The two stayed in separate locations at the village, which contains about 400 canvas tent and wooden cabins.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

During the first two years that the dome was under construction, Lanier and his father lived in an unheated canvas Army tent that was stiflingly hot in summer and frigid in winter.

NEWYORKER: The Visionary

There's an explanation for the campground aura: JPL started out in 1915 as Tent City, with ten large canvas structures.

FORBES: Rocky Mountain High, Canadian-Style

Overlooking a tranquil lagoon and shaded by hardwood trees, the suites are idiosyncratic canvas-and-beam structures that are part tent, part cabin.

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It also means expecting the unexpected, like, perhaps, a terrifying guttural roar directly outside your tent, a lion so close you can hear his soft feet padding the dust just beyond the canvas.

BBC: The Serengeti in the off-season