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Chelsea Murphy

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Encouraging a more inclusive and equitable outdoor community while celebrating and representing Black motherhood in the midst of a dominant culture. Join me here.

Shifting outdoor culture. Inspiring joy + liberation.

she_colorsnature

Here to help you find your way outside 🌿
🏕️ Black motherhood in the outdoors
🍄‍🟫 30 minutes OUTSIDE everyday
📍 PNW 💌: shecolorsnature@gmail

MYTH: Black people hate swimming‼️ (SAVE + SHARE MYTH: Black people hate swimming‼️

(SAVE + SHARE this to your stories today!)

Enjoying swimming has nothing to do with your ethnicity and much more to do with your lived experience - or that of your parents!

‼️Drowning is the number one killer of young children with staggering inequities with Black children.

Historically, institutional racism allowed for private pools for whites and left Black communities with nothing more than a community funded wading area. The ripple effect and exclusion of Black swimmers is still at play today. I know we all know someone who actually believes Black people can’t and don’t enjoy swimming. Shoot, you might even be able to find a Black person who has convinced themselves of this narrative.

In most cases when a parent doesn’t know how to swim, there is only a 13% chance their child will learn. If a parent had a bad experience nearly drowning, chances are high they will pass that fear on down generations. 

Water is fun - but can be dangerous and swim lessons are becoming more accessible. Teaching kids and youth to be safe and comfortable around water is not a luxury, it’s urgent - a life saving superpower! 

👉🏾 Do you know how to swim? If no - let’s change that for you and the children in your life today!!

Organizations making change👇🏾

@blackkidsswim 
@afroswimmers
@outdoorafro
@swimuphilldotorg 
@blackswimmingassociation 

Every summer we discuss this topic, it will always be important. I will never stop talking about it.
#TeamBronco_Ambassador // 🌊🐚☀️ On our recent trip #TeamBronco_Ambassador // 🌊🐚☀️ On our recent trip to Oregon we couldn’t help but take the Bronco for a spin in 4x4 sand G.O.A.T. Modes® (Goes Over Any Type of Terrain). With the desert sand color pallet, she was made for this!! 🤎🤎

I love that you can drive on the beach in some places along the west coast! 10/10 recommend. Have you done this before? 

@fordbronco @ford 

Disclaimer✨ 2025 Bronco® Big Bend® model with optional equipment, available Ford accessories, and extra-cost color option shown.
‼️ Black kids drown most. (SHARE this to your sto ‼️ Black kids drown most.

(SHARE this to your story today)

‼️According to the CDC, Black children drown at 7 times the rate of other children. In the United States, where 10 people die daily, that is a lot of Black lives lost to the water. With situations like the Nolan Wells case currently receiving national attention and the viral video we all saw with the family saving that Black boy from the river on their paddle boards while the boys he came with peer pressured him into swimming outside of his ability, proceeded to use racial slurs, make monkey noises and yell “BLACK PEOPLE CANT SWIM” - now is not the time to look away from this! Now is the time to dig in! 

Year after year a national study reports that 64% of Black children cannot swim while only 40% of White children cannot swim. Both statistics were alarming to me. But get this, the fatal drownings of Black children are 3 times higher than that of white children based on population (may differ by age or location)

Stereotypes suggest Black people don’t want to swim or are scared of water and will do anything to avoid getting their hair wet. These widely held negative stereotypes are LITERALLY killing us! 

Much like riding a bicycle, swimming is a life saving skill that kids MUST learn at a young age. I did not grow up a strong swimmer and it’s something I am dedicated to changing for my children, while simultaneously strengthening my own skills.

We MUST teach our children how to swim so they do not become another statistic. 

💦 Donate to @outdoorafro Making Waves program, let’s help them reach their goal to sponsor swimmers this season. LINK IN BIO!

👉🏾 Tag swim and lesson opportunities that are in your area?

👉🏾 Black swimmers make some noise. WE OUT HERE!!!

((Stats sourced from the CDC and USA Swimming Foundation))

#SheColorsNature #BlackPeopleSwim #BlackSwimmers #BlackKidsSwim #Swimming
Come hike with us 🫶🏾 My first installment of mom’ Come hike with us 🫶🏾

My first installment of mom’s summer hike journal because approximately 47 people this month have reminded me how fast this time with young kids goes. So I’m just going to leave this here 🌳🍄🌼

📍ICICLE GORGE TRAIL, rated easy on @alltrails. On the ancestral homelands or the Wenatchi peoples.

⭐️ My review: Kid friendly | 4.7 mile loop | river access | 360 feet elevation gain | ~2 hours hiking time (not including a stop for lunch and dilly dallying) | Forest Service parking permit required | Bathrooms open and clean | Bridges, babbling brooks, nature rich, butterflies, chipmunks, wildflowers, swimming, places to stop and rest! Happy hiking 🥾

#MomsSummerHikingJournal #SheColorsNature #BlackLivesMatter #BlackMomsHike
#TeamBronco_Ambassador at #BroncoWildFund supporte #TeamBronco_Ambassador at #BroncoWildFund supported event curated from the ground up by @indigenousrrf at their annual Rising Roots Spring Camp 🌼🪶 

@fordbronco continues to “connect people to the outdoors, responsibly” through Team Ambassadors like me. In this season, that looks like serving many Indigenous communities of Washington state. Bringing them back to their Land, their traditions and having their native language being spoken and heard there for the first time in over a century. The work Indigenous Roots and Reparations Foundation is doing is SO important now more than ever!

