Nature

Join Atlas Obscura's Outdoors-Awesome ‘Backcountry Evening'

Connect with nature's splendor alongside Jason Ward, the host of "Birds of North America," at a virtual celebration of camping culture.

Jason Ward

What to Know

  • Tuesday, July 28 from 5-6 p.m. (PDT)
  • $5
  • The virtual event will benefit The Greening Youth Foundation

Camping? It's a popular pursuit that forever and always endures.

It is as strong as a tent is cozy and a sleeping bag is comfy, and campers continue to embrace the joys of spending their shuteye hours in a stretch of wonderful wilderness, a place where mood lighting is provided by the stars.

But many other not-so-regular campers are returning to a pastime they've tried in the past, while others are just discovering it in the summer of 2020.

Leisure trips and together time has changed in the wake of the pandemic, and pitching a tent in a spacious spot is looking lovelier than ever.

Jason Ward, the host of "Birds of North America" and the co-organizer of Black Birders Week, which honors diversity in birding, wants to help connect the public to nature's many gifts.

And on Tuesday, July 28, he will via a virtual Atlas Obscura happening.

"A Backcountry Evening," which is presented by Filson & Westland Distillery, will take a look at " ...the history of camping culture in America" as well as "the value of outdoor education and public land conservation with scientists and artists inspired by the great outdoors."

The beneficiary of the gathering?

The Greening Youth Foundation, "an organization dedicated to supporting under-represented youth with outdoor programming and hands-on conservation training."

A ticket is five dollars, and your hour of uplifting, nature-nice bliss? It flutters, like leaves on a breeze, from 5 to 6 o'clock PDT on July 28.

Will you immediately turn off your screen, as soon as the event concludes, and go pitch a tent or roll out a sleeping bag or turn on your lucky lantern?

The woods, deserts, mountains, beaches, and other wilderness spaces are ready to uplift us, to teach us, to connect us to each other, and to help us understand that we're part of something larger and eternal.

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