2025 Membership Available Now!

Though we hope to dramatically expand the membership program in coming years, the current membership program is a simple pre-commitment for discount program.  Those who book through Hipcamp know that there are fees (ranging from the low teens to nearly 20% depending on reservation details) added to the reservation by Hipcamp.  Hipcamp provides a spectacular service, and we plan to continue our association with them for many years to come, however there is considerable savings available for returning campers who direct book through a Zen Acres membership.  

 How It Works:

You pay $100 for an Annual Membership (cash, paypal, venmo, or check… no credit cards).  This is a onetime fee, and though you can pay it at any point during the year, it makes the most sense at the end of the preceding year (i.e. Purchase your 2025 Membership before the end of 2024). 

Membership Savings:

Members receive a 10% discount off the base rate (nightly rate and guest fees) for weekend/holiday rates, and a 20% discount off weekday rates.  Coupled with booking fees of an additional 10-20%, this amounts to savings of between 20%-40% per trip. 

The Math:

To illustrate the savings aspect of membership, I will use relatively conservative figures:

If you save 10% on base rates, and 10% on booking fees, that is a savings of 20% on weekend rates.  
If you save 20% on base rates, and 10% on booking fees, that is a savings of 30% on weekday rates.  

If the base rate is $60, you would save $12 on a weekend night, and $18 on a weekday.  Membership fee paid for after 6-9 days of camping.   

If the base rate is $200 (group site), you would save $40 on a weekend night, and $60 on a weekday.  A single weekend trip would almost pay for itself, and a 2 day weekday trip would more than pay for itself. 

So if you plan to camp with us next year, and particularly for larger groups and/or weekday campers, membership may make a lot of sense for the savings alone, before factoring the perks (see below). 

Additional Perks:

• The only official “perk” with the 2025 membership program is advance booking priority over Hipcamp bookings. 
• Jan:  Priority booking for large groups reserving most or all of the campground area.
• Feb:  Priority booking for members to reserve individual campsites.
• Mar to Nov:  All bookings are first come first serve (Large groups, members, and Hipcampers)
• In subsequent years, we have plans to offer some pretty cool things, and some of them may be offered as a seniority based approach.  Therefore, another more abstract “perk” of membership, is reserving a priority place in line for future (possible) additions.  I wouldn’t want anyone to base their decision solely on this, but it is a factor to consider.  In the future, if we add any seniority based perk, those who were with us from the start (with continuous uninterrupted membership), will be right at the front of the line. 
• To that end, here are a couple future POSSIBLE membership benefits and/or approaches we have in mind (some will obviously involve additional fees):

• • Day use access during the weekdays.
  • Personal storage lockers on site to store your camp gear (this one will obviously have a rental fee associated with it, but be limited available and only for members)
  • In the future, first come first serve booking priority between members in Feb will not suffice, and booking conflicts will likely be resolved by seniority rather than who booked it first. Nothing concrete, but just concept atm. 
  • Possible development of member only sites (not available for Hipcamp) offered on some type of annual basis to members only.  
  • Sponsorship:  We hope that this becomes more community minded, and it is likely at some point membership will require being sponsored by an existing member, and/or possibly even an approval process involving the community.

Communication & Community:

2024 is the first year we will offer memberships (for the 2025 season).  We are keeping it very small and simple at first, but want to start to build the foundation now.  Initially it is basically a discount and booking priority program, but we plan to develop and expand the program over the coming years.  Each new year will have its own rates and benefits, and ultimately the program is likely to become much more substantial and robust. 

Our main goal is to build good relationships, and a strong enjoyable community of campers.  Candid communication is paramount to building relationships, and we want to be upfront about our long term plans and vision.  We don’t want it to be a surprise as we continue to develop the program, and implement significant changes year to year as to how it works. 

For those who aren’t sick of reading yet, below is a LOT more information about our vision and intended direction.  It is long, but thoroughly expresses our thoughts and vision, so for those interested, enjoy.  Otherwise, you have reached the end of the “nitty gritty” of our 2025 membership program.

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 Concept:

When I think back to the late 1990’s when we were searching for property that ultimately became Zen Acres, I ask myself:  What were my motivations and desires?  Why was I ready to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (now millions) for a piece of land to call my own, when I could camp on public forest land for free, or in a public campground for comparatively nominal expense?

For me there were a few key advantages:  When I spend a period of time on a piece of land, I start to feel an attachment.  Experiencing the land, not just as something that my house sits on, but as something that I am in direct contact with, deriving warmth, sustenance and recreation.   It takes on meaning to me.  If I scattered ashes of a lost loved one, or a beloved pet, that meaning deepens.  The idea of being able to return again and again became increasingly important to me and my family.

I also like bushcraft and building primitive comforts when I camp.  I am very interested in fire technology, and often built interesting fire pits (recently rocket stoves as well).  Back in the day I really enjoyed building temporary structures and makeshift amenities like outdoor showers and the like.  Sometimes I would spend a week in the middle of nowhere and put a lot of time and sweat into making something really cool, only to abandon it.  Even if I were to return to the exact same spot weeks or months later, I would often find my hard work destroyed by subsequent visitors, which was honestly harder than just not returning at all.

I also wanted a place where I could keep my gear onsite.  At the time I kept my camping stuff in storage (later in an attic space).  There was an entire process of gathering it all up, deciding what I needed that weekend, unpacking it from its space, sorting and loading into the car/truck, then unloading the car/truck, setting up camp, etc…  Particularly as I got older, and started camping with my young children, this got increasingly tedious and time consuming as the associated pile of gear grew and grew.  