Thank you @fordbronco @ford and #BroncoWildFund

🎥: @bravespace_media 

2025 Bronco® Big Bend® model with optional equipment, available Ford accessories, and extra-cost color option shown.
PART TWO ✌🏾 The best part about this trip aside f PART TWO ✌🏾

The best part about this trip aside from the sweet family time was going all the way into California to see the Redwood trees and realizing the dramatic coastline and sea stacks get better in the second half of the state - but we just needed to keep going 🤎

Down the 101 and back up again just in time for our @hiforrest concert at the Tacoma Dome!

**if you are reading this, please know that this is what we did - but there are so many amazing ways to spend time in the coast and you can’t really go wrong! Have fun. Reset, and get outside 🌳🌊🫶🏾

📍SAVE THIS FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP OUT WEST 

We scored the last campsite at Alder Dune CG over the holiday weekend and couldn’t have found a better home base to visit the Sea Lion Caves and Thor’s Well! 

We loved Yoda’s Hut and Coastal Pizza - so good!

This was by far the cheapest air bnb in the area and it was only an hour drive into California to see the Redwoods!

Great hosts, clean, cozy and a view of the bay. Sleeps 5-6 people! 

Best breakfast burritos of the whole trip. We kept up with the theme of food trucks! 

On the the way to see some giant trees!

My kids first time walking among the Redwoods! Jedidiah Smith Trails are very accessible and not far from the California state line.

Measuring the trees with each step

Adventuring with dad 🤎

Whew! Past time to wash some clothes! We loved this laundromat in Gold Beach. My husband took the kids to Sunset Pizza and the kids played at the arcade while I did a few loads!

This spot was one of my favorites along the way! Close to the beach, bathrooms and the site was both large and private! Would absolutely travel back for an extended stay here!

Everyone’s learning how to put the trailer up and down!

Such a cool stop! Have you been down in this hole at low tide? Risky business!

This place gives Tillamook a run for their money. Make sure to get two scoops, one chocolate and one vanilla. Thank me later!

We stayed here on the way in and on the way out! My kids became Junior Rangers for the first time, they were so proud!

My Bronco needed to stretch her legs on the sand 

🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️🤸🏾‍♀️

These concert tickets were one of our kids Christmas pres
We joined the pop-up tent trailer family 👋🏾 The b We joined the pop-up tent trailer family 👋🏾

The best part about this first trip was that it was mildly spontaneous. We had some rough dates, we knew we wanted a trailer to camp with the kids down the coast, we knew the coast was designed for sight seeing and camping along the way… but we didn’t have an itinerary, or a single reservation (gasp 😮‍💨). My husband and I have done trips like this before and it *usually* always works out, but we hadn’t done something of this magnitude with our little ducks in tow yet. Irresponsible? Maybe. My biggest fear was being stuck on the side of the road with the kids with no where to go for America’s holiday weekend. I also worried that the trailer we purchased from a proper stranger would be a lemon. It all worked out, AND MORE! 🌊🐚☀️🌳

We are a public school, team sports, church going family - we both coach year round, I run my business and love my 3 kids everyday in every way, my husband works a 40+ hour job where he needs to be present. Our family needed to unwind from the grind. This was it. The freedom of going where we wanted, when we wanted, as a unit. The Oregon Coast did not disappoint, and our trailer is a friggin gem 🤎

We bought a *new to us* 2012 Jay Series by Jayco pop-up tent trailer and took her on a maiden voyage down the Oregon Coast. 9 nights of camping, 2 nights at an Airbnb for a proper home base (and shower) before entering Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park.

It all worked out. We purchased on a Sunday, got it registered on Monday and were camping under the stars at Fort Steven’s State Park by Monday evening. If you or your family are in the fence about camping or investing in something to make it more enjoyable, let us be a testament to all of the possibilities! 

What other questions can I answer? 

Who else in this community has a pop-up tent?! 

**If you are headed down the Oregon Coast don’t let everyone’s opinions of where they’ve been or your favorite bloggers “10 stops you MUST MAKE” give you analysis paralysis! It’s all wonderful! Every city has something incredible to offer! The dramatic coastline spans from north to south! Make the trip yours
BLACK PEOPLE DO CAMP (a photo journal) Y’all bett BLACK PEOPLE DO CAMP (a photo journal)

Y’all better believe I was givin the head nod to every brother or sister down the Oregon coast I saw. Few and far in between as they came. I know we are camping, but where we camping at? Because it’s not on the west coast 😂

I care about exposing my multi cultured kids to camping and the outdoors so they know that these public lands are for us too. Camping is for us too (if we want it) and we are having a time!!

black people camp 🏕️✊🏾 

#SheColorsNature #PopUpTent #CampingWithKids #OregonCoast #TeamBronco_Ambassador
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