My grandpa picked up some rural land at delinquent tax auctions decades ago.
However, do your diligence. One 40 acre parcel he bought had been almost completely absorbed by a large meandering river since it was plotted - and he discovered his land was under water after buying the parcel! Another was surrounded by fields with no road, no easement, and no way to access it. In hindsight, the family would have been a lot better off had he invested in stocks instead of these "bargains". No matter how cheap they were, they consumed cash, continue to consume cash through property taxes, aren't particularly useful, and are apparently not even worth selling.
What sort of recreation do you have in mind that requires a land purchase rather than using national forests, state parks, etc? How many years would you and the kids use it? I know that hunting, hiking, bicycling, etc. can be done in national forests for free, so maybe you're thinking off-road motorsports or firearms sports? Increasingly, we're seeing parks/forest space devoted to even these activities, or at least permitting them. Spend some time questioning park rangers, etc.
Another option is to go into a property as tenants in common with friends. Benefits include paying only a fraction of the full costs for a bigger piece of land than you could otherwise afford. The main drawback is that your friends will eventually do things that annoy you, like leaving trash, building shitty cabins, storing junk, being there all the time, cutting trees, etc. They might also fail to pay their share of taxes. You'll probably want a corporation or operating agreement for such an arrangement - one that keeps in mind that they might sell their share someday. My 160 acre hunting club is arranged this way, and it has been cash-flow neutral for about 80 years.
And before you buy, consider leasing property. If you were going to drop, for example, $40k on a 20 acre patch of dirt, consider that you could invest that amount at 5% and generate $2k/year to use on a lease that might get you 40 acres! Lots of landowners would take you up on such an offer because there's lots of land that only costs money and generates nothing for the owners. In many cases, if you pay the taxes, you can use it! Note how your financial flexibility is maximized in a lease scenario. If money someday becomes tight, it's not tied up in a highly illiquid asset - you can just cancel your lease.