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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's outdoor recreation opportunities are a far cry from the low-income area of Lewes, Delaware, where Isaac Fairley grew up.
Fairley always enjoyed being outdoors as a kid but never participated in outdoor recreation — in part because the beach town didn't offer much beyond sandy shores, but also because it was't something his community sought out.
"The people of color from where I'm from, outdoor rec wasn't really the thing to do. I was kind of the black sheep in that regard, in wanting to be outside in the first place," said Fairley, who was was stationed at Hill Air Force Base in 2011. "When I got here, and I flew in and I saw the mountains, I thought: 'I'm gonna climb one of these mountains.'"
But he wasn't sure where to start and didn't feel like he could afford expensive outdoor gear. It didn't help that Utah was "a complete culture shock" as far as diversity.
"When I got here, not knowing anyone and not knowing how to kind of find that community, it made me feel like that I couldn't be a part of it," Fairley said. "When you look at how they're advertising outdoor rec out here, I didn't see people that look like me in those magazines or on those posters. So when I did try to take a look into doing things, I kind of felt shut out in a way, just visually, from that, as well as the fact that it just wasn't inviting here. The community of outdoor rec wasn't super inviting to people that looked like me."
That changed once Fairley attended a climbing event organized by Utah volunteers from Outdoor Afro, a national network that helps Black people access the outdoors. Fairley felt like a natural on the climbing wall and bought a climbing gym membership that same week. He's gone climbing multiple days a week since.
"It's something that, for me, is a place where I can kind of just go and put my focus on something and kind of escape. But it's also a great exercise for me as well," he said of the sport. "It just kind of broke those doors down, and tore that gate down, and allowed me to get into something that I never would have gotten into had it not been for an organization like Outdoor Afro or having that kinship."
Fairley is among a growing number of Utahns of color who are challenging long-standing barriers marginalized communities have faced in accessing the outdoors by creating new spaces and opportunities to attract a wider net of people to Utah's outdoor activities.
Finding community
Ashley Cleveland is a city planner by day but an outdoors enthusiast and ecologist at heart who shares her adventures and outdoor tips under the Instagram username Outdoor Auntie. Along with former pro snowboarder and fishing guide Sammy Elam, Cleveland is one of two volunteer reps for Outdoor Afro in Utah.
For the past six years, Cleveland has taken groups on canoeing, camping, hiking, canyoneering trips and more a few times a month. She said new participants are often surprised that there are so many Black Utahns taking advantage of the outdoors. The majority, she added, leave more confident in themselves and their abilities and end up pursuing outdoor hobbies on their own, like Fairley.
"The whole goal is for you to feel comfortable enough to go and do things without me so you feel confident in having a new love or passion for something," Cleveland said. "It's not necessarily new news. We've been participating in the outdoors from a recreational standpoint."
One of her favorite outdoor experiences was taking about 10 Black families camping at Bryce Canyon National Park. The trip came together after Cleveland connected with a Black park ranger there.
"There were so many Black boys and boys of color that were inspired by the knowledge that there was a park ranger who looks like them, who showed them around and showed them that it's possible and that it's a fun job to have," she said.
Color the Wasatch, a community of climbers of color in Salt Lake City, launched in 2020 during the nationwide racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd. The group started with about 20 individuals, and has since grown to 60, and does a number of clinics. They've also gained sponsorships with outdoor brands and become affiliated with the national group American Alpine Club, which allows the group to receive donations for climbing passes, gear and trips.
"Our main goal was just connection, just to have a space where people can feel safe and represented and like they belong," said the group's co-organizer Andrea Ramos Campos. "Because a sense of belonging is definitely hard sometimes when you're one of the only people that look like you doing a certain thing."
Ramos has been climbing since 2018, when her roommates at the time introduced her to the sport.
"All of my friends and everyone I was learning and climbing with were white, and then when I would tell my friends back home (in Florida) about what I was doing, they were like, 'Oh, you're out there doing that white people stuff,'" Ramos said. "But it's not just white people stuff; anyone can do it."
Both Ramos and Cleveland encouraged people of color who don't know where to start to put themselves out there and start enjoying both the mental and physical health benefits of getting outdoors.
