When Mark Koep first started camping with his family 12 years ago, one of his fears was being attacked by a bear. “We’ve seen black bears invading trash cans, but that’s about it,” Koep said in an interview. “There’s not a lot of danger when you’re out camping, especially when there’s a lot of people in the campground, just because animals shy away from that.”
Although bears are rare, Koep said he has seen other wildlife emerge from the surrounding forest at campsites. “We have seen moose, mountain lions, and wolves in and around campgrounds, but never in a threatening way,” he said. “There was always a sense of awe and amazement to see them.”
Koep and his family are among the 10.1 million households who camped in 2020, according to a Kampgrounds of America study. “We already had growth in camping, but then COVID just accelerated it,” Koep said in an interview. “With the loss of other types of travel, camping became a fallback, plus it has the benefits of you’re relatively isolated, so you’re able to stay distant from people, and you’re able to go out into remote areas.”
Koep, who founded resource site Campground Views based on his camping experience, expects campsites to be packed this year now that COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted state by state and vaccinations are on the rise nationwide. “A lot of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands where you can camp for free by just parking off the side of a road are going to see record numbers of people,” he said. For newcomers to the campsite scene, Koep offers the following tips.
When campgrounds tell you they’re booked 2 to 6 months out, call back.
“They may have just had a few cancellations for the weekend,” Koep said. “Generally, people are booking up campgrounds, but then the trend we’re seeing is cancellations at the last second. There are about a billion campsites nationwide, and there’s never going to be a million people camping. So there’s always availability.”
(Courtesy of Mark Koep)
Broaden your search for campsites outside of major national parks such as Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Teton.
“There’s a handful of campgrounds inside Yellowstone National Park and other national parks, but if you do a 50-mile radius search around Yellowstone, there’s literally hundreds of campgrounds,” he said. “It may require a bit more research, but you can always find a campsite in the surrounding area.”
Bring a propane stove when camping in a tent.
“If you’re in an RV, you’ll have a stove or microwave in the RV and maybe even a power-appropriate barbecue. And in a tent, generally, you’ll have a Coleman camping stove that’s propane powered,” Koep said. “Sometimes you can cook on a fire at a campsite, but there’s usually a lot of fire restrictions in the summertime, especially out west.”
(Courtesy of Mark Koep)
Ask before transporting firewood across state lines.
“Some states don’t allow it,” he said. “Research and understand the rules of where you’re going before you get there so that you don’t inadvertently do something that causes damage to the area.”
Juliette Fairley is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Chateauroux, France, and raised outside of Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Juliette is a well-adjusted military brat who now lives in Manhattan. She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, Time magazine, the Chicago City Wire, the Austin-American Statesman, and many other publications across the country.
The Lundys are one of about 6,000 families that homeschool on the road. (Courtesy of the Lundys)
When Margie Hamel Lundy and her husband, Allen Lundy, decided to road school their three children in 2010, they didn’t ask school authorities in Ohio for permission. “We didn’t offer up that information either when we left,” Mrs. Lundy said in an interview. “We were already working from home and were homeschooling our kids.” So, they packed up their fifth wheel travel trailer, which they had hooked to their truck for weekend camping trips, and started driving.
(Courtesy of the Lundys)
“The biggest obstacle for me was my mindset and learning how to do things in a different way, because growing up traditionally and going to public school is what we knew,” Mr. Lundy said. “Road schooling was scary. It required a big change of mindset. Once we got that, there was so much freedom in it.” For Mr. Lundy, it was the thinking that a child has to sit down at a desk to learn from a specially trained adult that needed to change in order to get behind the idea. “We didn’t realize, until we watched it happen, that kids can learn from anyone and everything all the time,” he said.
The Lundy kids doing some schoolwork. (Courtesy of the Lundys)
Today, their children Lizzy, 21; Josh, 21; and Matt, 18 are all grown up and living on their own. The Lundys, however, continue to travel the country. “We’re having a good time,” Mrs. Lundy said. “We visit the kids, too. We saw our daughter in Nevada and now we’re seeing our son. It’s fun to travel and see them and then travel again.”
(Courtesy of the Lundys)
Road schooling—also known as RV homeschooling—is the practice of homeschooling children while driving on the road from city to city or state to state without attending a brick and mortar school building. “Just because it’s called homeschooling doesn’t mean that the schooling has to always take place in your home,” said Thomas J. Schmidt, a staff attorney with the non-profit Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).
Regarding how they homeschooled their kids for 11 years while driving, Mrs. Lundy said the state of Ohio required teacher overviews and some reporting to the county. “It wasn’t hard but we did have to figure it out and talk to some people who were more familiar with Ohio’s homeschool laws,” she said.
