There is something about San Camp that strips away everything unnecessary. I...

Mcdavid Khloe
@khloemcdavid8460
5 days ago

There is something about San Camp that strips away everything unnecessary. I spent three nights there during a particularly chaotic year, and I remember lying on the salt at midnight, the ground so flat and hard it felt like I was resting on a mirror. The silence there is not empty. It is a presence, thick and almost audible. I had read about the salt pans being the remains of an ancient lake, but feeling that vast emptiness in my bones was different.

What surprised me most was how the stillness affected my sleep. I am a light sleeper, always waking at the smallest noise. But out there, with no bird calls, no wind, no distant traffic, I slept deeply for the first time in months. The camp itself is minimal: simple canvas tents, meals served under a thatched shade, no electricity after dark. That forces you to sit with your own thoughts. One afternoon, I walked out alone until the camp was just a speck. The horizon disappeared. I had no sense of distance, only the white crust beneath my feet and the blue dome above.

If you go, bring a small notebook. You will have ideas you do not want to lose. And wear sunglasses, the glare off the salt is brutal even with the sun low. The true gift of San Camp is not the photos you take but the space it carves inside you. I still return to that stillness in my mind when the world gets loud.