A Refuge in the Deep Woods
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center is a 135 acre property surrounded by 300,000 acres of Carson National Forest in the Tusas Mountains of northern New Mexico. The land is a rich high alpine ecosystem situated at almost 9,000 feet above sea level at the very southern tip of the Rocky Mountains.
The place we call Vallecitos today rests upon the territories of the Jicarilla Apache, Muu-agha-tuzu-pu (Ute) and Ancestral Puebloan Peoples. They passed through the land of Vallecitos for seasonal hunting and medicine and food gathering. Many artifacts have been found around the property showing use during the 13th century by the Ancestral Puebloans approximately 8,000 years ago. This land has long been a place where people gather and disperse time and again.
The land is a wildly diverse biological treasure. The land has never been logged and cattle have not grazed here since before WWII. Countless mammals in northern New Mexico have been sighted here, from deer and elk to bobcat, lynx, wild horses, muskrats and black bears. Vallecitos includes a rare wetlands habitat with over 60 species of birds and over 50 varieties of grasses and flowers. The tree that many retreatants lovingly refer to as “the Buddha tree” is estimated at 600-800 years old. It is one of many in an area that contains the largest old-growth trees in the entire Carson Forest.
The property was purchased by Harvey Mudd in 1970, who turned away from hunting, declared it gun-free, and designated the property, which he called El Vallecitos Ranch, as a wildlife refuge. He set out to restore the land to health by reseeding it with native grasses, planting berry patches, and restoring the decaying irrigation system which remains an important tool in caring for the land today. Known as acequias, this irrigation system is traditional to New Mexico and it is essential to distribute water across the property in support of a healthy ecosystem.
In 1992 Grove Burnett, our Founding Teacher, and Linda Valerde, our Founding Director, along with two partners purchased the land and created the current tax-exempt, non profit organization that exists today. Grove was an environmental lawyer and a nationally recognized meditation teacher and mindfulness trainer. Linda, a native of nearby Velarde, NM (a 450-year-old traditional Chicano village located along the northern Rio Grande River), had a long history in the environmental movement and as a community organizer and Curanderismo.
In 2005 in an effort to further protect the land, Vallecitos was granted a conservation easement. Because of that it will never be subdivided or partitioned, it will not exceed the existing facility footprints, and the care for all natural conditions and ecosystems are paramount.
Today, our retreats are offered in the spirit of “Land as Dharma Teacher’ honoring the innate relationship between all beings and the land that supports awakening and intimacy with all things. We are committed to belonging to and tending the land, and we also acknowledge its continued colonization/occupation.
As an organization we are taking steps to learn and share the deeper and wider stories of this place, including its indigenous history as well as its checkered history since colonization. We are also taking steps to decolonize our relationships and organizational culture in a spirit that honors all life.