(Courtesy of the Lundys)
Eventually, the Lundys relocated to Florida, where homeschool accountability is easier. “We joined an umbrella group through Florida Unschoolers and then all you have to do with the umbrella school is report attendance,” she said. “We didn’t have to do a dossier check through an accredited teacher like we did in Ohio. Florida requires private umbrella schools to verify our kids have at least 180 days of attendance each school year, so 45 days each quarter.”
The Lundys are among the 6,000 parents who have participated in the tuition-free Florida Unschoolers, which is a legal path for parents to comply with the state’s attendance law. Others work with the HSLDA. “Children arrive in kindergarten with a strong desire to learn, and they receive great joy from learning,” said Lee Jenkins, author of the book “How to Create a Perfect School.” “If parents who are RVing and homeschooling can keep this desire to learn alive, and if the children receive joy from the learning, the plan is a good one.”
In May, the RV Family Virtual Summit, co-organized by Bryanna Royal, taught parents how to hit the road with their school children in tow. There were multiple Zoom instructional webinars, including: how to transition to road life, how people of color are received on the road, what is the cost of RV living, telling your family you are hitting the road, and how to avoid educational roadschooling potholes and school tickets.
“School doesn’t have to look so traditional,” said LaNissir James, a high school educational consultant with the HSLDA. “It can be very eclectic if you choose.” LaNissir and her husband Lorenzo are homeschooling their seven children on the road in their RV. “I love to use travel guides,” LaNissir said in an interview. “Another favorite is state parks because you can learn a lot of history from the state park. You may have a guide to your state park and then you can talk about the history of the state park.”
Staying overnight and waking up at a camp site is also a great educational opportunity, according to James. “All the campsites have so many fun things and games like chess,” she said. “They have lots of logic games and other things that you can do.”
A downside to the family’s roadschooling, however, is only having one toilet in their RV. “There are times we all are lined up and have to use the bathroom at the same time,” LaNissir said. “There’s a conflict there. They don’t make RVs with three bathrooms yet.”
Juliette Fairley is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Chateauroux, France, and raised outside of Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Juliette is a well-adjusted military brat who now lives in Manhattan. She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, Time magazine, the Chicago City Wire, the Austin-American Statesman, and many other publications across the country.
In the timeless scenery of the Southern California desert, ferocious dinosaurs and larger-than-life creatures are brought to life through the animated work of Ricardo Breceda. Where else can one find a 350-foot-long sea serpent which appears to swim through the surface of the desert floor and under a road? The impeccably-detailed, rusted-metal monster is just one of 130 sculptures in Galleta Meadows of Borrego Springs, CA. Other imaginative sculptures include a scorpion facing off against a grasshopper, incredibly life-like rams rearing up to head butt each other, and a mother camel nestled against her child. Formed out of sheet metal that has been cut, shaped and welded into place, these majestic creations come to life in the sparse desert landscape.
Dinosaur Fight in Borrego Springs, CA.
Ricardo Breceda has been called an “accidental artist” whose talent for metal working was initially put to the test when his daughter asked if he could make her a life-size dinosaur. After successfully building a Tyrannosaurus Rex for her birthday, Breceda found his calling. Originally from Durango, Mexico, Breceda’s artistic story is an inspiring tale of dreams becoming reality. Destiny paired Breceda with a passionate and wealthy patron, Dennis Avery (heir to his family’s Avery labels fortune), who hired the artist to fill his desert property of Galleta Meadows with prehistoric sculptures.
Ricardo Breceda at his open-air gallery in Aguanga, CA.
On top of the large collection of sculptures found in the Borrego Springs area, Breceda has hundreds more for sale at his public, open-air gallery in Aguanga, CA. The gallery is an epic attraction in its own right where row upon row of sculptures attract several hundred visitors every week. Ricardo keeps the gallery experience gratuitous for visitors out of the belief that his art should be freely accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Rows of sculptures at Breceda’s open-air gallery in Aguanga, CA.
Breceda’s dedication to each of his creations is evident in their masterful design and execution. Whether it is a mouthful of fearsome dinosaur teeth, or a full-scale jeep climbing up desert boulders (with a sculpted driver), Breceda fashions many of his works to be frozen in expressive movement. Sculptural details range from thousands of round scales on the sea serpent to innumerable thinly cut strands of metal curled meticulously on a llama’s fur. The patchwork panels of sheet metal build out the artist’s forms with surprisingly realistic anatomy in addition to girth. With the help of a team of artisans, and depending on their scale, his works can take from a few weeks up to several months to fabricate.
Horses jumping over the highway down the road from Breceda’s gallery in Aguanga, CA.
Adults and children light up when they witness the whimsical creations in Breceda’s prolific body of work spanning two decades. “The best pay for an artist is when people like what you do…when people feel what you do,” proudly remarked Ricardo. He is an artist who certainly exudes passion and a childlike joy for his creations. Amidst the sands of time, his imaginative prehistoric and mythical creations join exaggerated forms of this world for this extraordinary artistic experience.
