Have you ever dreamed of sleeping under the stars in Central Park?
The NYC parks department has opened a lottery portal for its popular Family Camping program, hosted by the Urban Park Rangers, a group of city-employed park stewards and outdoors educators.
Individuals and families can apply for an overnight camping experience at one of New York City’s parks on a rolling basis. Applications are accepted via a lottery that opens every Monday and runs for four days. Campers this weekend will be at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Camping is normally otherwise prohibited in city parks.
Those interested in a Central Park excursion can apply starting Aug. 3 to camp overnight on Aug. 14. A new lottery opens on Mondays through early September, each about 10 days before the camping excursion. The last camp outing will be Sept. 18, with groups pitching tents at the Blue Heron Nature Center in Staten Island and at Rockaway Beach.
The program is free, and Urban Park Rangers provides tents, but campers supply their own food, snacks and sleeping bags.
The trips include ice-breaking games for campers to get to know each other, night hikes to observe wildlife such as racoons, bats and opossums, and, if the sky is clear, stargazing.
The popular program, which has been running for more than 20 years, fields as many as 300 applicants per camping outing, said Marc Sanchez, the director of Urban Park Rangers.
Sanchez said that for each of the camping programs, the parks department selects 30 participants. That typically works out to about five to eight families.
Sanchez said that Central Park is a pretty popular spot, even though that would not be his favorite place to camp.
“There's much more of a camping experience if we were to go to Alley Pond or Van Cortlandt or anywhere else that's not one of those hustle-and-bustle main flagship parks in New York,” he said.
There is no requirement that campers come with a family. The goal of the program is to bring camping to people who have never camped before.
“We have had cases where folks come to our programs and that was the spark that they needed to go camping in the Adirondacks or go camping at national parks in Glacier or Yellowstone,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez said 10 years ago, a mom and her two young children traveled two hours from the Bronx to Alley Pond Park in Queens for their first time camping.
“They had never even seen a tent outside of pictures,” Sanchez said. “I got to help them with everything. I actually set up my own tent so that way they can do everything on their own tent right next to me. At the end of the camping program the following morning, they said, ‘Ranger Mark, this was so worth the long trip here.’”
