Hiking with a group is a great way to make friends and increase your outdoor skills while doing an activity you love. But there are some stereotypes about outdoors access that can keep people from setting out on trails.
From pop culture notions of who gets to be a hiker to tongue-in-cheek roundups of hiker stereotypesโ from outdoor magazines, stereotypical images of hikers tend to be cis white male.
The rest of us struggle to see ourselves represented outdoors. Cheryl Strayedโs memoir Wild was so popular because it offered women who wanted transformative adventures a literal road map for it. It made it more acceptable to commit to a long-distance hike.
Because marginalized groups including BIPOC and LGBTQ folks havenโt always felt welcomed outdoors, we can consciously or self-consciously limit our participation. We stick with day hikes while dreaming about longer backpacking trips. We favor popular trails over more remote ones out of concerns for our safety.
Concern for how LGBTQ-friendly a group trip will be can keep queer folks from signing up for group outdoor adventure trips.
But we don’t have to hold ourselves back. LGBTQ outdoor groups are out there, helping queer folks build wilderness skills and feel comfortable in the woods.
These seven LGBTQ outdoor groups run outdoor adventure trips for queer people.
Some trips are exclusively for queer folks while others welcome allies or take an intersectional approach, like LGBTQIA plus BIPOC participants. Trips with LGBTQ outdoor groups range in length from day hikes to multi day backcountry trips.
1. The Venture Out Project
The Venture Out Project offers wilderness trips for queer and trans folks, plus day hikes organized by volunteers. Some trips are ally-inclusive but most are LGBTQ-only.
Their event schedule includes ski trips, family camping trips, rafting trips, and backpacking trips. Trips are for adults, with separate youth trips available for ages 13-17.
Overnight trips include sober raft trips on the Colorado River, family camping in New England, an Allagash River canoe trip, and queer forest bathing and mushroom identification walks.
The Venture Out Project also hosts The All of the Above Trail Fest (AOTA) in the Berkshires. AOTA has a fundraising trail run component, with prizes awarded for most amazing outfits, who’s having the most fun, and other nontraditional categories. Choose from a 21k race, 5k run/walk race, and a kids’ event.
Put the queer inclusive race on your calendar for October 2025 โ and check out other races that accept nonbinary runners while you’re at it!
The Venture Out Project was founded by Perry Cohen, who identifies as trans and queer. Prior to founding The Venture Out Project, Cohen worked for Outward Bound, which runs experiential wilderness programs for youth and adults, and Camp Aranu’tiq, a sleep away camp for trans youth.
2. OUT There Adventures
OUT There Adventures runs LGBTQ+ youth outdoor adventures.
OUT There Adventures was founded by Elyse Rylander, who noticed the lack of LGBTQ outdoor groups focused on youth programming. The LGBTQ outdoor group’s goal is to empower queer young people by connecting them to the natural world.
Operating in the Pacific Northwest and California, this group partners with outdoors organizations Northwest Youth Corps and Outward Bound.
In the PNW, their core program is an LGBTQ+ youth conservation summer program that teacher queer young adults outdoor skills while helping them forge friendships.
In California, they’ve partnered with Outward Bound on an LGBTQ+ teen program, staffed by LGBTQ+ adults. The program follows the Outward Bound model of teaching technical skills, fostering youth leadership, and self-discovery, and building community through service and outdoor adventure.
Sign up for the email newsletter to get posts like this straight to your inbox, along with the latest LGBTQIA travel news
3. LGBT+ Outdoors
LGBT+ Outdoors strives to connect queer people to the outdoors and to one another while breaking down the stereotypes commonly held about queer people.
The LGBTQ outdoor group boasts local chapters in 26 states plus Washington, DC and Ontario, Canada. Every chapter is led by a LGBTQ ambassador, who moderates a Facebook group where members connect and plan adventures. You can find your local chapter on their website.
LGBT+ Outdoors also hosts the LGBTQ+ Outdoor Fest, a camping conference event where you can learn can learn fly fishing basics, upgrade your map and compass skills, tackle a high ropes course, and connect with other queer adventurers around the nightly bonfire.
Outdoorfest 2025 will be held in the Catskills โ which means you might find me there!
4. OutVentures
OutVentures offers LGBTQ outdoor adventures in the greater Seattle area. Founder Ed Ferguson started OutVentures in 1994 to spend more time in nature, making this one of the older LGBTQ outdoor organizations in existence.
For 2025, they’ve got several amazing queer outdoor trips announced, from a visit to the Seattle unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Park to a day trip to the Skagit Valley tulip festival to a Memorial Day camping trip to kick of summer celebrating queer nature!
In between events, they host potlucks so members can get to know one another.
5. Queer Scouts
Queer Scouts organizes monthly workshops and skill shares for LGBTQ+ adults, with locations in Seattle, Boston, and Worcester. New in 2025 is a Western Massachusetts chapter with events in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley!
All Queer Scout events are drug and alcohol free and radically inclusive.
Each chapter is responsible for organizing their own events.
For spring 2025, the Boston Queer Scouts chapter is organizing indoor bouldering, bug identification, Arnold Arboretum Walks in Jamaica Plain, and a queer outdoor themed book club.
Queer Scouts Worcester has some spring walks planned on the Bicentennial Trail and Mount Wachusett, and indoor bouldering.
Queer Scouts Seattle is hosting a seedling swap, crafternoon, and book club.
Events are member driven, so if you have some outdoor skills to share (or an event you’d love to see), be in touch with your local chapter!
6. Unlikely Hikers
Unlikely Hikers is an inclusive community for those who are underrepresented outdoors, including LGBTQ+ hikers.
Unlikely Hikers was founded by Jenny Bruso 2015 as an Instagram community. Their Instagram community is still very engaged โ you can tag #unlikelyhikers, #mybodytookmehere, and #fatandoutdoorsy if you want to be featured, but these days the group is branching out with accessible group hikes and meetups.
Everyone is welcome at Unlikely Hikers โ including queer hikers, BIPOC hikers, chronically ill and disabled hikers, hikers of every size, and those with mobility and access needs.
Most group hikes are less than 3 miles long with less than 300 feet of elevation gain. Any hike longer than that is clearly marked, so you can decide whether to opt in.
As of 2025, Unlikely Hikers is going through a reorganization period. Group hikes are paused right now. If I hear more, I’ll let you know.
7. Outdoors Together
Outdoors Together began as an LGBT hiking collective based in British Columbia, Canada. Founder Angie Isaza created the queer hiking group to build a platform and safe space for nature lovers to be authentic and share experiences with likeminded people.
While the group has a queer founder, it is proudly inclusive and open to all people who have been marginalized in the outdoors and their allies.
Outdoors Together has an active Facebook page where you can view and sign up for events like hikes, rock climbing meetups, and camping trips.
These seven groups bring queer people together for outdoor adventures of all kinds. If you’re looking for queer climbing clubs and the outdoor spaces that welcome queer people of color, check out our list of QTBIPOC-led outdoor groups. Sadly, the PNW based Wild Diversity is no longer in existence โ but there are some amazing groups out there that have taken up the mantle of building skills and community for queer and trans people of color!
As always, if you know of any group that deserves a spot on this list, contact me and I’ll add it next time the post is updated!
Save this list of LGBTQ Outdoor groups for later!
