A GBTQ Men's Retreat in Mendocino, California Built Around Pleasure, Play, and Real Connection: Camp Connect
What if you could go back and do summer camp again this time as your openly gay or queer self, surrounded by other gay and queer men, on your own terms? That question is the founding premise of Camp Connect, a four-night GBTQ men retreat in Mendocino, California running September 4–7, 2026. It takes place at Spirit Camp, a queer-owned retreat center nestled in 27 acres of Redwood forest on the Northern California coast and it is, by design, the kind of experience most gay and queer men never had growing up. You can explore more retreats like this one at Spirit Camp's retreat calendar.
There is something specific about being a gay or queer man in the world that this retreat acknowledges directly: many of us learned early to perform confidence rather than feel it, to navigate sexuality in spaces that were never designed with us in mind, and to stay guarded even when we craved depth. Camp Connect was built for the men who are tired of that — who want something that's actually for them, in a space that was built by people who understand, held by facilitators who know the terrain.
Camp Connect: Where Gay and Queer Men Come to Play, Breathe, and Belong
Camp Connect is a four-night residential retreat for GBTQ+ men 24 and older, running Friday through Monday, September 4–7, 2026, at Spirit Camp in Mendocino. The group size is kept between 21 and 30 men intentionally small enough that the retreat can function as a genuine container rather than a conference, and large enough for rich group dynamics to emerge.
The daily rhythm has the feel of the adult summer camp for gay men that most of us never got: mornings begin with communal breakfast in the Redwood Lodge, then move into workshop sessions that include movement, breathwork, embodiment practice, and group process work. Afternoons open into deeper exploration sensation work, conscious touch, erotic energy cultivation before dinner brings the group back together. Evenings are structured but not rushed: campfire circles in the Magic Meadow, men's gatherings, and on Sunday, an evening play space held with the same care and consent awareness as every other part of the weekend.
The workshop themes across the four days include embodiment practices, tantric connection, fantasy exploration through shadow, power and surrender dynamics, group erotic practice, and sensation play. These aren't things layered on top of a standard wellness retreat they are the retreat. They're the reason to come, and they're facilitated with the kind of clarity and warmth that makes the difference between a meaningful experience and a confusing one.
What participants often find, beneath all of it, is something simpler than they expected: a sense of belonging. A feeling of being among men who are also trying to show up honestly. A few days of being seen without having to perform. That, more than any specific workshop, is the core of what this queer men's retreat in Northern California offers.
Embodiment Work for Men: A Growing Movement Toward Body-Based Healing
To understand why Camp Connect is structured the way it is, it helps to understand the broader field of embodiment work for men what it is, where it comes from, and what it actually does.
Embodiment practice is the discipline of inhabiting the body fully: becoming aware of sensations, emotions, and movement in real time, and learning to integrate mind and body rather than treating them as separate systems. For many men, this is genuinely unfamiliar territory. Men are frequently socialized to prioritize logic, productivity, and emotional restraint over somatic experience the body becomes a vehicle for getting things done, not a source of information about how you feel. Embodiment work offers a structured path back to that information, and for men who have spent years operating from the neck up, the shift can be profound.
The roots of men's embodiment retreat work trace back to the mythopoetic men's movement of the 1980s and 1990s, which sought to reconnect men with emotional and archetypal dimensions of masculinity that modern culture had suppressed. Writers like Robert Bly and James Hillman explored what was being lost when men were cut off from grief, tenderness, depth, and genuine connection with each other. Over time,this movement evolved to incorporate trauma-informed practices, somatic healing, breathwork, mindfulness, and an expanding focus on diverse masculine identities — including gay and queer men who found that the mythopoetic frameworks didn't always reflect their experience.
What does embodiment practice actually do for intimate and erotic life? When men become more attuned to their own bodily cues and sensations, they develop greater capacity for presence, vulnerability, and genuine connection both with themselves and with partners. They become better at knowing what they want and communicating it. They become less likely to go through the motions of intimacy while remaining emotionally somewhere else. Embodiment work helps dismantle performance-based patterns around sex and replace them with curiosity, sensation, and authentic expression which is exactly the territory Camp Connect moves through across its four days.