Shaded by a giant elephant in Borrego Springs, CA.
Jeff Perkin is a graphic artist and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach available at WholySelf.com
Overview of Salvation Mountain in Slab City, CA. Photographed by Jeff Perkin.
“Let’s keep it simple. Don’t get complicated with love.” Leonard Knight
Over a period of almost three decades, Leonard Knight used hundreds of thousands of gallons of donated paint to create a landmark dedicated to spreading the message of God’s universal love. Knight’s creativity, devotion and open-hearted energy magnetized people to the middle of nowhere in the California desert, to experience this truly unique, colorful, and spiritually-provocative spectacle.
At the peak of its popularity, after being showcased in Sean Penn’s acclaimed 2007 film Into the Wild, Salvation Mountain drew over a hundred visitors to the isolated area daily. As his work and message grew in notoriety, Leonard would spend up to 9 hours a day with visitors. Painting, expanding and repairing his work was his morning ritual while the rest of his time was devoted to giving tours around the three story, technicolor “mountain.”
Photography by Jeff Perkin
Knight came to Niland, CA in 1984 with the idea of painting a hot air balloon that read “God is Love.” After having a personally impactful religious experience years before, he made it his mission to serve God in this creative way. As he tells it, he came for a week and didn’t end up leaving for almost three decades. After multiple deflated upsets with the hot air balloon, he turned his sights to an old riverbank where he gradually grew an eight-foot sign to the size of a football field. Initially using concrete and paint, the first few years of his work on the mountain collapsed into rubble when the concrete became too heavy for the land beneath it. A true testament to his exceptional perseverance, Knight started over using adobe that he learned to craft from the area’s natural clay.
Leonard Knight photographed by Joe Decruyenaere
The famous landmark was designated a National Folk Art Site worthy of protection and preservation by the Folk Art Society of America in 2001. The following year it was entered into congressional record as a national treasure. Leonard lived on site in a broken-down fire truck or a hammock with only a modest income check from the VA. Salvation Mountain is located down the road from Slab City where others also live off the grid in RVs and tents. Leonard’s monument is a shining light revealing the best intentions of the spirit of freedom and spiritual seeking that seem to draw people to this largely forgotten area.
Unfortunately, since Leonard’s passing on February 10th, 2014 at 82 years old, and perhaps also in the wake of last year’s pandemic, the monument has endured significant areas of erosion. Constant repair with thick layers of paint is required to stave off the eroding effects of mother nature on this one-of-a-kind art installation and it is only because of the hard work of volunteers that it generally remains intact.
Photography by Jeff Perkin
At the end of Knight’s life, his good friend Dan Westfall helped set up a board of directors and a non-profit 501c3 organization called Salvation Mountain Inc. The organization hires caretakers to live and work at the mountain for a small stipend. The organization’s website calls for donations and volunteers and there is always the possibility that volunteers will restore the site to its full glory.
In today’s digital age, perhaps it isn’t all that important to make a pilgrimage to the middle of the desert to see Leonard’s work in person. Knight wanted his message of love to reach the whole world and knew that the internet was the best way to do that. There is no telling how many people have been touched by his message thanks to his work’s appearance on the big screen, in YouTube videos, and with images and stories shared across social media. Thankfully, the internet provides us a portal to timelessly witness the beautiful spirit of a man whose home, life’s work and faith were so artfully and soulfully intertwined.
Photography by Jeff Perkin
“It was the purest ministry I’ve ever seen. He didn’t have a 401k or a crystal cathedral. He had nothing, but he was happy, and he was joyful, and he was loving.” Dan Westfall (Knight’s friend and co-founder of Salvation Mountain Inc.)
Jeff Perkin is a graphic artist and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach available at WholySelf.com
My friend Ann, a veteran mother of four, has one piece of parenting advice she passes out consistently to frazzled new parents, particularly if they happen to have a fussy baby: “Get out of the house. Put that baby in a stroller and get outside. Outside changes everything.” She’s right.
Outside really does change everything, especially in today’s world when, by some calculations, up to 90 percent of our lives now happen inside. And each year we spend more than 1,000 hours in front of a screen. It’s an insidious change from the way people traditionally lived their lives, and it’s not for the better. Happily, some folks are beginning to notice.
In his 2005 international bestseller “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” Richard Louv discusses the importance of being outside and interacting with our natural world. “Now more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent,” he says. Turns out the benefits are myriad, but here’s my top five.
Improve Mental Health
With so much anger, anxiety, and stress happening indoors, simply stepping outside can be an easy antidote. While it isn’t guaranteed to cure all your problems, breathing fresh air and observing nature has definite mental health benefits.
