How to go from conversations to dates?

I (24M, straight) have been going to the walking/hiking meetup quite regularly now. Everytime I go I strike up conversation with 3-4 people. Some of these people are attractive women in my age group. We would talk like 30-40 min at stretch about basic stuff about ourselves, the walk/hike and sometimes on a deeper level too.

I talk the same way I do to these women as I do to other people i.e. as friends, but I am wondering how could I escalate and ask them out on a date or maybe express my romantic interest. There is a lot of churn in these groups, so mostly I see the women again after say a month. And also, I don’t want to come off as creep/needy so I don’t try to act as if I am too much into them and ask for their number, etc. Basically, I just talk to them like friends.

Any advice on how could I escalate things? And also I am not sure if women are talking with me just to be nice and friendly or if they are interested in dating me. Based on the body language and the conversations, I am pretty sure they want to talk to me, just not sure if they have any romantic interest in me.