The retreat weaves embodiment practices into each day rather than isolating them in a single session. Movement and breathwork open and close the body each morning. Conscious touch and group process build on the morning's work in the afternoon. Evening fire circles create space for reflection and integration. The structure isn't arbitrary it mirrors how embodiment work actually functions: as a cumulative process that deepens day by day.
Photo of Deer Haven, one of the our many unique cabin spaces. This cabin has three beds. Cabins have between 1 to 8 beds each and provide several different sleeping arrangements for GBTQ men retreat Mendocino California. All cabin spaces are included in gay men's retreat California 2026.
Photo of Group Glamping Tents Setup in Sunset Meadow. We have 10 Glamping Structures that can be added with 1to 3 beds each. This can increase bed capacity of campus to 50 guests across 20 unique accommodation spaces.
Held by Court Vox and Finn Deerhart
Court Vox is the lead facilitator of Camp Connect and the founder of The Body Vox. He is a certified sex and intimacy coach whose work is rooted in the conviction that intimacy isn't something we think our way into it's something we experience in the body, with the people willing to meet us there. He guides individuals and people in relationship who are seeking more depth, more honesty, and more aliveness in their erotic and intimate lives. Camp Connect grew from his personal vision: to create the gay men's retreat California actually needed — one built around genuine connection, erotic exploration, and the brotherhood that emerges when queer men give themselves permission to be fully present with each other.
One past participant described it this way: Camp Connect is the perfect name for this retreat. He was challenged and changed. He was given tools of the erotic to connect more deeply to himself, his pleasure, and the pleasure of others — and he left refreshed and part of a beautiful brotherhood.
Co-facilitating alongside Court is Finn Deerhart, an AASECT Certified Sexuality Counselor. Finn's work in workshops, erotic retreats, and private therapeutic sessions teaches tools to confront personal limitations, unravel internal narratives of shame, and spark deeper human connections. Finn brings clinical grounding and genuine warmth to the space — a quality of steadiness and care that adds depth and safety to the retreat's container.
One practical detail worth knowing: after registration, a 15-minute Zoom call is scheduled with Court to welcome you in and ensure the retreat is the right fit. If either you or Court determines it isn't, a full refund is offered. That call is a reflection of how seriously the facilitation team takes matching the right people to this container.
Spirit Camp: A Queer-Owned Sanctuary in the Redwoods
This LGBTQ retreat in Mendocino doesn't just take place at a retreat center that happens to be welcoming it takes place at one that was built by a gay couple from the beginning. Spirit Camp is co-owned by Nathaniel Reagan and Julian Cressman, and their vision for the space body-positive, diverse, genuinely inclusive is woven into every aspect of how it operates. For Camp Connect, that alignment between the retreat's values and the venue's values matters in ways that go beyond aesthetics.
The physical environment of Spirit Camp has the qualities of a genuine summer camp and not in a rustic-deprivation way. This is summer camp with oak hardwood floors, linen bedding, blue-blocking lights in the cabins, and a Redwood Lodge that has both a wood-burning stove and a disco ball ready for whatever the evening calls for. There are also communal bathrooms, which means the morning rush to the bathhouse with your sandals and your towel is part of the package and it turns out to be one of the most naturally connective parts of the day.
The Magic Meadow fire pits are where many of Camp Connect's evening gatherings happen two fire circles in a clearing where the Redwood canopy parts to reveal sky, capable of seating up to 40 or 50 people. Sunday afternoon's built-in break includes river bathing and sauna access, which offer something the workshop sessions alone can't: unstructured time in the body, in nature, with the other men. That afternoon tends to be when the friendships formed during the formal sessions deepen into something else.
Meals at Spirit Camp are plant-based, locally sourced, and served communally in the Redwood Lodge. Shared meals have a way of carrying the emotional weight of the day's work into the evening in the best possible sense conversation that starts at breakfast about something practical often ends up somewhere unexpected by dinner.
North of San Francisco, Into the Redwoods: Finding Spirit Camp in Mendocino
The drive to Spirit Camp from the Bay Area is part of the arrival. Heading north of San Francisco on Highway 1, the landscape transitions from urban sprawl to coastal agriculture to the dense corridors of Redwood forest that signal the Mendocino coast. The full drive from San Francisco or the Bay Area is approximately 3 hours north. From Sonoma County, expect about 2 hours. Those flying into San Francisco International (SFO) or Oakland International (OAK) are looking at roughly 3 hours of driving; Santa Rosa Airport shortens the trip to about 2 hours.
