In 2015, Garrett Dempsey and Lisa Perez went on a mission in Detroit鈥檚 , located on the city鈥檚 far west side. They were looking for Scout Hollow, a long-forgotten campground that dates back to at least the 1930s. They听scanned the tree line and spotted a path blanketed with weeds descending into the woods. Upon closer inspection, they found weathered steps and realized that they must be in the right place. When they reached the bottom of the hill, they found a field overrun with chest-high weeds.
This was Scout Hollow?
In the ten years since Scout Hollow had been used, nature had reclaimed this once active campground. Other than a rusted flagpole and some broken glass at the foot of the stairs, there were no signs that humans had ever been there. The only evidence of life was a few circles of flattened weeds where deer had bedded down.
Where others might have seen obstacles, Dempsey and Perez saw an opportunity to bring camping back to Detroit. Dempsey, 46, is a Sierra Club campaign representative for , an organization that aims to inspire the city鈥檚 youth to spend more time outside in local natural spaces by providing opportunities for camping in the city. The program听is a collaboration between the Sierra Club, , and the .听Dempsey, who is passionate about equitable access to nature, has years of experience leading youth excursions, first in San Francisco and later as the chair of the听 (ICO) program in Detroit. Perez, 51, is the Detroit urban-connections coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service and serves on the . After their first visit to Scout Hollow, Dempsey, Perez, and several community stakeholders began planning to reopen the site as a campground for the city鈥檚听youth.
When people think of camping, they usually imagine western mountains and remote rivers. They dream of Denali, not Detroit. But many youth in urban areas don鈥檛 see the greater听outdoors as a place for them. There are organizations that aim to increase participation and inclusion by introducing city kids to camping and backpacking in national parks and wilderness areas far from home, and while those adventures are beneficial, outdoor experiences in cities open up more accessible opportunities听and give youth groups a chance to be stewards of their own backyards.
鈥淗aving a camping program that embraces natural spaces in the city听is听an intentional part of recognizing and embracing the richness and the strength and the assets and the beauty that are inside Detroit,鈥 Dempsey says. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to have the conversation about nature start with a three-hour road trip to someplace. We hope that one day they鈥檒l want to go on that road trip听and they鈥檒l seek out nature all around. But we think it鈥檚 important to begin from a place that recognizes the inherent value of their home.鈥

Increasing inclusion in the outdoors is close to the heart of Detroit Outdoors鈥檚 mission. The city is 80 percent Black. In 2016, only five percent of all U.S. campers were Black and ten percent were Hispanic, according to the Outdoor Foundation鈥檚 2017 .听鈥淚f a young person types in the search 鈥楧etroit camping,鈥 we want the results to come up with lots of pictures and stories of other people of color that look like them,鈥 Dempsey says.
Volunteers from several community organizations helped clean up Scout Hollow,听and Dempsey and local advocates听reached out to representatives from the city鈥檚 parks and recreation department for permission to use the site and asked the city to maintain the grounds. In 2018, with grants from the , REI, and the Sierra Club, Scout Hollow reopened under the management of Detroit Outdoors. It鈥檚 now 17.5 acres, with almost five acres of meadow space for camping and a three-quarter-mile nature trail to the Rouge River. The thick woods surrounding the campground鈥攈ome to听bald eagles, wild turkeys, pheasant, woodchucks, great blue herons, red-tailed hawks, deer, and coyotes鈥攎ute the roaring rhythms of Detroit, making the campgrounds听feel hundreds of miles away.
With three campsites that can accommodate up to 30 people each, Scout Hollow is available听to youth groups that have a leader who is Camping Leadership Immersion Course (CLIC) certified through Detroit Outdoors. The organization offers a two-day, one-night CLIC training course throughout the year to prepare听youth leaders with the skills necessary to听lead overnight camping trips. Once certified, leaders听can reserve a campsite and gear from Detroit Outdoors鈥檚听extensive gear library for a nominal cost. (Detroit Outdoors adopted its gear library and CLIC training concepts from a model used by the , a group of seven outdoor programs serving youth throughout the U.S.)
Detroit Outdoors staff teach CLIC trainees skills听like how to set up tents and use camp stoves. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really about building relationships and providing them resources,鈥 says Jac Kyle, a naturalist and Detroit Parks and Recreation representative with the organization. 鈥淲e try to have it so they can get a taste of what it would be like to teach these skills and to coordinate the logistics of the gear and the camp setup.鈥
In its first two summers of operation, Detroit Outdoors trained 84 group leaders听and 480 youths camped at Scout Hollow. (The program has been closed during the pandemic.) Julia Cuneo, strategic coordinator for the youth-run activist organization (DAYUM), completed a CLIC training and went camping at Scout Hollow with a group of teens in 2019. At the training, she says, 鈥渋t was really interesting to compare programs [with other youth group leaders]听and talk about the different ways we were going to use the space听and the different kinds of relationships we had with the young people we work with.鈥
Bryson Nickelberry, a 13-year-old Detroit resident and an eighth-grade student at the听Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies School, had his first overnight camping experience with his Boy Scouts troop at Scout Hollow in 2019.听Nickelberry says he enjoyed cooking, sleeping in a tent, hiking, and telling campfire stories. He also was able to reconnect with the same campground where his grandmother and great-aunt attended day camps in the late 1950s.听He adds that听other kids might听be interested in camping at Scout Hollow to learn about nature and each other. 鈥淵ou have other people that are like you, and you connect more with them on trails,鈥 Nickelberry says. 鈥淵ou find the real meaning of teamwork and cooperation.鈥

