One of the Best Yoga Retreats in California for Women: Witches in the Woods in Mendocino
If you search for the best yoga retreats in California, you will find no shortage of options. What you will find far less often is a yoga retreat that holds yoga not as a performance or a workout, but as a living technology for coming back to yourself — your body, your voice, your intuition, your power. That is what Witches in the Woods: A Somatic Awakening offers. Returning for its fourth year, this is a yoga retreat for women held October 21 through 25, 2026, at Spirit Camp Retreat Center in Mendocino, Northern California. It is designed for women-identifying participants who are ready to move beyond the mat and into a fuller practice of somatic awakening, ritual, creative expression, and deep community. Explore the full Spirit Camp retreat calendar to see everything available.
What Sets This Women's Yoga Retreat Apart
There are yoga retreats where the primary focus is on technical instruction, on refining alignment, on adding postures to your repertoire. And those retreats have their place. Then there is a different category of women's yoga retreat — one where the posture is simply the doorway, and what you are really practicing is presence. Intimacy with your own body. The capacity to feel rather than perform. The ability to move from the inside out rather than the outside in.
This is the category Witches in the Woods belongs to. Yoga here is woven alongside somatic movement, creative expression, vocal activation, nature immersion, fire ceremonies, sharing circles, and song. Each element informs the others. A morning yoga practice opens the body for the somatic movement session that follows. A sharing circle allows what the body has moved to be named and witnessed. An evening fire ceremony transforms what was named into something released, composted, offered back to the earth. The yoga is essential. It is also part of something larger.
A Yoga and Somatic Healing Retreat With Real Depth
2026 marks the fourth year of Witches in the Woods, and this gathering is evolving. Facilitators Kirin Power and Magalí Clazón have named this the year of embodied legacy — a year of strengthening foundations, deepening devotion, and cultivating the kind of practice that generates community and ripples outward.
Over four days, participants in this yoga and somatic healing retreat can expect to refine their intuition through body-based practice, engage in creative and artistic expression, activate and strengthen the voice through song and movement, be deeply immersed in the Redwood forest and connected to the elements, and restore the nervous system through presence, spaciousness, and genuine rest. The daily schedule is provided in advance — participants consistently name this as something they appreciate, the ability to arrive prepared and to move through the days without logistical uncertainty. The container holds. The rest unfolds.
This retreat is for women-identifying individuals 18 and older. It welcomes everyone from longtime yoga practitioners to those who are newer to the mat but deeply called to the spirit of this gathering. The activities are described by past participants as newbie-friendly, with the group atmosphere consistently described as warm, supportive, and non-judgmental.
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 best yoga retreat. All cabin spaces are included in women's retreat Mendocino.
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.
Your Yoga Teachers: Kirin Power and Magalí Clazón
Kirin Power is a yoga and meditation teacher, holistic hypnotherapist, and practitioner of the healing arts who has been alchemizing yogic technologies, movement, music, mantra, and meditation for years. Her approach to yoga is both informed and alive — she draws from deep study while teaching in a way that feels creative, inspired, and in the moment. Kirin's intention is that every woman who practices with her leaves feeling held in self-love, empowered in authentic expression, and radiating at her own favorite frequency. Her students describe a quality of presence that makes every detail feel intentional while the whole experience feels organic and free.
Magalí Clazón is a yoga, dance, and somatic arts teacher with fifteen years of dedicated practice. Born in Argentina and now based in San Francisco, she developed her approach through a combination of formal yoga and somatic training, corporate wellness work, extensive world travel, and deep immersion in nature-based and shamanic practice. She is the founder of Movimiento Creativo and Ocean Dance SF, and she brings a movement intelligence to her teaching that is genuinely distinctive — fluid, musical, and attuned to the natural rhythms of the body and the environment. Her curated playlists are a practice in themselves, designed to carry the group through the natural arc of each session.
One past participant described practicing with them as discovering that you can "work through many layers of stuck energy and trauma and release and shift into a higher and more intentional way of living." Another called every detail of the experience "thoughtfully curated, from the meaningful activities to the delicious meals" to the magic of the venue itself.
Where You'll Practice: Spirit Camp's Yoga and Movement Spaces
Spirit Camp offers one of the most beautiful settings for a yoga retreat in the Redwoods in all of Northern California. The Redwood Lodge — a 1,500-square-foot hall constructed from lumber harvested onsite decades ago — serves as the primary space for yoga, movement, and dance. Six skylights keep it bright even through the coastal fog that sometimes moves across the ridge in the mornings. A stone fireplace provides warmth on cool autumn days. Large wooden tables and benches shift out of the way for movement sessions, and a disco ball waits overhead for the moments when the work calls for something wilder than a flow sequence.
