Inside Colorado's Quirkiest Tiny Home Getaway

As adults, it's so easy to lose our sense of childlike wonder and creativity, but there's one getaway that aims to restore these qualities in its guests through art and a sense of community. Camp V is located in Naturita, Colorado, and is one of the most unique stays I've ever experienced. Let's take a look at it. All right, so we're here at Camp V, and I'm here with Natalie, who is the owner, founder, CEO, builder, boss girl. So yeah, what's up? Good to be here. Welcome to Camp V. We're happy to have you here. So I saw this place on the side of the road coming in, and I didn't know this was Camp V, and I was just like, hmm, that looks odd. And this place is weird in the absolute best sense of the word, and I absolutely love that. Thank you so much. Yeah, we wanted something that when people discovered it, they would say like, wow, I can't believe that this place exists. So I'm glad you had that reaction. We wanted to not only restore this historic community, but at the same time, we wanted to add this element of art, and then also bring a sense of community together for a place that holds such a history for the people that are from this community. Totally. Yeah. Honestly, this place to me, it kind of feels like a kid's summer camp mixed with some kind of hippie commune mixed with a little splash of luxury and class. It's just unlike any place I've ever stayed. This place is a deal of its own. Yeah, we wanted something that really sort of appealed to a broad range of people, but at the same time, really brought out that sort of inner child in us and has those elements of play and just, I don't know, like space to sort of not only like sort of roam, but also just to have like some solitude. And so I think it brings out different aspects. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel like a little kid here just seeing all these, you know, cool art things and just the little touches of weirdness all over the place. And it's just a fun place. Like, I just see this place. I'm like, this is a fun place to stay. So you said this is historic. So what's the story about Camp V? So this was originally built in 1942 to house the engineers who worked in the nearby uranium mill. So actually, it was sort of lovingly referred to as Stonehill because it was where all the, you know, the bosses lived. So this was previously a mining community and this is where the workers stayed. And you took these like rustic, broken down cabins and turned it into this. Yes. So what does Camp V mean? I saw that and I'm, is it like Camp Five? So we get that often too. So Camp V comes from the original name Vancorum. Vancorum is the initials of the Vanadium Corporation of America. And then we decided to sort of honor that past, but give it a new name moving forward. And so that's where Camp V comes from. Sweet. So from what I've seen in this place so far, it looks so sweet and I can't wait to look around. So want to show me some, what this place has? Yeah, let's go explore. Let's go. So this is cabin number 15 and this is where you'll be staying for your time here. Nice, nice. How many cabins do you have here? So we have 14 cabins. 12 of them have been restored. It's actually one of my favorites. So the first thing I noticed when I come up to this house is the siding is, is that doors? You are correct. Those are old doors. So when we changed the floor plans on the existing cabins, we had an abundance of doors. And so my partner Jody Wright, who is an amazing architect, came up with this concept of actually putting these old interior doors on the exterior of this cabin. Wow. That's sweet. So where'd you get these doors? So they all came from inside of the other cabins. And so when we took a one bedroom to, uh, to making it an open concept studio, we had extra doors from taking down those walls. So basically you took all the doors from the other cabins and turned it into the siding for this cabin. Yes. So how many square feet is this cabin? It's feels pretty tiny. It's approximately 500 square feet. But by opening up that floor plan, we were able to make it feel a little bit larger than what it is. It does. I mean, that's already like five times the size of my tiny home. So this is like a mansion to me. Inside you'll find that the cabins are extremely modern looking and minimalistic. The design is well thought out and it looks so good. The kitchen comes stock with supplies for a meal of your choosing and cooking was part of what made the experience here so much fun. Bone apple teeth. I honestly can't say I've used a record player once in my entire life. Is this the Beatles? Because honestly, that's what I imagined the Beatles would look like. I don't know. I'm not British. Let's play us some Beatles. There we go. That's some good Beatles right there. The bedroom was my personal favorite part of the cabin and I loved how it fit into the open concept of the whole area. There were lots of subtle details about it which really worked together to make this place an entire vibe. The bathroom is similarly classy and is hooked up to the water tower and heater for a plentiful supply of clean hot water. One thing I especially loved about the bathroom is the sliding barn door which was reclaimed from the original property. Bruh, this feels like something out of Cobra Kai. So the first thing that caught my attention when I came here is obviously this giant windmill tent organ thing behind us. So what the heck is this? So this is the Prairie Wind Chapel which is done by artist Robert Cohen. It was a piece that's been at Burning Man before and he felt as though it really needed a much more permanent home so it could be enjoyed by people often. It's also sort of that symbol of the meeting place, right? When old communities are built, one of the first things that they built was a chapel and so it really has this symbolism of like, you know, the first thing that you see in a community and a meeting place for people. Honestly, I was there last night and it's pretty spooky at night. It covers all your bases. It's like, you know, a cool family place and like a haunted house. It's everything. It's a great description of it. So there's actually going to be a Halloween wedding in the chapel. Oh no way. Sounds like maybe you need to be there. Is Dracula getting married? Oh okay. Might be Dracula. He might have found a boo. You're gonna have to come find out. Here we are on the Pariah Express. The Pariah. So the Pariah Express is a Burning Man mutant vehicle that was built by Howard Moffat and his family out of Park City. So it's been to Burning Man a handful of times. What happens with a lot of these pieces is essentially they just sit in storage for most of the year and so