Why a NorCal Vineyard Opens Its Gates to Campers

Greg Nelson never meant to start a hospitality business. He never meant to be a host, never meant for his family’s land to serve as an overnight sleeping spot for RVers. But that’s what happened. And, as it turns out, he’s “very pleased with it.”

Greg’s story is a familiar one for the small but growing number of working-land owners who’ve quietly added camping to what they already do. They didn’t pivot—they opened a gate.

An unlikely host

As the owner of Ukiah’s Nelson Family Vineyards, which his clan has stewarded for four generations now, Greg is more accustomed to being a full-time farmer than to playing host. His is a working ranch, and he’s got 160 acres of wine grapes, 30 acres of Bartlett pears, and four acres of Christmas trees to tend. Plus a herd of cattle, five dogs, five sheep, and three donkeys to mow the grass. (“We discovered that the donkey is the one animal that doesn’t eat the Christmas trees.”) He’s busy, to say the least.

About four years ago, during a routine Google search, Nelson saw an ad encouraging agricultural landowners like him to consider hosting campers as part of their business. “I called them up and we became a host member,” he recalls.

While sharing the ways in which his family’s land is important to him, Nelson says, “Our main goal is to introduce people to our wines. The extra income [from camping] is a nice addition, but I hope people love the wine and take away many cases.” Hipcampers who stay do often end up joining Nelson’s wine club.

A storied land

Originally Pomo land, Scots eventually settled this valley to herd 8,000 acres worth of sheep during World War II; “They used the wool to make uniforms and blankets and whatnot.” The Nelsons, however, having “lost a way to control the coyotes,” eventually gave up on sheep and planted crops instead.

Nelson has been harvesting these rolling hills his entire life. In 1951, his dad flew the family up to Mendocino County from San Jose, seeking more land to ranch. He found this stretch of mountainous rangeland near Hopland, along the Russian River.

Today, it’s divided by U.S. 101 and dotted with oaks, firs, a few redwoods. McNab Creek also runs through it, hydrating all manner of wildlife along its way: jackrabbits, deer, skunks, woodpeckers, buzzards, the occasional golden eagle.

“It’s gorgeous, really beautiful,” Nelson, otherwise plainspoken, gushes of his land. “The vineyards are cultivated and pretty, and there are lots of birds.” Protective of his valuable slice of Earth, Nelson has put in impressive land preservation efforts, including fish-friendly farming methods (for 20 years now) and doing the work to get certified by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance more than a decade ago: “We did a lot of creek restoration on that, and we repeatedly spend a good week being audited.”

Space to stay

This is, first and foremost, a working ranch—and that’s part of what campers come for. Nelson’s hard work on the land pays off, including for those who book a stay here. Campers park their RVs, campervans, trailers, and even car-camping setups atop a ridge that overlooks a grape-and-pear-filled valley. “We get a lot of people passing through. They’re driving from the Bay Area or Los Angeles to Oregon or the redwoods, and they stop over for the night.”

As campers arrive, a cheerful strawberry stand greets them, and most buy fresh-picked berries. They check in at the small tasting room to sip the cabernet, the merlot, the pinot grigio, the muscat, the Viognier. If it’s summer, they might catch an evening classic rock concert at the winery’s open-air Oaks Amphitheater.

The seven RV sites (“We don’t have bathrooms, so it isn’t conducive to tent camping.”) sit a quarter-mile apart, a distance wide enough to make people feel like they have the place to themselves.

A five-mile hiking trail leads visitors to views of Ukiah, then drops down along railroad tracks before climbing back up to the campsites.

“We run cattle,” Nelson says, “so you’ll see the cows. We’ve had a couple of cases when cows have trotted up against the RVs and people woke up afraid it was a bear.”

Campers can bring their own animals too—most bring dogs (leashing is required), but at least one has brought a cat as her traveling companion.

Paving a way in

So would Nelson recommend that other farmers turn a portion of their land into Hipcamp sites? “I haven’t had any issues with hosting,” he replies. “We’ve had really fun folks—we get campers from Europe. Norway, Germany. And it’s interesting how many older solo ladies are on the road in their RVs.”

“I haven’t had any issues with hosting. We’ve had really fun folks.”

To prospective hosts, Nelson advises patience: “It takes a while to build a reputation. And a requirement in our county is that you live onsite, so you do have people there in your daily life—make sure you’re OK with that.”

Nelson also points out that they eventually earned back the cost of getting set up: “We put in a gate with a keypad so that people could let themselves in, and we put in a road and leveled some spots.”

“Talk to other hosts,” Nelson offers, “and ask how it works so you can think through it clearly.”

For him, though? “It was an easy decision. We get to introduce people to our wines, meet interesting folks. I’m really amazed at how careful they are with our property. You know, people are very courteous, very polite. I haven’t found a single piece of trash.”

Thinking about hosting on your own land?

If you run a farm, vineyard, ranch, or working property in California, Hipcamp can help you explore what hosting could look like on your own terms: starting simply, with what you already have. Set your own rules, pricing, and availability, and welcome the kind of campers Greg has come to know: respectful, curious, and easy on the land.