Family camping trips have long represented an iconic part of American life – but it wasn’t always available to all Americans. Many national parks were created by removing Aboriginal tribes from their ancestral homes. And for much of the 20th century, black Americans were forced to endure segregated housing or were banned from parks altogether.
That troubled history is part of why Sally Steele never went camping until her early 20s. She and her husband grew up in mixed-race families, raised by Black fathers and white mothers. For Sally, camping was not part of her childhood. But after meeting her future husband, Justin Steele, in college, they found a common love for 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 grows and begins to bring their own children, they begin to see more obstacles to camping – especially for people who look like them. Their friends were eager to join, and Sally and her husband understood why.
There was a huge knowledge gap for those who did not grow up learning about camping in their families. Campground reservation systems are often confusing, and it was hard to overcome anxiety about possibly being the only person of color.
Sally and Justin wanted to bring more variety to the campsites. So they decided to do something about it.
The creation of Outdoorithm
After asking their friends what kept them from camping, Sally and Justin realized they needed a more versatile approach. Although based in California, they wanted to create a national forum, which would ease concerns about potential discrimination, simplify the process of finding a campsite, and educate about what gear is needed and how to use it.
Even today, white Americans still outnumber Black and Latino visitors to national parks. That ongoing divide led Sally and Justin to create Outdoorithm, a website and app that provides a searchable database of thousands of campsites – while addressing the concerns of underrepresented campers. “We started Outdoorithm to democratize access to public spaces,” says Sally.
After receiving initial funding through REI’s Embark 2024 program, Sally and Justin were able to build their own AI model to analyze campground reviews. They named it Camp Sage, and it’s responsible for one of the speaker’s most interesting features: the Outdoorithm Green Book.
The name comes from The Negro Motorist Green Bookwhich helped Black American travelers find safe places to sleep and eat while traveling in the mid-20th century. Although most of the Steele family’s camping trips were good, they “had some bad experiences.”
“As a black family outside, and we don’t see many families like us, we wanted to make sure that people felt safe,” said Sally. “And we wanted that assurance to be backed up with data.”
To date, Steele has used its AI model to analyze 1.3 million reviews from more than 9,100 campsites. Each campground listed on the forum has an “Outdoorithm Green Book” section that organizes reviews for potential complaints about safety, unfriendly staff, or campers. The section provides a “Vibe Score” based on that analysis.
“The majority of our public spaces are safe, and the Community Vibe Score proves that,” Sally said. “It gives you the information you need to go in with your eyes open.”
Complete Camp Information
The security component, however, is only one part of the platform. Its Camp Sage AI model allows for ChatGPT-esque questions, but specific to camping. That means users can get quick answers to very specific questions. For example, I wrote, “I found a campground near Atlanta with access to a lake or river,” and I got a list of campgrounds, along with summaries and a map to reference them relative to my location.
In general, Outdoorithm has many search filters found on other camping sites, such as outdoor activities, amenities, and locations. But in addition to the “Outdoorithm Green Book,” another unique filter is “The Importance of Heritage.” This allows users to search for campgrounds based on their historical affiliation with Native Americans, Latino Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ+, or women.
In addition, the website offers extensive transportation information, such as campground cost estimates, weather forecasts, reservation information, and trip planning tools. This extensive list is also neatly summarized at the top of each camp site page.
For example, I looked at the page for Panola Mountain State Park, one of my favorite parks near Atlanta. The summary reads, “A classic getaway 18 miles from Atlanta, built around a rare granite monadnock and a lakeside campsite that rewards anyone willing to haul gear for 1.5 miles.” I’ve been to this park many times – and I can’t give a better one-sentence description than that.
Outdoorithm has a Gear page, with an interactive packing list of recommended gear for different types of camping. And again, if that’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 people, the platform continues: It now sees 30,000 monthly users.
Empowering First Campers
Even with all that knowledge, however, Sally realized that most people would only try camping if someone took them outside and showed them the ropes.
“We started Outdoorithm with a desire to help families figure out where to go, what to bring, and whether it’s for them. Outdoorithm.com hits the first two nails,” Sally wrote on LinkedIn last month. “But we couldn’t see that third question about belonging being answered. We needed to create a space where people could experience it for themselves. So we defied all the naysayers and started a non-profit organization: The Outdoorithm Collective.”
Through the Outdoorithm Collective, Sally decided to organize a camping trip for families willing to try it for the first time. Thanks to funding from individual donors, foundations, and companies like REI and Arc’teryx, you can even give the trip away for free. Since starting this non-profit organization 2 years ago, Sally has organized 14 trips with a total of 400 participants – mostly families of color.
“As we talk to people who feel unsafe outside, many of them say they need something inside,” said Sally. “It’s one thing to go out yourself, it’s another thing to bring your children.”
But Sally didn’t just want to provide one great experience – she wanted to instill the confidence in more families of color to continue camping alone. Although a non-profit organization provides gear, for example, participating families still have to build their own tents.
When everyone gathers in the evening to sit around the fire, Sally shares words of wisdom to help families get a new perspective on camping and choose how to embrace it. Mantras include “dirt doesn’t hurt,” “camp as it comes,” and “one person at a time.”
But perhaps most important is the mantra we hear most often among underrepresented groups in America: “Take up space.”
“You don’t have to be different. You don’t have to look like an outdoor recreation ad to be outdoors,” she said. “We want people to improve this in their lives.”
The Outdoorithm app is free to download from Google Play or Apple’s App Store.