Natalie Ramos, the YMCA program manager for Detroit Outdoors, believes听it鈥檚 important to work with youth who do not typically see people who look like them in the outdoors, because it allows them to learn about outdoor recreation and careers in the听field. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to leave the city to be in touch with nature,鈥 she says.
Similar efforts are underway to get kids camping in other metro areas, like Chicago鈥檚 Cook County,听the nation鈥檚 second most populated county. In 2015, the , a member of the Outdoors Empowered Network that worked with Detroit Outdoors on its program, opened five new campgrounds in the area, including sites for RV and tent camping, cabins with bathrooms, and group sites, and it began offering CLIC trainings and access to gear libraries to certified leaders.
The Forest Preserves has since trained nearly 170 leaders and has had more than 1,300 participants camp at its sites using gear from its library. The organization, which markets its camping programs to children in underrepresented communities and offers free bus transportation, has trained leaders who work听with diverse populations, including developmentally disabled adults, wounded warriors, women鈥檚 groups, and alternative high schools on the west side of Chicago serving students in their late teens and early twenties who reentered school after being arrested, battling drug addictions, or having children.
The Chicago Park District also runs a听weeklong program for children ages 9 through 12, culminating in a 24-hour experience at a park in the city. Its weeklong Under Illinois Skies program,听for children 10 through 13, includes a trip to a Forest Preserves campground and a family camping experience.

Minneapolis-based offers similar opportunities to youth from underrepresented communities, including people of color, new immigrants, and individuals with disabilities, at Fort Snelling State Park in Saint听Paul. The nonprofit听supplies all necessary gear for the campers, including tents, cooking equipment, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and raingear. In San Francisco,听听provides outdoor leadership training for youth group leaders and gear for camping at the Presidio, a National Park Service site within听city limits. And in New York, the Appalachian Mountain Club鈥檚 听features听free gear loans and camping at 鈥檚 Ecology Village in Brooklyn.听
Liz Holley, a program specialist with the Chicago Park District, manages its citywide camping programs. She says that children who camp and participate in outdoor activities develop a respect for nature and conservation. 鈥淢uch of the world is urbanizing very quickly,鈥 Holley says. 鈥淪o if we lose that connection to nature, if we don鈥檛 respect that, we won鈥檛 be able to recognize it in our own backyards. It鈥檚听empowering and grounding to have that.鈥
Dempsey adds that by deepening a young person鈥檚 relationship with nature, he hopes to create 鈥渢he fertile soil for planting a seed in young people who are going to be tomorrow鈥檚 environmental stewards and advocates.鈥
His plan seems to be working. Ajee Witherspoon runs the 鈥檚 Environmental Stewardship Internship (ESI) program, which听teaches 16-to-19-year-olds job-readiness skills and how to be environmental stewards and advocates for their communities. She has taken ESI interns on two camping trips to Scout Hollow. On one outing, the ESI interns found leopard frogs. When Witherspoon looked over, all the interns had gathered around a girl who was explaining how to treat animals humanely.
鈥淢ind you, many kids do not trust nature,鈥 Witherspoon says. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to touch a frog or anything, but by the end of this experience, they鈥檙e looking for frogs, they are actually trying to start a biological index of this area. That鈥檚 how impactful it can be.鈥

Michael Johnson, a 2020 graduate from Detroit Cass Technical High School, camped at Scout Hollow with DAYUM in 2019. It was his first time camping, and he found it calming to be surrounded by nature and to see the sunrise without buildings obstructing it.
鈥淎 lot of people don鈥檛 realize that these places are not that far from them,鈥 Johnson says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e always in a place where everything鈥檚 moving at once. There鈥檚 a lot of stimulus that鈥攊t overtakes them, and they get used to it, but they never find a place to just relax. And this is one of those places where we can learn about nature, and small things around you, and how to realize that you should be working to preserve stuff like this.鈥
Since Dempsey and Perez first visited Scout Hollow five years ago, it has become much more than a campground to the youth and community leaders who stay the night there.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e standing at the top of the stairs, you know you鈥檙e in Rouge Park. You see the swimming pool that鈥檚 behind us, you see the residential area behind us. Everything feels like Detroit,鈥 Witherspoon says. 鈥淏ut Scout Hollow, I鈥檒l tell you, it鈥檚 like Narnia. As soon as you go down the stairs, you鈥檙e in a whole new world.鈥