Cattle & Campers: At Walden Ranch, Sharing the Land is Part of the Reward

Two campsites bring extra income to Alan’s cattle ranch. They also give the retired teacher a new way to introduce people to ranch life and the outdoors.

Long before Walden Ranch became a camping destination filled with lakeside sunsets, evening bonfires, and more than a few llamas, it began with a high school student reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and deciding he wanted to build a life of his own outdoors.

“I had the same English teacher for four years and I loved her,” says Alan Hansen, the ranch’s owner. “She taught Thoreau and I decided my junior year that I was going to have my own lake, my own forest, and my own cabin.”

Today, Alan is living that dream. But unlike Thoreau, Alan had to acquire the land and plant the forest he imagined. He then made the decision to share the landscape with others via Hipcamp.

Set among the rolling foothills near Linden, California, Walden Ranch stretches across 300 acres of pastureland, lakes, and oak-dotted hills. There are more than 300 cattle on the property, along with llamas, donkeys, horses, peacocks, chickens, guineas, dogs, and a willow tree Alan says he propagated from a tree near Thoreau’s original cabin at Walden Pond.

But the ranch isn’t just a working agricultural property. It’s also become a Hipcamp where tent and RV campers come to reconnect with nature, experience ranch life, and explore the land that has been shaped slowly and lovingly over decades.

One Semester That Lasted 30 Years

Alan’s beloved teacher believed he’d become either a teacher or a preacher, but he’d only ever wanted to be a farmer. After returning home from college with a B.S. in finance, he planned to do exactly that. Then the same high school teacher who had introduced him to Thoreau asked if he’d be willing to substitute teach for a semester.

He stayed for 30 years.

Meanwhile, he slowly began acquiring the land that would become Walden Ranch. The first 20 acres came from a local family who knew him personally.

The arrangement was informal and built on trust. After paying off the first parcel, Alan bought another, then another. As neighboring properties became available—a 40-acre parcel here, an 80-acre tract there—he gradually added them to the ranch. Along the way, he regraded hills for irrigation, added new pastures and fencing, and shaped what began as 20 acres into the sprawling property it is today.

Throughout it all, his high school students often pitched in to help build the ranch itself.

“When I was teaching,” he says, “they helped me build the house, build the barn, put in the fences. We planted a whole forest.”

Opening the Gate to Campers

At its core, Walden Ranch remains a working cattle ranch.

“It’s called a cow-calf operation,” Alan explains. “I raise the calves until they’re 600, 700 pounds, and then they go to market.”

But several years ago, he added something entirely new to the property: campers.

In the woods near a lake, Walden Ranch offers two dispersed sites for tents and RVs, each of which sleeps up to six. Campers have access to outdoor flush toilets, a sink, a picnic table, and (cold) showers. They can walk to smaller lakes across the ranch, watch the animals, and settle into the rhythms of a place that is still very much at work.

He laughs remembering how unfamiliar the process initially felt. “At that time, I didn’t know how to post a picture,” he says of first joining Hipcamp. “They asked if they could just finish it for me.”

Since then, Hipcamp has introduced thousands of people to the ranch—with nearly 2,000 bookings, Alan maintains a 99% recommendation rate and over 1,000 ratings. Hosting has brought in a steady stream of supplemental income.

“It does help,” he says. “I’m amazed at Hipcamp. They keep a running balance of everything they’ve ever paid. I’m up over $63,000 in earnings.”

This, despite the fact that for years, he charged just $20 a night.

“Everybody laughed at me, so I went to $30,” he says. “They still laugh at me, but that’s okay because I’m not doing this to make money.”

Campfires and Connections

The income helps support the ranch, but what Alan talks about most is the people who come to stay.

“What really keeps me going is their appreciation.”

He sees it when kids get the chance to feed cattle on an occasional hayride, when campers return from a walk to the lakes, and when groups gather at the fire ring in the evening. “It’s fun when they’re all out there and you hear them singing or whatever they’re doing,” he says.

Campers notice the care behind the place, too. One family wrote that helping feed the cows was the highlight of their son’s stay. Another camper described Walden Ranch as both a working ranch and a peaceful place to spend the night.

And sometimes a stay becomes the beginning of a longer connection. One couple first came to Walden Ranch as campers. “They were really taken up with the place,” Alan recalls. Then they asked to get married there. He has since hosted four or five weddings on the property, including one beneath the Walden-sourced willow tree.

The View from the Quad

Retirement didn’t entirely end Alan’s teaching career. These days, his classroom just looks a little different.

“I just think it’s important to get people out to enjoy the open country, the outdoors, and introduce them to Thoreau,” he says.

It’s a philosophy he still practices himself—at 86, Alan still spends evenings riding the ranch.

“I think I like the evenings the best. Especially when we go out and check the cattle on the quad and just ride the hills out there and marvel at the fact that it even exists.”

“I’m just so humbled by the whole thing,” he says. “I’ve been able to do this and then be able to share it. It’s kind of perfection.”

Thinking about hosting on your own land?

Alan spent decades building the ranch he imagined as a teenager. Hosting lets him earn income from a small part of it while sharing what he loves most about the place.

If you run a farm, ranch, vineyard, or other working property, explore what hosting could look like on your land. You choose where guests stay, set your pricing and availability, and decide how hosting fits alongside the work you already do.