for Howard he said, well why not bring this out to V so that people could enjoy it and it could be used for special events. That's great. Give it some use in the off season when it's not a Burning Man. So this is the Unknown Zone which is an art installation that's done by Brooke Enbender out of Telluride. Nice. So what is it? It's the Unknown Zone. So when at the beginning of COVID, Brooke was looking at doing an installation with doors and so she posted a message on Facebook saying I'm looking for old doors and suddenly she started getting all of these messages from people saying we've got this door but there was all these stories attached to the doors and so for her she started realizing that doors are such a portal especially during COVID like we were stuck behind doors or there's certain doors we couldn't go inside of. So she wanted to transform these doors not only into art but but also it's like sort of a symbolism for for these portals or for these things that are unknown and so this installation is called the Unknown Zone Camp V. I like the symbolism behind it that feels like something out of like a high school English book you know. Mr. Warrenburg would love this place. So behind us it looks like we have some kind of giant metal box with a chair sitting in front of it in front of a TV. Can I show you what I think this would be used for? And then you could tell me if I'm right or not. Okay I'd love to see that. All right so go sit in the chair. Okay. Are you scared? A little bit. Nice. So this is Francis which is our non-binary piece of art. This is actually a piece that came out of the power plant. It was a crusher cone so it has a new home here at V and you'll see that it was very intentionally set here so that you have this beautiful frame of the water tank. It also seems to make a pretty good jungle gym. This thing is awesome. My first thought when looking at this thing is that you're trying to build a better lobster trap but I'm guessing that's not it seeing as how we're in the middle of the Colorado desert. That's probably it. That's probably a fair assumption. So this is actually a fire wheel. It's built by Anton Vitsward out of Telluride and the Deep Creek Mine and so you can imagine at night there's burning wood in there and then it spins. Oh gotcha. So it just like throws burning wood all over for pyromaniacs. So this right here is obviously a fire pit but I haven't seen a fire pit quite like this before. What's this guy? So this is Fuega. This is our communal fire pit. This is actually a piece that came out of the power plant in the community after it closed down. When we saw this piece in the boneyard we were like this deserves to be a fire pit. So this was an old piece of the machinery at the mine and you took it and turned it into a fire pit. Yeah so we gave it a new life and it had actually never been used. It takes almost a year to weld a piece like this or at least it did is what we were told and so when we found it it was covered in plastic and here it is living its best life it can't be as a fire pit. Right on. Sitting above the main area the next thing you'll want to check out is the big water tank which has been transformed into a yoga and meditation studio. The builders did a great job here and I love the new deck that's been put in. It's a great place to go to just escape the craziness of everyday life and have some alone time. In this water tank you'll definitely want to take some time to attend a sound bath which is where a gong is played in a way that echoes around the tank and immerses visitors in a tranquil noise. It's actually really relaxing. Next to the tank is the water tower which supplies the entire camp with filtered water via a pump to the river. Next to it you'll see these pieces which are wind harps that create a beautiful sound on a windy day. It's really something you have to experience for yourself. The final area to explore is the lower part of the property where you'll find the magic bus and Lake Vee. All right so what's the deal with the bus down by the pond? So this is the magic bus. This was actually a bus that came with the property so the previous owner had purchased it as like a you know as a travel bus but had never done anything with it so when we found this it was stacked full of wood and so we completely cleaned it out towed it down here and then a friend of ours Heidi Sprague who's an amazing artist transformed it into this continuous speakeasy. So in here I'm seeing all this art on the walls. What do you do here? You draw everyone who comes draws their own art? So yeah so everyone that's come has participated in the continuous line drawing which means that you never pick up the the pen. Oh nice. What's nice is that now the community that's come here have essentially become the artists. Yeah there is a bunch of interesting pieces around here. I love it. Guess I need to make one for myself now right? I think so. Let's do it. All right so I have to make a drawing and I can't pick up the pen at all. This is gonna be something else. I'm gonna do a self-portrait all right. I'm gonna try to draw myself. You guys ready for the big reveal? Boom self-portrait. How's it look? Is the resemblance uncanny? Looks a little bit like an older version of you but otherwise I totally see it. That's me in 10 years. Next to the bus is Lake Vee which is a beautiful pond that's perfect for swimming, fishing, paddle boarding, or goofing around on the platform. All right gonna take a little dip in Lake Vee. All right so after my dip in Lake Vee it's time to take a shower and this is one of the coolest showers I've ever seen. So what's the story on this guy? This is called the green thing. You can guess why right? It is a green thing. It's a green thing. So actually I found this on the side of the road at an antique store and the guy also agreed that it was worth salvaging so he was just waiting for us to come along and when I saw it I was like this definitely deserves to be a shower. And here we are now it's an outdoor shower. There it goes. Oh and it's warm. Oh it feels so good. I love it. And there you have it for Camp Vee. One of the most unique stays in Colorado. I put their website in the description so if you want to book a stay just go ahead down there and tap it. I promise you won't regret it. And also this is my very first video doing a property tour and I'm hoping to do plenty more in the future highlighting cool retreats, airbnbs, personal builds, and conversions. So yeah let me know what you think about this type of video whether it's cool or whether it's trash like me. Be sure to like the doobly-doo and hit the sub smash button and I I don't know how to do YouTube just press the buttons. Alright have a good one bye.