Family camping trips have long been an iconic part of American life – But it was not always accessible to all Americans. Many national parks were created by removing indigenous tribes from their ancestral homes. And for much of the 20th century, black Americans were either forced to live in segregated campgrounds or banned from parks altogether.
That troubling history is part of the reason Sally Steele never went camping until she was 20. Both she and her husband grew up in mixed-race families, raised by black fathers and white mothers. For Sally, camping was not a part of her childhood. But after meeting her future husband, Justin Steele, in college, they discovered a shared love of the outdoors.
“Even though we didn’t know what we were doing, we loved it,” he told GearJunkie. “We started camping once or twice a year.”
As the Steele family grew up and began bringing their own children along, they began to realize the many barriers to camping – especially for people who looked like them. Their friends were hesitant to join, and Sally and her husband could understand why.
There was a huge knowledge gap for those who didn’t grow up learning about camping in their families. Campground reservation systems are often vague, and the anxiety of potentially being the only person of color was difficult to overcome.
Sally and Justin wanted to bring more diversity to the campground. So he decided to do something about it.
Creation of OutdoorRhythm
After asking their friends what kept them from camping, Sally and Justin realized they needed a multi-pronged approach. While still based in California, they wanted to create a national platform that could reduce concerns about potential discrimination, simplify the process of finding a campsite, and educate about what gear is needed and how to use it.
There are still white Americans today The number of black and Latino visitors is far higher For national parks. That ongoing disparity inspired Sally and Justin to create OutdoorRhythm, a website and app that provides a searchable database of thousands of campgrounds—while also addressing the concerns of underrepresented campers. “We started OutdoorRhythm to democratize access to public lands,” Sally said.
After receiving some seed funding through REI’s Embark program in 2024, Sally and Justin were able to build their own AI model to analyze campground reviews. they named it camp sadhuAnd it’s responsible for one of the platform’s most interesting features: the OutdoorRhythm Green Book.
The name stems from Negro Motorist Green Book, Which helped black American travelers in the mid-20th century find safe places to sleep and eat while traveling. Although most of the Steele family’s camping trips were positive, they still had “a few bad experiences”.
“As a black family out there, and not seeing many other families like us, we wanted to make sure people felt safe,” Sally said. “And we wanted to back up that assurance with data.”
So far, Steeles has used its AI model to analyze 1.3 million reviews from more than 9,100 campgrounds. Each campground listed on the platform has an “OutdoorRhythm Green Book” section that organizes reviews of potential complaints about safety, unfriendly staff or campers. This section provides a “Vibe Score” based on that analysis.
“Most of our public lands are safe, and the Community Vibe Score confirms that,” Sally said. “It gives you the information you need to see with the naked eye.”
Comprehensive camping information
However, the security component is only one aspect of the platform. Its Camp Sage AI model allows for ChatGPT-esque queries, but is specific to camping. This means users can get quick answers to additional-specific questions. For example, I typed in, “Find a campground for me with lake or river access near Atlanta,” and received a list of campgrounds with a summary and a map to pinpoint them relative to my location.
In general, Outdoorsy has many of the search filters found on other camping databases such as outdoor activities, amenities, and scenery. But apart from “OutdoRhythm Green Book”, another unique filter is “Heritage Significance”. It allows users to find campgrounds based on their historical relevance to indigenous tribes, Latino Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ+ or women.
In addition, the database provides comprehensive logistics information, such as average campground costs, weather forecasts, booking information, and trip-planning tools. This comprehensive list is neatly summarized at the top of each campground page.
For example, I checked the page for Panola Mountain State ParkOne of my favorite parks near Atlanta. The summary reads, “A primitive walk-in escape 18 miles from Atlanta, built around a rare granite monadnock and a pond-side campsite that rewards anyone willing to haul gear 1.5 miles.” I’ve been to this park several times – and I can’t come up with a better one-sentence description.
OutdoorRhythm also has one gear pageWith interactive packing lists of suggested gear for different types of camping. And once again, if it’s still too much work, you can always ask Camp Sage to create a packing list for you based on the information you provide about your upcoming trip. For many, the platform is becoming popular: it now has 30,000 monthly users.
Empowering first-time campers
However, even with all this information, Sally realized that many people would only try camping if someone else took them out and showed them the ropes.
Sally wrote, “We started OutdoorRhythm out of a desire to help families figure out where to go, what to bring, and whether or not they belong. OutdoorRhythm.com is succeeding at the first two.” Linkedin Last month. “But we weren’t looking to answer the third question about belonging. We needed to create a space where people could feel belonging. So we rejected all the naysayers and we started a nonprofit: OutdoorRhythm Collective.”
with OutdoorRhythm CollectiveSally decides to organize a camping trip for families wanting to try it for the first time. Thanks to funding from individual donors, foundations, and companies like REI and Arc’teryx, he is also able to provide the tours free of charge. Since starting this nonprofit 2 years ago, Sally has organized 14 trips with a total of 400 participants – the majority of them families of color.
“As we talked to people who felt unsafe outside, many of them said they needed that personal element,” Sally said. “It’s one thing to go there yourself. It’s another thing to bring your kids.”
But Sally didn’t just want to provide a great experience — she wanted to give more families of color the confidence to continue camping on their own. For example, while the nonprofit provides the gear, participating families still have to set up the tents themselves.
When everyone comes together to sit around the campfire in the evening, Sally shares mantras to help families gain a new perspective on camping and make their own choices about how to approach it. Mantras include “Dirt doesn’t hurt,” “Make camp as soon as it arrives” and “Nobody’s single.”
But perhaps most important is the mantra that has become increasingly common among underrepresented groups of Americans: “Take up space.”
“You don’t have to be a different person. You don’t have to look like an advertisement for outdoor recreation for the sake of outdoor recreation,” he said. “We want people to develop this in their lives.”
The OutdoorRhythm app is free to download Google Play or apple’s app Store.
