Finding a place to camp can be frustrating.
Public parks fill up quickly during peak season, and many campgrounds book out months in advance.
For these reasons — and because she once wasted several hours researching a single place to stay online — Hipcamp founder Alyssa Ravasio launched her own website to make camping easier for everyone. And one of her favorite campsites is in Snohomish County.
Think of Hipcamp as the Airbnb of camping. Hosts list their land online, opening up thousands of campsites on private lands nationwide. For campers, this means previously unobtainable access to camping at nature preserves, farms and ranches. For landowners, it’s an opportunity to list your property on a booking site boasting 3.5 million users — for free.
The trend is just beginning to catch on in Snohomish County. Currently, five properties are available countywide, representing a quarter of Hipcamp’s 20 Best Camping Spots near Seattle. Snohomish County campsites range from lakeside RV-ready properties to more primitive, tent-only camping in the woods.
Finding a place to stay is simple. Simply plug “Everett Washington” (or your destination) into the search bar on Hipcamp.com to turn up sites like The Landing at Index. Situated on the Skykomish River, The Landing is Snohomish County’s most popular Hipcamp site with a 100 percent rating based on 60 camper responses. It’s closed for winter, but will reopen in spring 2018. The Landing owner is David Thompson.
“We chose Hipcamp to eliminate the hassle of maintaining a website and dealing with collecting payment,” Thompson explains.
That’s the beauty of Hipcamp for hosts. In addition to providing a platform with millions of users, Hipcamp offers landowners everything they need to get started, including payment processing, customer support and liability insurance. It’s free to list a property, and Hipcamp collects a 10 percent commission from bookings. Hosts set their own prices for camping.
“My experience in dealing with their staff from the founder on down to the photographers has been great,” Thompson says.
Thompson hosted Hipcamp founder Ravasio at The Landing over the summer. Based in San Francisco, Ravasio describes her Snohomish County escape as paradise:
“Amidst ferns and pines, your perfect campsite — complete with soft flat spot to pitch your tent, amazing table, and great fire ring and creative log seating — is right on the edge of the Skykomish River. Great swimming, paddle boarding and fishing are right outside your tent. The privacy is excellent, the stars are bright, and listening to the river as you sleep makes for an unforgettable experience. I can’t wait to go back, hopefully for a whole week this time!”
Hipcamp’s mission is to get more people outside. This is how they differ from other sharing economy startups like Airbnb — the focus is exclusively on camping and connecting users with the outdoors. Of course, sharing recreation sites creates a shared responsibility for conserving them. With 60 percent of U.S. land privately owned, Hipcamp is easing some of the pressure on public lands (like state and national parks) by dispersing users onto private campgrounds.
It’s a win-win-win: campers benefit from an exclusive, private site. Landowners gain funds to put back into the land. And land sharing benefits the environment by alleviating some of the overcrowding at public campgrounds.
So next time you’re considering a camping trip, check Hipcamp for a place to stay. It’s a great way to discover your own little slice of Snohomish County, like Ravasio did at The Landing.
“I hear this is a region where people from Seattle tend to whiz by on their way to Eastern Washington,” Alyssa says. “Little do they know they’re driving by the best part! Granite cathedrals and sparkling rivers make Index and this section of the Skykomish an incredible destination.”
Interested in hosting? For more information and to sign up, go to http://bit.ly/2zzg3zF.
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