“Amid rapid urbanization and the rise of a consumer-oriented economy dominated by giant corporations and white-collar work,” Brian Hoffman writes in Naked: A Cultural History of American Nudism, “many intellectuals, physical-culture promoters and urban reformers thought that Americans’ increasing disconnection with their natural environment threatened to weaken the nation.” Despite its current foreboding feel, for more than 70 years this secluded camp was the refuge of pioneering nudists who danced, sunbathed and played naked in the dusty sun.ĭuring the interwar period of the last century, the idea of nudism as a protest against modern, urban life flourished in certain progressive circles. Behind the gates, there is no one, just the remnants of wooden buildings and scurrying lizards. A short drive down the road, you hit what looks like the entrance to an abandoned camp - chicken-wire gate, a wooden sign for Mystic Oaks, KEEP OUT and BEWARE OF DOG postings. An old, vandalized sign indicates that you are entering a place named Mystic Oaks. A couple of turns take you to the entrance of a dirt road, rutted and deserted. Although it is only 40 or so miles from Los Angeles, it feels like another world - this is Trump country, biker bar country, general store country. Deep in the Cleveland National Forest, high above Lake Elsinore on the border of Orange and Riverside counties, there is a winding road called Ortega Highway.
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