The Sanctuary, with its copper roof and south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows, offers an alternative gathering space perfect for meditation, circle work, and the quieter practices that follow a morning yoga session. Between practices, participants find their way to the Magic Meadow, the private Redwood hiking trail, or simply a quiet cabin corner to journal and integrate. The meals are plant-based, locally sourced, and thoughtfully prepared to support an active schedule of inner work — designed to nourish without overwhelming the body between sessions.
Spirit Camp is a sober, substance-free environment, honoring the natural states of consciousness that deep yoga and somatic practice can access on their own. It is queer-owned, body-positive, and genuinely inclusive. The retreat is fully all-inclusive: accommodations, meals, and programming are one seamless experience from arrival through departure.
Finding the Best Yoga Retreats in Northern California: Look North of the Bay Area
When women look for the best yoga retreats in California, Mendocino is not always the first destination that comes to mind. Bali is. Tulum is. But here, North of San Francisco, within three hours of the Bay Area, lies a stretch of Northern California coast where ancient Redwood forest meets dramatic Pacific cliffs — and where a former summer camp has been reimagined into one of the most thoughtfully held retreat spaces in the state.
Spirit Camp is in Mendocino County, accessible from San Francisco and Oakland in approximately three hours, from Sonoma County in about two hours, and from Santa Rosa Airport in roughly two hours. The camp sits just ten minutes from the village of Mendocino, with its cafes, galleries, and ocean views, while remaining completely sheltered within the forest. In October, the Redwoods are golden, the mornings are still and clear, and the evenings around the fire pit carry a quality of magic that is difficult to describe and easy to feel.
This is a women's yoga retreat North of San Francisco that does not ask you to travel to the other side of the world to access the experience of deep transformation in nature. The forest is here. The community is here. The work is waiting. Browse all upcoming retreats at https://www.spirit.camp/retreats.
Your Questions About This California Yoga Retreat
What level of yoga experience do I need? None is required. The retreat is described as newbie-friendly, and the group atmosphere is consistently warm and supportive. You do not need an advanced practice — you need a willingness to be present in your body and to explore.
What does a typical day at the retreat look like? The daily schedule is structured and provided in advance, weaving together yoga, somatic movement, creative expression, ceremony, and spacious time for personal integration. Participants appreciate the clarity and rhythm of having the day's shape in hand.
What accommodation options are available? Spirit Camp offers private queen-bed cabins, shared rooms, and potentially glamping in late October depending on weather conditions. All spaces are cleaned thoroughly between guests, with quality linens and thoughtful details throughout.
Two Ways to Deepen Your Time in Mendocino
Paddle the Big River Estuary
The Big River, which flows through protected state park land just minutes from Spirit Camp, is California's longest undeveloped estuary. At the river's mouth, Catch-a-Canoe offers beautifully handcrafted redwood outrigger canoes and kayaks for solo or group adventures. The lower eight miles of the river are tidal, which means that launching on an incoming tide allows you to simply drift upriver through corridors of old-growth forest, with harbor seals and river otters occasionally surfacing alongside. It is a profoundly grounding half-day experience — a moving meditation on water that extends the embodied awareness cultivated in yoga and somatic practice into the natural world. Plan your timing in advance by calling ahead for current tidal conditions.
Explore the Art Galleries of Mendocino Village
The village of Mendocino, ten minutes from Spirit Camp, has been an artist colony since the 1950s. Its streets are lined with working studios, fine art galleries, and independent shops featuring handcrafted work by Northern California artists. After days of internal exploration, wandering the village with a cup of tea from a local cafe and letting the art speak to you is a satisfying and gentle way to begin re-entering ordinary life. The ocean is visible from almost every corner of the village, and several bluff benches offer perfect spots for quiet reflection before the drive home.
The Best Yoga Retreats in California Are Closer Than You Think
You do not have to go far to go deep. Witches in the Woods 2026 offers a yoga retreat for women that is as rich, held, and transformative as anything you will find anywhere in the world — and it is nestled in the Redwood forest of Mendocino, Northern California, just three hours from the Bay Area. October 21 through 25, 2026. Reserve your place today, and explore the full calendar at https://www.spirit.camp/retreats.
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