Families in King and Pierce counties have a new (make that newly restored) outdoor camp to send kids off to this summer. Replete with hiking trails, old-timey lodges, archery, fire pits, and other favorite camp activities, historic Camp Kilworth doesn’t require a long drive over or into the mountains. Its 25 lush forested acres are located along the shoreline of Federal Way.
The camp was closed in 2016 but re-opened on May 7, ready to serve a new generation of kids and families through YMCA summer day camps, outdoor education programs, and other community events. Nearly 200 kids and adults, including area lawmakers and Federal Way’s mayor, are expected at the camp’s opening celebration.
The camp will also host open weekends, giving the public access to its trails and open-air theater.
“There will also be programs, recreational, and environmental activities for kids and families like guided hikes, outdoor movies, open-air concerts, and live performances,” said Jason Lane, YMCA Senior Director of Camps and Outdoor Leadership. The Y will partner with schools teaching kids about salmon habitat, forest ecology, land stewardship, leadership, and the power of nature. The camp’s Rotary Lodge is still undergoing renovation but will eventually be available for community celebrations.
YMCA President and CEO Loria Yeadon notes that Federal Way and surrounding communities have had “limited access to outdoor education facilities.” Camp Kilworth’s re-opening is part of an effort to equalize such access.
Celebrating the opening of Camp KIlworth May 7. (Image: YMCA of Greater Seattle)
Kids aren’t the only ones to benefit …
“This is also an area that is more diverse than the rest of the state and has higher poverty levels,” Yeadon said. “With intentional engagement with the local community — local schools, nonprofits, and community-based organizations, especially those led by and serving BIPOC youth, Camp Kilworth will allow traditionally underrepresented groups the opportunity to experience outdoor education opportunities afforded to peers throughout the region.”
Yeadon says the goal of day camps and other events is to help young people learn to respect and enjoy the outdoors, build community, and engage socially in healthy ways.
“This is particularly needed at a time when families are struggling to find community-based spaces and places that foster connection,” Yeadon says. “This camp provides children with more opportunities for in-person social engagement so they can learn to build friendships, develop confidence and emotional resilience, and navigate social settings.”
The Western Red Cedar trees in the second-growth forest attracts Bald Eagles. (Image: Magnus Manske)
Kids aren’t the only ones who benefit
The camp will also continue to serve local wildlife.
“Camp Kilworth is an urban forest that serves as a wildlife corridor, with Dash Point to the south and Dumas Bay and Lakota to the north,” said Josh Sutton, YMCA General Manager of Property & Facilities. The camp’s bluff supports large eelgrass beds in Dumas Bay.
“Those beds are critical salmon habitat — providing food, shelter, and a nursery area,” he said, adding that the camp features a second-growth forest with Western Red Cedar trees attracting Bald Eagles.
Rotary Lodge at Camp Kilworth. (Image courtesy Camp Kilworth)
History
Boy Scouts of America launched the woodland camp in 1934, closing it in 2016 due to a declining scout membership in the region. In 2020, community-based Kilworth Environmental Education Preserve (KEEP) formed to raise money and support to preserve the camp’s historic buildings and lands.
In 2022, KEEP brought the nonprofit Forterra, an organization dedicated to protecting critical ecological assets, forests, farmlands, parks, and trails, to the table to purchase and preserve the site. That same year, three camp buildings — Rotary Lodge, Timber Wolf Lodge, and Fire Bowl Amphitheater — became Federal Way’s first official historic landmark sites.
In 2023, the YMCA of Greater Seattle signed a long-term lease to provide youth camps, environmental education, and community open space on the restored site. The first YMCA day camps at Camp Kilworth start in July for youth in grades 1-6. Transportation to camp will be available from the Matt Griffin YMCA in SeaTac. Registration is now open.
The 89-year-old camp underwent extensive restoration before re-opening. Additions and updates include a new welcome center, open-air pavilion, restrooms, restored trails, a renewed archery range, a rebuilt historic amphitheater, new landscaping, a newly seeded grass field, and 25 acres of conserved urban forest.
A community preservation effort
Federal Way residents and other advocates for the camp’s preservation worked hard to keep the property out of the hands of developers.
“Saving Camp Kilworth from development has been the persistent dedication of the community for over 20 years,” a recent KEEP board announcement read. “Camp Kilworth is in outstanding hands, and we are confident the camp will once again be the nurturing, inspiring, and environmental gem of the South Puget Sound.”
KEEP dissolved just before the re-opening of the camp this week. Board leaders there say they are convinced: “It will remain a rare space that will continue to teach life skills as William Kilworth and the Rotary 8 of Tacoma intended 89 years ago.”
For more information on the camp or to register for programs, go to seattleymca.org/programs.
