YMCA Camp Hanes

YMCA Camp Hanes is an over 400 acres camp located on the slope of Sauratown Mountain. It has a wide variety of outdoor activities available; for the adventurous, you can hike to the top of Sauratown Mountain from the camp.

Camp Hanes 

YMCA Camp Hanes is located about 30 miles North of Winston-Salem, NC on YMCA Camp Road off Highway 66.

Camp Hanes location on Google Maps

In 1926, Robert M. Hanes gifted 100 acres in the Saratown Mountains to the YMCA as a memorial to his father, John W. Hanes.  In 1927, Camp Hanes opened with 10 lodges, a combination dining lodge and recreation center, and camp headquarters for the director and his family. There were quarters for cooks, a nine-acre lake, five tennis courts, a volleyball court, and a baseball diamond.

The first group of campers at YMCA Camp Hanes was a group of young girls from the YWCA. From June 14 – August 8, 1927, this group came to camp to experience the great outdoors. On August 8, 1927, a group of boys came for the remainder of the summer, and from that day until the early 1970s YMCA Camp Hanes was strictly for boys. In 1929 the cost for a session of 10 days was $15.

The first director was Mr. Harry W. Long who served as the Director of Physical Education at the YMCA. He would move his family to the camp during the summer months. His wife was in charge of the dining hall and personally supervised the preparation of all meals.

YMCA Camp Hanes currently has 22 cabins, a large dining facility, an indoor gymnasium, an airnasium outdoor covered sports facility, two conference centers, a retreat center,  an infirmary, an office, a camp store, and six houses for seasonal and year-round staff. It offers program areas to include an alpine tower, treetop village, two zip lines, teams course area, kayaking, climbing wall, Airnasium, swimming, arts and crafts, outdoor pool, 2 lakes, equestrian center, 5-stand shooting clays range, and many more traditional camp activities such as archery, riflery, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, arts and craft, miles of hiking trails, athletics, and much more.

As an adult, I attended several Taekwondo America national taekwondo camps at YMCA Camp Hanes.