Camp Yawgoog

Camp Yawgoog, the Yawgoog Scout Reservation, is the summer camp of the Narragansett Council in Rockville, in the southwest corner of Rhode Island. It opened on June 24, 1916, and covers 1,800 acres of forest around three ponds, with three camps on one reservation: Three Point, Medicine Bow and Sandy Beach.

Troop 23 spent six summers here: in 2019, and every summer from 2021 to 2025, the last five of them at Camp Sandy Beach. They are listed below, with a page for each summer from 2021. In 2026 the troop's summer camp week was at Camp Aquehonga, Ten Mile River.

The map above marks the Bucklin Memorial Building, the reservation office, where visitors check in. The Sandy Beach parking lot, where the troop's cars unloaded on arrival day, has its own map further down.

Three Camps on One Reservation

Each of Yawgoog's three camps runs on its own, with its own director, dining lodge, waterfront and trading post, and its own color, songs, cheers and traditions. Apart from each camp's waterfront and dining lodge, every program center is open to Scouts from all three camps, and through the week the camps compete with each other in good spirit.

• Camp Three Point is the oldest, named for the three points of the Scout Oath, and was once the whole of Yawgoog. It holds the Bucklin Building, the Challenge Course, the environmental education center, 407 Outfitters, the reservation's largest trading post, and the Memorial Bell Tower, which tolls at noon every day for Scouts who died serving their country. Its colors are hunter green and yellow.
• Camp Medicine Bow, "the Heart of Yawgoog", fills the middle of the reservation around Rathom Lodge, dedicated on July 4, 1929. It is home to the Ashaway Aquatics Center, the crafts center, the health lodge, and the programs for Webelos and for Scouts who come to camp on their own. Its color is red.
• Camp Sandy Beach, the largest of the three, was Troop 23's camp from 2021 to 2025. Its color is blue.

Yawgoog also gave Scouting the Totin' Chip: John Page, nicknamed "Johnny Appleseed", created the first Totin' Chip program here in 1950. In 1956 the camp started a training corps for future camp staff, the first of its kind, later known as Counselor-in-Training.

Camp Sandy Beach

Camp Sandy Beach lies furthest into the reservation, north of Medicine Bow. It was built in the late 1920s around Jesse H. Metcalf Lodge, its dining hall, and calls itself "the youngest and most spirited camp" and "the Powerhouse of Yawgoog"; its mascot is Jim the Moose. Sandy Beach runs the rifle, archery and trap ranges, the kayaks and paddleboards, its own waterfront, the New Frontier program, which works on the requirements for First Class, and the outdoor skills center, where Scouts take Wilderness Survival, Orienteering and Camping.

Its campsites are named after famous Americans, from Abe Lincoln and Davy Crockett to Neil Armstrong and Ida Lewis; in 2024 the troop's site was Richard Byrd. The campsites have the camp's own canvas wall tents on wooden platforms, with beds and mattresses already in place. Each week the camp names one troop Sandy Beach Champs, for the most camp spirit through the week.

On the Water and Around the Reservation

Yawgoog Pond is the center of the reservation's water program. The camp has four waterfronts for swimming, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, rowing and small-boat sailing, and Adventure Island, an inflatable obstacle course out on the water. On land there are three shooting ranges, the Challenge Center for climbing, an ATV program, a nature center, and six marked trails, each named for the color of its chevrons, that run through the camps and out to Hidden Lake and the other ponds.

Evenings bring campfires at the campsites, and the week ends with the Friday Night Show in the J. Harold Williams Amphitheatre. The camp's program for our 2025 week, which it ran as Halloween Week, listed canoe, kayak and sailing races, a swim carnival and a mile-long road race across all three camps. That summer the camp had a strict rule against cell phones during program hours, and the troop's rule was the same.

Our Summers at Yawgoog

• 2019: the troop's first summer at Yawgoog, in a different camp from the years that followed.
• 2020: Yawgoog cancelled its season, and the Scouts went to a virtual summer camp instead, taking merit badge classes online, July 13–17.
• 2021: Summer Camp 2021, July 4–11, Camp Sandy Beach.
• 2022: Summer Camp 2022, July 3–10, Camp Sandy Beach.
• 2023: Summer Camp 2023, July 2–9, Camp Sandy Beach.
• 2024: Summer Camp 2024, June 30 to July 6, Camp Sandy Beach, campsite Richard Byrd, with a stop on the way home at the USS Nautilus in Groton, Connecticut.
• 2025: Summer Camp 2025, July 6–12, Camp Sandy Beach, in Week 2, the camp's Halloween Week.

What a week of summer camp looks like with Troop 23, wherever it is held, is on the Summer Camp page. Troop 23 is a Scouts BSA troop in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and every family starts the same way: come to a Monday meeting.

Getting There, Visiting and Mail

Camp Yawgoog is about 160 miles from Bay Ridge, three and a half to four hours by car. The troop drove up from Our Lady of Angels on Sunday morning with volunteer drivers. Camp weeks run from Sunday to Saturday, and the camp staggers Sunday arrivals by troop, starting at noon.

Parents can visit between 9:00 am and Taps at 9:30 pm. Visitors check in first at the Bucklin Memorial Building, the pin on the map at the top of this page, and wear a wristband in camp. Mail reaches a Scout when it carries the Scout's name, the camp (Sandy Beach, Three Point or Medicine Bow), the campsite, the week and the troop, above the camp's address: Camp Yawgoog, 61 Camp Yawgoog Road, Rockville, RI 02873.

The camp office answers at 401-539-2311. Camperships, the camp's financial help for Scouts who need it, are applied for through yawgoog.org by May 15. These are the camp's own rules and can change from year to year: the camp's FAQ and page for parents have the current version, and its reservation map shows where everything is.

Official website: https://www.yawgoog.org/