Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen have embarked on quite an adventure in Santa Paula. Not only are the married couple in the process of creating an interactive science museum in the former Union Oil headquarters, they now provide an opportunity to camp out on the 15-acre South Mountain ranch where they live, which was once owned by actor Steve McQueen.
The couple has jumped into the Hipcamp movement aimed at people who like to camp but are tired of crowded private campgrounds that look more like RV sales lots than nature preserves, or have been frustrated when trying, unsuccessfully, to book public campsites for desirable dates at locations like Yosemite National Park or Carpinteria State Beach — often snapped up within minutes of becoming available online.
Cummins told the Ventura County Reporter that their Hipcamp is a bit “crude.” It’s called Leap Lab Farm, named after the science education nonprofit they also operate called Leap Lab, and consists of not much more than a terrace on the top of the hillside property with a wooden platform for a tent under a geodesic dome and a wooden picnic table. The views and solitude are the real attraction, a contrast to national park overlooks crowded with hundreds of cars vying for parking spaces or visitor center gift shops with long lines…