Our final history stop was here, at the American Valley School. Built in the early 1900s, the 2,300-square-foot building operated for decades as a one-room school. The facility closed in the 1960s and was leased it to the Valley Ford Volunteer Fire Department as a community center. When that lease expired, a creative soul turned it into a vacation rental, listing it on Hipcamp. "Visitors have enjoyed many throwbacks to the past, including original wooden seating benches, separate bathrooms marked “boys” and “girls” and hardwood floors that have more than a century’s worth of scuff marks. The allure of the old schoolhouse isn’t just about the inside of the building — it’s about the outside, as well. The property backs right up onto the Estero Americano tidal estuary, and some of the old basketball courts are still there in the yard. When campers book there, they have access to the entire property, which means they can pitch tents inside or outside and use the building as they see fit." Wild thought, right?

It is the road-less-traveled that truly delights.