Remember the days of kayaking with your friends at summer camp? The classic childhood experience isn’t limited to kids anymore. The Fairfax County Park Authority is offering a series of summer camps designed for adults, so people of all ages experience the joys of camp.
“We saw a gap in need in the community,” says Casey Tinius, the program director and senior interpreter at Riverbend Park in Great Falls, where the camps are based. “We felt like adults still needed to have the opportunity to play and go to camp and do something.”
Three Different Adult Summer Camps
This is the second year FCPA will offer these adult summer camps. Each will run for three half-day sessions. There are three camps to choose from: Women in the Woods, Potomac Adventures, and Art in the Woods. New this year is a multi-generational Women in the Woods camp. It’s open to ages 7 to 99, so mother-daughter duos can enjoy the experience together.
Each camp offers its own suite of activities. At Art in the Woods, campers will hike through Riverbend Park and make art inspired by the scenery of the Potomac River, with a day trip to Glenstone Sculpture Park. At the Potomac Adventures Camp, there will be rock climbing, kayaking, and white-water rafting down the Potomac Gorge. And at Women in the Woods, campers learn skills like fire building and foraging and will go rock climbing in Carderock, Maryland.
‘Experience Something New’
These camps are a great way for adults to try out activities they may not be familiar with. There’s no experience necessary, even for things like rock climbing or rafting. “If it’s your first time, that’s totally fine. It’s just to experience something new,” Tinius says.
That’s part of the beauty of camp — people get to conquer new things with a group of like-minded people.
“Another reason why we want to have these programs is to [help] people to grow their confidence, and … believe that they can do outdoor things, and they’re never too old to have fun,” Tinius says.
The camps are offered through Fairfax County, but you don’t need to be a county resident to participate. In fact, Tinus says some of last year’s participants came from out of state or even out of the country.
Art in Nature, Potomac Adventures, and the adults-only Women in the Woods are July 1 to 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The multi-generational Women in the Woods is June 16 to 20 (with no camp on June 19) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is $299 for the three-day sessions.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Parks Authority