Spirit Camp sits on a Mendocino ridgeline, about 12 minutes from the village of Mendocino itself. The town is a few streets of well-preserved Victorian architecture perched above the Pacific independent restaurants, a natural foods co-op, boutique shops, a good bookstore, and enough cafés to spend a comfortable morning before the retreat begins. For guests arriving early or departing slowly, the village is a natural anchor point.
September in Mendocino, Northern California is worth understanding before you pack. Mornings can arrive with coastal fog that makes the Redwood forest feel enclosed and almost mythic. By midday, the fog typically lifts, revealing warm afternoon light and open sky over the ridgeline. Evenings cool quickly, which means the campfire components of the retreat are genuinely comfortable rather than performatively rustic. It's an ideal season for an outdoor gathering warm enough for river bathing, cool enough for a fire, and quiet enough that you feel like you have the coast to yourself.
See everything happening at Spirit Camp throughout the year and plan your visit around the retreats that call to you.
Common Questions About Camp Connect in Mendocino
How many men attend Camp Connect? The retreat is designed for between 21 and 30 men. That size is intentional intimate enough for genuine connection and vulnerability, large enough for the kind of group dynamics that make the erotic and relational work genuinely interesting. With several accommodations already sold out, the group is beginning to form.
Do I need prior experience with somatic or erotic work to attend? No. Camp Connect is structured to meet you wherever you are. Whether you're new to body-based work entirely, have done some yoga or breathwork, or have attended other somatic or erotic retreats, the facilitation team builds from where the group actually is. No prior experience is required, and no level of experience is too advanced. The retreat is designed to work for the full range of where men actually show up.
What should I expect from the opening and closing ceremonies and do I really need to be there? Yes, attendance at both the opening circle on Friday afternoon and the closing ceremony on Monday morning is required for all participants. These aren't optional add-ons. The opening circle is where the collective agreements that make everything else possible are established. The closing ceremony is where the experience is integrated and the group acknowledges what was built together. The retreat cannot be fully offered without them, and arriving late or leaving early affects not just your experience but everyone else's.
More to Explore in Mendocino County
If you're spending extra time in the area before or after Camp Connect, Mendocino County offers two experiences that pair naturally with the retreat's themes of restoration and sensory presence.
Mendocino Headlands State Park
Wrapping around the western and northern edges of the town of Mendocino, the Mendocino Headlands State Park is a 347-acre expanse of coastal bluffs, sea arches, blowholes, and tidepools accessible directly from downtown. The easy 4.8-mile Headlands loop takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours at a relaxed walking pace and puts you on dramatic clifftops above the Pacific, watching waves work through rock arches and listening to the ocean against the bluffs. Gray whales pass through on their migration between November and May, and harbor seals and ospreys are present year-round. For a walk that restores perspective without requiring much effort, the Headlands loop is hard to beat. The park is managed by California State Parks and is accessible on foot from the village.
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Fort Bragg
A short drive north of Spirit Camp in Fort Bragg, the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens are a 47-acre nonprofit institution stretching from Highway 1 all the way to the Pacific Ocean bluffs. The grounds include formal garden sections planted with dahlias, rhododendrons, begonias, and perennials; a dense coastal pine forest; fern-filled canyons; and a half-mile coastal bluff trail with sweeping ocean views. The gardens are open year-round and move at exactly the pace that suits time before or after an intensive retreat slowly, with attention paid to small things. The ocean is never more than a ten-minute walk from anywhere on the property.
Camp Connect is September 4–7, 2026. This is your invitation to come as you are, lower your guard, and be part of a brotherhood built on depth, play, and genuine connection in the Mendocino Redwoods. Several accommodation options have already sold out learn more and reserve your spot here. See everything happening at Spirit Camp throughout the year at spirit.camp/retreats.
TOPICS:
GBTQ men retreat Mendocino California, queer men's retreat Northern California, gay men's retreat California 2026, LGBTQ retreat Mendocino, adult summer camp for gay men, erotic retreat for queer men, men's community retreat California
