Getting people outside is the goal of a website pairing campers with property owners.

Dozens of local landowners are making their land available to visitors this summer through HipCamp. The owners of a farm in Coeymans allows them to share the peace of a wild forest with guests.

Host Jason Ball wants to give an authentic taste of life of a farm.  

“They can pet my cow. They can look at the hose while they’re taking a shower,” said Ball.

This is their third summer inviting guests on the land through the HipCamp, an online marketplace for campsites on private land.

“The people that need to come back to the nature most are the ones that are on their computers all day,” Ball said.

It is one of dozens of Capital Region properties listed. Visitors can book the less rugged Mountain View Suite, an apartment furnished with items they made from wood on their property. A stay comes with access to a private koi pond. They have a stone-floor tipi, already booked through the summer.

There are 11 campsites sprawled out on the 225-acre property with access to miles of hiking trails. Visitors can get up close and personal with their animals too including horses, cows, peacocks and goats.

Ball says land sharing has relieved some of the financial stress of farming.

“It has already helped me grow. It has helped me pay for a saw mill and some other things that I normally wouldn’t have had without the extra income from HipCamp,” said Ball.