One of the best parts about staying at the glamping getaway Huttopia Wine Country in Northern California is the drive there. En route from Santa Rosa, my daughter and I dipped briefly into the spa town of Calistoga, then headed into the Mayacamas Mountains past more vineyards in the golden afternoon light. Homes were perched at impossible angles like Italian villas on the Adriatic, iron gates guarded mysterious estates, and madronas and live oaks framed romantic landscapes. Once over Mount St. Helena, we were in Lake County, and half an hour later, we were pulling into Huttopia’s parking lot.
Glamping among oaks and vines: Checking into Huttopia Wine Country
Photo: Huttopia Wine Country
Surrounding us were dozens of khaki and olive green tents on wooden platforms surrounding a large open-air reception area. The site is set on 150 acres on the front end of the 4,300-acre Six Sigma Ranch, whose winery, tasting room, mountain biking trails, and vineyard tours were just down the road.
The temperatures being well into the 90s, my daughter and I quickly dropped off our bags and fell into the kidney-shaped pool. Afterward, we joined other guests snacking on pizza on the patio by the reception while French ballads played in the background. My daughter wandered over to the fire pit to roast a few s’mores while I relaxed with a Wildflower Picnics Rosé from the winery. A brace of quail ran before us on our way back to our tent, and a sliver of luminous pale moon hovered in the sky.
Although the birds woke us up the next morning, we wanted to linger in our comfy beds (with bed linens!) that were so unlike the air mattresses we’d endured in prior campouts. Our tent setup was quite fetching: 425-square-foot dwellings with solar panels, zip-up windows and tiny bathrooms in the back, eliminating the need for midnight trips to an outdoor privy. A grill and portable sink, attached to a water source, were on the front deck. Next to them was a wrought-iron table, two brown canvas chairs, and a comfy wraparound couch with brown cushions, topped by a ruby red umbrella.
Getting the lay of the land (and sky): Inside Huttopia’s Planet Walk
Photo: Julia Duin
After Nutella crêpes, we dashed downhill to join a Planet Walk. This was an hour-long lecture by amateur astronomer Angelo Parisi, who has been active in countywide efforts to keep local skies dark enough for decent stargazing. Huttopia was ideal for it, he said, as the ranch is miles away from city glare and rain-free much of the year.
We started at a large yellow exercise ball set on a tripod, which, he said, represented the sun.
“The idea of this hike is to give you an idea of how empty and how big this solar system is,” he told a small boy on a bike. “Earth is the only planet with an atmosphere, the only planet with water, Disney, Netflix and Coca Cola.”
For the next hour, we would walk through a scale model Parisi had constructed of the solar system to help us grasp the vast distances between each planet. Our path, which followed Asbill Creek — named after the land’s first settler family — gave us a straight line of sight between the “sun” and more distant planets a half mile off.
We strolled under valley oaks past Mercury, Venus, Earth (represented by a peppercorn), and Mars mounted on sticks. Parisi talked about everything from solar maximums to how Venus spins in the opposite direction from other planets.
Jupiter was especially fascinating for the kids, as it was a racquetball painted with varicolored stripes with a large red spot like the actual planet. By the time we got to Saturn — a small golf ball set in a clear acetate disk — we were 1,834 feet down the valley with the yellow ball now a dot in the distance. Given that Uranus was another quarter mile into the valley and Neptune a half mile beyond that, the group turned around because of the heat.
Bridging France’s forests and California’s hills: How Huttopia got its start
Photo: Huttopia Wine Country
My daughter and I headed back into the pool for a quick dip, then up to the restaurant for lunch with Emmanuelle and Fabrice Masson, managers for the resort.
Huttopia, they told us, is a French glamping company founded in 1999 — the synthesis of the word “hut” as a shelter deep in the woods, merged with Utopia, Thomas More’s fictional island. Today, there are 152 sites in eight countries, including several in the US and Canada. Our port-of-call is their second California venture, opened in 2023. The process began in 2016 when a company representative discovered Six Sigma Ranch, which owns the 4,300 acres on which Huttopia is situated. It didn’t take long for the rep and ranch owner Kaj Ahlmann to realize they could work together.
“We are two-and-one-half hours from the Bay Area where there are seven million people,” Ahlmann told me when we met later that afternoon. “If we could get people to stay overnight, maybe more would come.”
Nine years later, there are 97 tents installed with another 53 to come.
“What Huttopia wants is a unique getaway made easy,” Emmanuelle told us. “It’s camping without bringing all your equipment but still getting the feeling of sleeping in a tent.”
Playing, pedaling, and pouring: Exploring Huttopia and Six Sigma Ranch
Photo: Huttopia Wine Country
There was loads to do. Near our table was a cupboard of play equipment: Hula hoops, badminton rackets, and ping pong paddles for an ultra-modern ping pong table, which looked like a set piece out of The Matrix — all wood, iron, and angles. We decided to borrow electric bikes and ride to the winery.
It’s there that we met Kaj Ahlmann, who had just marked his 25th year since acquiring the property. During his career as CEO of Employers Reinsurance — a division of General Electric — he was part of the team of officers who introduced a quality management tool to GE Capital Services known as Six Sigma. The core idea was to eliminate defects. When it came to winemaking and grape growing, that meant monitoring and refining data to ensure perfection — or close to it.
The house specialty is tempranillo, a bold red wine.
“Tempranillo is the lead grape for Spain, and this climate is perfect for it,” Ahlmann told us. “It’s softer on tannins than cabernet, more earthy with more of a leathery taste. It’s the third largest varietal produced in the world.”
Stargazing under the Milky Way: A perfect finale at Huttopia Wine Country
Photo: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock
After we biked back to our tent, another dip in the pool and dinner, it was time to meet up with Parisi, who had set up shop for stargazing near his 200-pound telescope. A trail of red lights — which don’t cause light pollution — led to a field where lawn chairs were arranged so we could lay on our backs and gaze upwards. At least 25 children and adults showed up to hear about the constellations as Parisi used a green laser to point out Andromeda, Pegasus, and Cassiopeia.
“Most of these tales have been in Western culture for thousands of years,” he explained to listeners who were new to Greek deities. He then turned his attention to a globular cluster 22 million light-years away that looked like a celestial Nerf ball. As crickets chirped in the dark, the Milky Way glowed brighter like a dusty belt as the evening wore on. More people wanted to see what Parisi could produce with the help of a telescope camera when it stacked up images on an iPad.
“I could do this all night,” he said happily.
Even though a cool front came in that night, by the time we checked out the next morning, Huttopia had gained a convert: my daughter. Never again, she announced, would she do yucky regular camping.
“Glamping,” she told me solemnly, “is so much better.”
