of BLM.

I don't think Hipcamp is a bad idea - in fact, i'll LIKELY use it once I get my new CI. There are a couple hosts very close to a place I need to go somewhat routinely as part of my familial duties. I just wish there was a little more transparency on the locations of the sites before you went through the booking process.

I want to see the neighborhood. The automobile scrap yard that is 1/4 mile away, or the shopping plaza with a liquor store next to a trashed out mobile home. Small towns are not immune from crime. A little areal recon in advance if you will. It would be unforunate to plan a night stop to get to the area and immediately think "Oh brother...what did I get myself in too"

I hope the reviews improve over time..but the spots I looked at were too new to have anything too helpful written yet.

This still reminds me a little bit of Craigslist...
 
I wanted to jump in on the HiCamp discussion. We have been to exactly two. My son got us a gift certificate for Christmas last year so we had to try. Our friends booked the first one near Mt Rainier, basically a farm/ranch near Randle, WA - it was strategically located on a huge oxbow like bend in the Cowlitz river and the woman owner had just pulled it together this year. She basically built a road through her pasture following the curve of the river. She then cleared a camp spot say every 500 yards - each with access to the river, some high-band and some low bank. There was no water or electricity (dry camp) but she did have honey buckets strategically placed. It turned out much better than many parks as we couldn't see any other campers, it was amazingly quiet... and beautiful. For a first year - pretty nice.

The second one was on the Washington coast - this one was a bit spendy but amazing - in an old growth Sitka spruce forest not too far from the National Park and many of their beach access points (like Ruby beach).

So far so good - I can imagine though that they could vary drastically - kind of like Youtube channels - some good video and video editing and some really poor ones. So do your homework - but definitely an option.
 

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Amazing --- pictures look like something from an RV association advertisement!

In 2020/2021 I looked at several Hipcamp locations but never actually booked them. As I'm planning a cross-country trip this year, I may have to add this to the locations for stays. Thanks for the reminder :)
 
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