Discover a Deeper Way of Living
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center offers a retreat for almost everyone. Our schedule carries a generous offering of Insight Meditation Retreats, retreats that invite participants to consciously explore their experience of wild nature, and retreats that are designed for specific populations. On our schedule you will find retreats for educators, people of color, women, men, and mental health professionals, to name a few. We are here to help you find a retreat that is right for you.
“I am so much more aware of the path I want to be on and the power of the sacred in my life.”
– Cristina Mormorunni
We will open registration on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 at 9:00 am MST.
Upcoming Offerings
Being Blessed by the Land of Vallecitos: Gently Held Self-Retreat
With René Rivera
May 18 - 24, 2026
We invite you to be our guest at Vallecitos this spring for self-retreat time on the land gently held by our treasured visiting teacher, René Rivera. Please join us to connect with your practice alongside the depth and magic of the land. We are offering you the simple experience of being on the land, safely using our facilities, receiving three nutritious meals a day along with […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Finding Joy in the Playground of the Mind: An Insight Retreat
With Amana Brembry Johnson and Matthew Hepburn
May 24 - 29, 2026
Wholesome joy arises when we release expectations and create the conditions for the practice to blossom easefully, without grasping for outcomes. In a culture that teaches us to seek pleasure through external stimulation, this retreat invites a return to the creative play, investigative curiosity and gladness that dwell within our own hearts and minds. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Body of Awakening
With Eugene Cash and TBA
May 30 - June 6, 2026
This retreat will focus on being intimate with the living body of awakening. We'll explore the living aliveness of our human body, the living body of the earth, and the communality of all living bodies both vegetative and sentient. Through meditation and compassion we'll awaken to the magic and mystery of being alive. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Awake in the Wild (June): Exploring Wisdom and Awakening in Nature
With Mark Coleman and Kirsten Rudestam
June 7 - 14, 2026
This retreat will be spent meditating entirely outdoors in the natural beauty and mystery here at Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. Whether it is during sunset meditations, listening to the soothing sounds of the river, or sitting graced in the stillness of the aspen trees, we will open to the profound serenity and wisdom of nature. This silent retreat is grounded in the practice of Mindfulness— […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Land as Dharma Teacher (June)
With Erin Treat and Brian Lesage
June 15 - 22, 2026
Join us in an exploration of Dharma through connection with the land of Vallecitos. This retreat is designed to offer support for experienced practitioners in insight meditation (Vipassana). When we have an established foundation in Dharma practice, we can open to discovering new ways of perceiving. As the understanding of classical Dharma deepens even further, the land itself can meet us right in each moment as teacher and guide. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Being Nature: Embodying the Four Elements
With Pamela Weiss, Rev. Shinmu Tamori Gibson, Gina LaRoche (Trainee) and Kate Siber (Trainee)
June 23 - 30, 2026
We are nature. The elemental nature of the world moves within us, as us. This silent meditation retreat will be rooted in teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and the Four Great Elements—earth, air, fire, and water. In a time of ecological crisis and deep division, we will cultivate a wise, tender awareness that deepens our […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Between Spiritual Bypass and Stress Reduction: Mindfulness and Deep Psychological Work, An Intensive Retreat for Mental Health Professionals
With Bill Morgan, PsyD, Susan Morgan, MSN, RN, CS and Ron Siegel, PsyD
July 1 - 7, 2026
Many psychotherapists have been studying mindfulness, compassion, and their clinical applications for years but have not found time for more intensive meditation practice. Others would like the opportunity to refresh their practice with like-minded colleagues. By deliberately stepping out of everyday life and into an intensive retreat environment, we can observe subtle habit patterns of heart and mind and deepen our awareness. This retreat will explore the deep synergies among mindfulness, compassion, and in-depth psychotherapy. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
The Intertwining of Metta and Vipassana
With Dave Smith and Vance Pryor
July 7 - 13, 2026
This silent retreat integrates the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with the heart-centered practice of Metta. By uniting moment-to-moment awareness with the qualities of kindness, care, joy, and equanimity, we learn to meet life’s joys and sorrows with a steady, open presence. As the body and mind settle, an intuitive wisdom emerges, transforming our energy into a stable foundation […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Deepening our Ground: Cultivating Presence, Insight, and Kindness in the Deep Woods
With Erin Treat and DaRa Williams
July 14 - 19, 2026
This retreat emerged from the relationship between its teachers as a result of over a decade of being together in dharma practice, teaching, and spiritual friendship. And this retreat invites the participants into relationship — with themselves, each other, the land, and all beings everywhere without exception. Awakening from the delusion of separation […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Deep Refuge: A LGBTQIA+ Community Retreat in Nature
With Victoria Cary and René Rivera
July 19 - 25, 2026
Join us for a six-night silent retreat in beloved community on the beautiful land of Vallecitos. For this 5th annual LGBTQIA+ Community retreat you are invited into deep refuge in relationship to the land, dhamma, community, and our capacity to awaken together. Guided by the wisdom of the land, we will cultivate our capacity to meet the conditions of this life by exploring some of the essential truths of existence the Buddha illuminated […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Insight and Resilience
