Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center — Ward, United States
A Buddhist ecodharma retreat center at 8,500 feet in Ward, Colorado
Above Ward, Colorado, at 8,500 feet, 180 acres of river, meadow and spruce forest run up against National Forest, a few miles from the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Elk bugle here, and the Continental Divide fills the view. The land is a nature preserve under a permanent conservation easement, and deer, moose, bear and beaver live on it.
The Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center was newly opened in 2017 after extensive renovation. A guest post from that August describes a group of Buddhist visionaries led by Johann Robbins, a Vipassana teacher and the center's cofounder and director, and Boulder writer and activist David Loy. The center calls its premise Ecodharma: bringing Buddhism and the Dharma back into the natural world where they originated. The aim is the clarity and compassion to meet the ecological crisis and the social justice issues bound up with it. In December 2025 the center announced Carter Wiesman as its new executive director.
Three historic buildings sleep up to 30. The lodge offers singles, shared rooms and an attic nook that guests must crouch to enter. Two glamping tents catch the southern sun from mid-May to mid-October. Members can book self-retreats in the newly renovated 1885 Cabin. The season runs from early spring to late fall.
The center describes itself as a low-cost home for practice. Teachers receive only expenses and donations (dana), overnight retreats run about $90 to $180 a night, and scholarships are offered. All practice traditions are welcome. Programs are led by visiting teachers and groups, including retreats for activists and for underserved communities. The 2026 calendar includes Barry Gillespie on what the Buddha taught, Katie Love and Chelsea Waves on lucid dreaming with the mountains, and Johann Robbins's weekend Fall into Being. A 2025 retreat for resilience and disaster planners, the first of a planned series of three, set aside a full day of solo nature kinship on the land.
Traditions: Ecodharma, Buddhism, Vipassana (Insight Meditation), Mindfulness Meditation, Lucid Dreaming, Dana (Generosity Practice)
Programs: Ecodharma Retreat for Resilience and Disaster Planners, Solo: Nature Kinship Day, What the Buddha Taught and Why It Is Still Relevant Today, Lucid Dreaming with the Mountains, Fall into Being, Ecodharma retreats for activists, Member self-retreats at the 1885 Cabin, Private hiking on RMERC trails