"There's so many affinity groups here in Utah now that I would hope that you can find activities that you like to participate in with your community," Cleveland said. "And then feel free to join in with other communities. Outdoor Afro is for everyone, not just people in the African diaspora. We've had people from the Latino community, from the West Indian communities participating in going outside with us. Everyone is welcome."
Understanding the barriers
Cleveland said some of the biggest barriers communities of color face when it comes to enjoying the great ourdoors are historical. National Parks, for example, were segregated until the middle of the 20th century. Surveys of National Parks show less than 2% of visitors are Black, less than 5% are Hispanic and 5% are Asian.
"In recent American history, we forget that because of segregation, we didn't even have public pools or regional parks near Black people. ... Us still having very high rate of drowning is an indicator of the fear as to why we haven't been engaged with any type of outdoor recreation," Cleveland said. "I think access, just simply by way of city and land uses made, has kept a lot of multicultural groups away from being in the outdoors."
Other barriers include the cost of outdoor gear, lack of public transportation to and affordable housing near places like trailheads and state or national parks, and knowledge gap regarding outdoor recreation among some communities of color.
Fairely said social media can be a great tool to overcome that knowledge gap surrounding outdoor recreation, which he said is becoming more diverse and inclusive.
"You have to put in a little bit of the work on your own terms to see where that community is at, and I would say start on social media," he said. "You're gonna have to put yourself out there despite there possibly not being a door open for you. You have to go looking for those doors as well. And if those doors aren't gonna let you in, I would even say to create your own space."
Michelle Hernandez, a gardener from New York City, has used a number of social media accounts as a spring board to researching outdoor trips. But even in online spaces dedicated to outdoor recreation, people of color can still be excluded. Hernandez said she's repeatedly felt unwelcome and even been banned in some online groups after bringing up topics like the renaming of Kyhv Peak in Utah County, which previously held the name of an racial slur for Indigenous women.
"So you would go on the blog, and you would see this great post, and you're like, 'Oh, that's, that's great.' And if they said anything about people of color, immediately, the trolls would pop up and the comments would get really hideous," she said. "How can I recommend that to somebody who is already afraid of sleeping outdoors, bugs, just like natural fears? It's not conducive to people who already have genuine hesitation for going outdoors."
It was that kind of experience that pushed her to join groups like Outdoor Afro, where she doesn't have to advocate for herself and other people of color.
"I can just 'be' in that community," she said. "You have to be able to speak the language that the people speak — and that's not necessarily like learning Spanish but listening to how people post online — and you got to make the space safe for those people."
Wild and Scenic Film Festival: Creating chances for dialogue
Cleveland is partnering with the Utah Film Center's Black Bold and Brilliant program and the Tracy Aviary to present The Wild and Scenic Film Festival, which will feature nine different films about how LGBTQ communities and people of color engage with outdoor sports, public lands and environmental activism.
"Punchline," for example, tells the story of Eeland Stribling, a Black fly fisherman, wildlife biologist and stand-up comedian who is advocating to preserve natural wonders and exposing the outdoors to those who have historically not grown up with it. "Inseparable: Skye" follows Skye Kolealani Razon-Olds' journey of using climbing to connect with her Native Hawaiian ancestors. And "Breaking Trail" tells the story of Emily Ford, who sets out with a borrowed sled dog to become the first woman and person of color to thru-hike the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail in winter.
The festival, now in its second year in Salt Lake City, takes place Friday. The event will also feature food and refreshments for purchase as well as local vendors and resource groups like an outdoor gear collective.
Tickets are $15 and include admission to Tracy Aviary. The proceeds will be donated to Outdoor Afro National and Black, Bold and Brilliant. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the screening will begin at about 9:15 p.m. The event is limited to those 21 and older. More information, including a full list of the films being screened, is available on the Utah Film Center's website.
The festival is unlike anything else in Utah, said Russell Roots, the Utah Film Center's director of film exhibition.
"There isn't one film event just solely dedicated to those marginalized voices in the outdoor community and showing them having success within the outdoor community," Roots said. "I think it's really important to be able to hold space for members of our community and the allies who support what we're trying to do in searching for equality and access, particularly in a state like Utah where the outdoors is just such a vital part of the day to day in this state."