With Victoria Cary and Pawan Bareja
July 26 - August 2, 2026
In the midst of life’s constant demands, it’s easy to lose touch with what truly supports us and what frees our heart from being caught in suffering. This week-long Insight retreat is an invitation to gently turn inward, guided by kind awareness and curiosity. Together, we’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings that reconnect us with our innate resilience, strength, clarity, and peace. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Belonging to the Earth: A BIPOC Insight Retreat in Nature
With Devin Berry and Yong Oh
August 3 - 10, 2026
In the stillness of the mountains at Vallecitos, we remember a deeper refuge — a belonging that the world cannot give or take away. On this BIPOC Insight Meditation retreat, we will slow down into presence, supported by noble silence, the wisdom of the body, and the living refuge of nature. We will sit, walk, listen, and rest into the felt sense of being welcomed by the land. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Land as Dharma Teacher (August)
With Erin Treat and Brian Lesage
August 11 - 18, 2026
Join us in an exploration of Dharma through connection with the land of Vallecitos. This retreat is designed to offer support for experienced practitioners in insight meditation (Vipassana). When we have an established foundation in Dharma practice, we can open to discovering new ways of perceiving. As the understanding of classical Dharma deepens even further, the land itself can meet us right in each moment as teacher and guide. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Having Gone to the Forest
With Brian Lesage and Robin Craig
August 18 - 25, 2026
An early Buddhist instruction begins, “Having gone to the forest, to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut….” What follows is a simple invitation to sit down, establish mindfulness, and let the practice unfold. In this retreat, we explore this invitation. We will keep noble silence and practice steady, moment-to-moment awareness in a wild forest […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
The World is Made of Stories: An Insight Meditation Retreat
With Pamela Weiss and Renda Madrigal
August 26 - September 2, 2026
This silent meditation retreat will weave instructions on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and teachings on the Four Great Elements—earth, air, fire and water—with ceremony and story. Our time together will include periods of silent sitting and walking, guided meditation instruction, Dharma talks, ceremony, and ample time to explore and be held by the land at Vallecitos. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Elemental Pilgrimage: Awakening Through Intimacy with Trees, River, and Sky
With Anne Cushman and Erin Selover
September 3 - 8, 2026
In these times of profound uncertainty, connect with the wild land of Vallecitos—and the sensuous, elemental terrain of your own embodied life—to deepen what the Buddha referred to as “the unshakeable freedom of the heart.” Like the heartwood of an ancient tree, this inner refuge supports a grounded, embodied confidence to meet this moment with courage, creativity and care. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Sacred Sound, Insight, and Silence: Meditation and Music in the Deep Woods
With Erin Treat and Jennifer Berezan
September 8 - 12, 2026
The retreat will combine two ancient spiritual practices—meditation and music—as a path to opening one’s heart and uncovering one’s true nature. There will be guided instruction in the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation and dharma practice, including periods of sitting and walking meditation in silence. Woven throughout the meditation practice, participants will engage in a wide range of musical experiences […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Cultivating Embodied Insight and Intuitive Wisdom through Mindfulness
With Dave Smith and JD Doyle
September 13 - 20, 2026
During this seven-day silent mindfulness retreat we will learn to pay attention with a direct and embodied knowing that leads to intuitive wisdom. Through practicing mindfulness, while being immersed in the natural world, we attune to presence and ease and cultivate kind, spacious awareness, leading to greater freedom for ourselves and our communities. […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Retreat as Ceremony: Mindfulness and Indigenous Presence for Wellness and Healing, A Retreat for Indigenous Peoples
With Bonnie Duran, Carol Cano, Elvina Charley (Diné) and Mario Castillo (Trainee)
September 21 - 26, 2026
This retreat is open to Indigenous people from around the world. This residential retreat will provide a conceptual framework and practice guidelines for Mindful “Indigenous Presence” meditation—a way of coming into harmony with the present moment and our world—and provides space for acceptance, and the cultivation of clarity, confidence, resilience and strength[…]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Meditation, Nature, and Awakening
With Peter Williams and Chas DiCapua
September 30 - October 7, 2026
This retreat engages two powerful forces for happiness—insight meditation and immersion in nature. Insight meditation has been the key practice for accessing the profound wisdom of the Buddhist tradition for over 2500 years. It is extraordinary in its simplicity, its lack of dogma and, above all, its results. When we take meditation practice outside […]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026
Awake in the Wild (October): Exploring Wisdom and Awakening in Nature
With Mark Coleman and Susie Harrington
October 8 - 15, 2026
This retreat will be spent meditating entirely outdoors in the natural beauty and mystery here at Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. Whether it is during sunset meditations, listening to the soothing sounds of the river, or sitting graced in the stillness of the aspen trees, we will open to the profound serenity and wisdom of nature. This silent retreat is grounded in the practice of Mindfulness—[…]
Registration opens: Feb 3, 2026