Learn how to camp this summer through a Texas Parks and Wildlife program

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- As summer continues, Texans may be thinking about going on a camping trip but may feel anxious if they have never gone before. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Texas Outdoor Family program aims to solve that issue.

KXAN anchors Will DuPree and Avery Travis spoke to TPWD's Alexa Brown on what Texans can expect to learn from the program.

The transcript of this live Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Will DuPree: I know it's a busy weekend for you all, especially, but this particular program called Texas Outdoor Family. What is that?

Alexa Brown: So it's a program designed to reduce some of the barriers to camping. Camping can be expensive, getting all of the gear that you need in order to have a good time for the weekend, and then also just some general fear of camping for the first time and being out in nature on your own.

And so our program reduces those barriers by providing some of that gear to our participants and then also having a ranger that stays on site for the weekend to guide the participants through everything that they need for the weekend.

Avery Travis: You guys can let people sign up for one of these workshops. There's an important date coming up right around the corner. So what should people know about signing up and the cost to getting started with this program?

Brown: People should know that our workshops do fill up really fast. They're very popular, especially the ones that we're going to have starting here in September. So be on the lookout for the links to sign up for those. When it comes to just how to prepare the workshops, cost $75 for a group of six for a one night workshop, and then they're $95 for a two night workshop.

DuPree: If someone out there signs up for one of these workshops, you all provide some equipment. Talk about what all you bring, and then also the people who sign up for it, they're responsible for some other stuff too, so add that information in as well.

Brown: We provide a six-person tent. We also provide cots, sleeping pads and then you get a gear bin that has a propane stove, pots and pans, utensils and then also all of the gear that you need for all of our outdoor activities.

So if we're going to do fishing, we'll provide the fishing poles, all of the tackle. If we do kayaking, you know, we have the kayaks, the life jackets and we provide all of the base gear for a weekend. The participants need to bring their own food, their own clothes and just a good attitude.

Travis: So what do you hear from people who've taken part in this program, maybe before they do the workshop and then after they go through it? What are some of the things you often hear from participants?

Brown: We hear people saying that it wasn't as scary or as bad as they thought it was going to be. We find that they had, you know, a great time, and they weren't necessarily expecting to have such a good time. And just people wanting to return and camp again.

DuPree: What does availability look like for something like this? Because people out there may be interested now to hear a little bit more about this. What can they do to sign up?

Brown: They can go to the Texas Outdoor Family website. We have workshops that are going to be held throughout state parks in Central Texas, but we also have workshops that are going to take place in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in Houston as well.