It always seemed like I would get to camp only to realize I forgot something.  Sometimes this turned into trips to a local store to buy something I already owned out of necessity.  This is why I ended up with dozens of flashlights, and multiple lanterns, an extra tent or two, multiple canopies, etc…  In particular was the dreaded rain gear and unpredictable Oregon weather.  I would decide to leave all the rain stuff (tarps, shelters, etc..) not expecting rain to later wish I had brought it.  Other times I would take the time to pack all that stuff up and bring it to realize I didn’t need it.  The idea of having everything on site already, only having to grab what I needed and set up what I needed on that individual trip was insanely appealing.  If I forgot something, it was right there, a few hundred feet away.

In the end, there is no substitute for owning your own land.  If you are in a financial position to purchase a few wooded acres, I would recommend it to anyone who loves nature as I do.  It is a sound financial investment and brings immeasurable practical and spiritual benefits to anyone who loves to camp and interact with nature.  However, purchasing bare land is insanely expensive.  It requires 25-50% down payment, insurance costs, and loans are more difficult to quality for than a typical residence.  We were fortunate to be in a financial position to overcome these obstacles, but I know that is not the case for most people.

So, as I imagine developing a membership program for this project, I try to keep all of that in mind.  I want to put something that is within financial reach of more people who share my passion for stuff like this.  Obviously, this is not free of charge (nor is anything of value).  When it is all said and done, I estimate I will have invested over 3 million dollars in this project, and I hope that in the long run this venture ultimately nets a return on our investment and becomes a source of steady retirement income.  However, my goal is to develop a membership program that offers as much of the benefits of ownership as possible at a price that will be in reach of many.

Much more important than all of that, I want to build a community of people I enjoy.  Though at its core this is a financial venture, it is also my home, and my spiritual sanctuary.  It is the place where I experience my connection to the earth and seek connection with a power greater than myself.  No amount of money is worth sacrificing those things that I cherish most in life.  Over the years, I hope to develop relationships with a community of people who share my interests, values, and passions.  I am not in any hurry, and if it takes a decade to build, so be it.

Long term: 

Long term I would like to see a membership program that involves a significant commitment on the part of members in exchange of a much stronger feeling of shared ownership of a campsite.  I am not sure the exact form or mechanism, and obviously the devil is in the details.  

At some point membership might be the annual leasing of a campsite, which a group of members could share and divide time.  Though I hate the connetation, there may be some type of timeshare aspect with a number of nights included or something like that,  and hopefully extended day use.  I could even imagine offering members or groups of members to make improvements, and/or have some level of ability to personalize the space (probably collectively).  I am going to go slow, and take some time to develop these concepts, and I would actually like to do so with feedback and input from members who join the program in its infancy.  

I would like the community to be run as a community, ultimately with new members requiring sponsorship by existing members, and with member input on the acceptance of new members, development projects, and (minimal common sense) rules/standards.  I imagine a point where the community takes on a life of its own, and blossoms.  I want a community of people who I like, who get to know each other, like one another, and though camping as individual groups/families, may over time start for forge true friendships, and plan their trips to share with other members who develop into friends.

I have sat down many times to try to pencil out what all of this would look like, the nitty gritty of how it would work, and how to get from point A to point B.  To put it plainly, that has proven extremely difficult.  In part because we have not yet even fully shaped the vision of what the facility will be.  Of the portion we have envisioned, we are only getting started on a small portion of that.  As a result, I have concluded that in the interest of full disclosure I want to communicate the long-term vision of what I would like to develop, but it is premature to do anything along those lines at this juncture.

Specifically, there are plans to make major improvements to the facility.  Though some of the sites will remain simple and primitive, many will likely have yurts, bunkhouses, covered areas, possibly outdoor kitchens, etc…  Obviously, the rates for these sites will increase as these additions are made.  In the end we will likely still have inexpensive sites (in the 50’s or 60’s per night), but some of our sites may go for $150+ with all the features.  These kinds of variations will likely result in some type of tiered membership program or something, depending on which type of site the member is drawn to.  All of these types of details would need to be sorted out before I could offer a long term membership plan in a fair way.

That said, I am already starting to meet people who I think would be a great fit, and in conversations every time I mention anything about the membership vision, lots of people express great interest.  I would like to have something to tell them beyond “well just keep checking back and I might have some information posted someday”.

For that reason, I have decided to pin the long-term vision of membership (significant investment, long term commitment, etc..), and instead dip a tiny toe in the water with a very simple year to year, lite version of membership that I hope to execute for 2024.  The goal is to create a simple, base level entry point to start to build a community.  The offer would be for a single season.  So, if we offer a 2024 membership plan, those who opt in will enjoy the discounts and perks for the 2024 camping season.  Toward the end of 2024, we will roll out the 2025 plan, and each year’s offering will be incrementally adjusted as we grow and add more sites, features, and amenities.  Hopefully our membership grows each year, and most members continue to renew, but at this juncture we will keep our mutual commitment to one another one year at a time.  Also, I would like to have the ongoing input from people who are starting to show that they are sincerely committed to something like this.

Finally, I want to be transparent and forthcoming about the relationship.  I do very much care about community and personal relationships, but that is not the core of this venture.  This project represents a tremendous investment for my family, and I do plan to see a return on that investment.  All of my businesses are founded on the principle of dealing fairly with clients, and I strive to provide excellent value and top-notch service to each and every client of each and every company.  I hope to have a great, personal relationship with all members and guests, and I may develop some great friendships along the way.  But when it comes to fees, membership dues, timely payments, following camp rules and guidelines and things of that nature, there will not be a special treatment for people I like, or “let it slide” mentality.  This will be a business in which we provide a quality service to our clients in exchange for a fair price.  I will be unapologetic about maintaining this principle throughout all of my dealings with members and clients.