Field Camp is a Charlottesville-area summer camp for boys and girls who want to spend their summers outside, active, independent, and surrounded by a community they can return to year after year.

Be Safe, Do Good, Have Fun, Help Out

A Different Kind of Summer Camp

Field Camp has been giving Charlottesville-area kids a place to spend their summers outdoors since 2000. We are deliberately smaller than many camps, with campers of different ages getting to know one another and counselors who often return year after year.

Kids swim, play games, make things, explore creeks and rivers, eat together, tell stories, get dirty and have enough unstructured time simply to be kids.

No phones. No video games. Not much sitting around indoors.

It feels a little like summer used to feel.

Why Field Camp Feels Different

COMMUNITY

Most campers come for more than one week, and many return summer after summer. Younger and older campers know each other. Counselors know kids outside their assigned groups. Over time, camp begins to feel less like a program and more like a summer neighborhood.

COUNSELORS WHO GREW UP HERE

Many members of our staff first came to Field Camp when they were six or seven years old. Years later, they return as counselors.

That continuity is one of the strongest parts of the camp. Today’s youngest campers grow up surrounded by teenagers and young adults who know the games, traditions and expectations because they grew up here too.

A REAL OUTDOOR CAMP

We spend our days outside. Campers swim in natural water, play field games, explore streams, make crafts, hike, paddle, climb, read stories, invent games and spend a lot of time moving.

There are no electronics at camp. Kids generally go home tired.

One Week at Field Camp

MONDAY–WEDNESDAY

Blue Ridge

Three summer days at our historic Ivy campground: games, crafts, swimming, creek exploration, lunch together and afternoon choices.

THURSDAY

The Overnight

We move to Camp Albemarle in Free Union, where campers can stay through the evening and sleep overnight in the cabins.

FRIDAY

Camp Albemarle

Usually our big week activity in the morning, then a slower camp day along the Moormans River, with lunch, swimming, games, and the conclusion of another week.

The overnight is part of the regular Field Camp experience. It gives kids much of what they love about traditional overnight camp without requiring them to leave home for weeks at a time.

Two Extraordinary Places

BLUE RIDGE

Fourteen acres in Ivy surrounding the century-old Blue Ridge Pool—a 100-yard spring-fed natural swimming pool, playing fields, creek and pavilion.

CAMP ALBEMARLE

Cabins, lodge, fields, woods and a half-mile of frontage along the Moormans River in Free Union. It is close to Charlottesville but feels much farther away.

EXPLORE OUR CAMPGROUNDS

There Is More Than One Way to Grow Up at Field Camp

FIELD CAMP

Our core summer program.

For younger campers through early teens who want days filled with swimming, games, friends and the weekly overnight.

ADVENTURE WEEKS

For older campers ready to go farther.

Small groups paddle, hike, climb, cave and explore the mountains and rivers of Central Virginia while remaining part of regular Field Camp.

CAMP POPLAR

Field Camp overnight.

A residential camp experience at Camp Albemarle for campers who want to stay longer, sleep in cabins and live at camp for the week. June 20-25 and July 5-10, 2027.

LEADERSHIP

The bridge toward becoming a counselor.

For older campers beginning to take responsibility for the community they grew up in.

SEE DATES, PROGRAMS & PRICING