Follow the science: Sunshine is a natural mood-lifter because it boosts the body’s serotonin levels. Serotonin helps stabilize moods and keeps people calm and focused. Outdoor time also decreases hyperactivity in children. As Louv said, “The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”
Follow the logic: Outdoors, children can run and yell, jump and climb; it’s an easy, healthy, all-natural way to burn off excess energy, so much so that children diagnosed with ADHD who spend more time outdoors tend to have milder symptoms.
(Annie Spratt/Unsplash)
Improve Physical Health
It’s important to prioritize the time we spend outdoors. “Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own)” Louv says. Perhaps that’s because there’s just something about being outside that naturally encourages people to be active.
My plan to relax on the front porch turned into an evening weeding the flower bed—working up a sweat and pulling a sizeable pile of weeds. Turns out being physically tired helped me fall asleep more quickly and sleep better throughout the night.
But the health benefits of being outside don’t stop there.
Sunshine (again!) helps rev up the vitamin D levels, which are critical for a healthy functioning immune system. Plus, those same vitamin D levels also build strong bones and muscles. Outdoor exercise—particularly weight-bearing exercise such as biking, walking, hiking, or climbing—increases strength and endurance even more. Dealing with the changing terrain of the natural landscape improves balance.
There are other, more unexpected health benefits of being outdoors. Optometrists know our eyes aren’t made for screens, and excess time staring at tablets, phones, and computers leads to dry eye and eye strain. Nature provides ample opportunities to exercise our farsighted muscles and build depth perception as we look at things 20 feet or 200 feet or even 2,000 feet away.
Build Confidence
Beyond the mental and physical benefit of being outside, a life spent with nature changes us in many positive ways, perhaps because the things we accomplish outdoors are real—not virtual—and so are the rewards.
Encountering a bear or a mountain lion on the trail and living to tell the tale is about as real and confidence-building as it gets. As Louv says, “The pleasure of being alive is brought into sharper focus when you need to pay attention to stay alive.”
(Will Stewart/Unsplash)
But wild adventures don’t have to be life and death to be meaningful. Walking the length of a log without falling off is its own triumph. Put that log 2, 3, or 5 feet off the ground and bump up the thrill of achievement. Try jumping across a narrow spot on a stream. Fail and you walk home with squishy wet socks and pruny toes; succeed and you walk home with dry feet and a smile on your face.
Hunting and fishing or gathering nuts, berries, or mushrooms in the woods bring their own brand of confidence. Want to grow your confidence? Grow a garden. Invest yourself in a very real way in keeping yourself (and your family) alive by planting, tending, and then gathering up your own food.
Make Social Connections
It’s not immediately obvious, but being outdoors offers social connections. Opportunities to work together on an outdoor project cultivate a spirit of cooperation. Fallen logs are too heavy to be moved on their own. One person catches the fish while another builds the fire to cook over, but both jobs are necessary.
Visit a farmer’s market and you’ll soon strike up conversations with vendors. Do this for several weeks in a row and soon you have new friends you’ll look forward to seeing … and it’s all brought to you by the great outdoors.
Promote Learning
Take it from a veteran homeschool mom—being outdoors is the ultimate educational experience. In fact, many of our best learning moments took place outside. A life outdoors promotes curiosity and the learning of new words and concepts. Being outside nurtures creativity and imagination; it encourages risk-taking and independence.
Why is the sky blue? Why are rainbow colors always lined up the same way? Why don’t earthworms have eyes? Why do hummingbirds hum? What does pileated mean? Why is the sand at the bottom of the sandbox cooler than the sand at the top? Why do flowers smell different? With so many curious, interesting things around them, kids learn without even being aware they’re learning.
(Leo Rivas/Unsplash)
Creativity and imagination take flight as leaves become boats carrying cargoes of dandelion flowers. Trees become houses with leafy roofs. A fallen log becomes a mighty train headed down the rails to adventure. Outdoors, people learn about the interconnectedness of the natural world and its inherent complexities. Fisherfolk protect the rivers, lakes, and streams that serve as homes for trout, bass, crappie, and catfish. Hunters conserve the homes where the deer, elk, bison, and antelope roam.
Working to achieve that indoors-outdoors balance, Ginny Yurich, founder of 1000 Hours Outside, and her family decided to make a conscious effort to spend more time outdoors … like 1,000 hours each year. Yurich ended up starting a movement (www.1000HoursOutside.com), promoting the benefits of spending large quantities of time outdoors. Whether you’re a city dweller or country through and through, whether you spend 1,000 hours outdoors or something less, time spent outdoors is good for the soul. Because being outside really does change everything.
Gina Prosch is a writer, home educator, life coach, and parent located in mid-Missouri. She is the author of “This Day’s Joy” and “Finding This Day’s Joy,” both of which are available at Amazon. Find her online at GinaProsch.com or TheHomeschoolWay.com. She also co-hosts The OnlySchoolers Podcast (OnlySchoolers.com).
