The Return to the Garden retreat is five days of healing, adventure, play, faith, nature, and authentic community. It's designed around the conditions where purpose is remembered.
✦Our BeliefPurpose isn't manufactured. It isn't earned through achievement or hidden behind success. It has always been within you, beneath the fear, the conditioning, the expectations, the wounds. When we heal, we don't become someone new. We remember who we've always been.
part of something greater
There is something about standing beneath the stars, hiking a mountain, sitting around a fire, or watching the sunrise that puts life back into perspective. Nature slows us down, grounds us, and reminds us we are part of something far greater than ourselves. When we reconnect with the Earth, we often reconnect with our own soul.
never alone
We were never meant to heal alone. Purpose grows in relationship: around campfires, over shared meals, through honest conversations, in laughter, tears, celebration, and service. When people feel safe enough to be fully seen, they discover they were never alone in the first place.
morning surrender
Every meaningful journey begins with surrender before it begins with striving. Through prayer, silence, stillness, and spiritual reflection, we quiet the noise of the world so we can hear the voice that has been guiding us all along. This is where calling becomes clearer and identity becomes rooted.
joy is sacred
Before life taught us who we were supposed to be, we knew how to wonder. We danced. We laughed. We created. We explored. Play isn't childish. It's sacred. Joy reconnects us with our authentic selves and reminds us that purpose isn't only found in responsibility, but also in delight.
Four core workshops carry the week, each one designed to take you deeper than talk, so you leave with more than a good week. You leave with a plan.
The retreat's capstone workshop. We walk through your story, the parts you're proud of and the parts you've buried, and turn it into a clear, practical vision for what you're here to do. You won't just leave healed. You'll leave knowing exactly where you go from here and how to start living out your purpose the moment you get home.
Trauma doesn't just live in your story. It lives in your body. This workshop teaches practical, trauma-informed tools to regulate your nervous system and release what's been stored, so healing becomes something you feel, not just something you talk about.
Every person carries both masculine and feminine qualities within them: presence and intuition, discipline and play, direction and receptivity. This workshop is about learning to embody both, instead of suppressing one and overidentifying with the other.
A guided breathwork and sound healing journey designed to move you out of your head and into your body, releasing tension, settling the nervous system, and opening space for whatever's ready to surface.
silent disco summit
the whole crew
found family
run free
golden hour
dance in the aspens
lake plunge
wellness hour
cabin fam
found each otherYou come for the retreat. You leave with your people. The week ends, but what begins here doesn't: group chats that never sleep, reunions in new cities, friendships that turn into chosen family.
Co-founders and creative partners who first met as strangers in the circle.
Roommates, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and more than a few relationships.
Tribes who keep exploring the world together, long after camp ends.
the Colorado crew
brothers for life
golden hour, golden people
found family
cocoa + campfire
we take joy seriouslyWe don't believe purpose is something you keep. Purpose that stays inside you isn't purpose yet. It becomes real the moment it's given away. That's why service isn't a side activity at Return to the Garden. It's built into the center of the week.
We spend the morning working with our hands, giving our sweat to the land and the community that's hosting us. Healing isn't only something we receive. It's something we practice by showing up for others.
On Saturday, we throw open the gates and give the Garden away. Kids from Colorado's foster care system join us for a full day of camp: camp Olympics, dancing, improv, a kids' hike, and a community mural we paint together. A camp full of adults who spent the week remembering their inner child, playing alongside kids who deserve to simply be kids.
laughter in the pines
trail buddies
out on the lakeReturn to the Garden is built hand-in-hand with Rocky Mountain Ascent, a Colorado nonprofit bringing nature-based healing to the kids who face the steepest barriers to it: children in foster care, group homes, shelters, and families in crisis. Their programs are completely free for every kid: transportation, gear, meals, and trauma-informed guides, all covered, so that a child's circumstances never decide whether they get to stand in the mountains.
They believe connection is the foundation of healing: connection to the Earth, to others, and to yourself. Sound familiar? It's the same remembering we practice all week. On Saturday, we give it away.
A portion of every ticket supports their work, and if their mission moves you, you can give directly or come back as a volunteer.
the Garden, from above
home for the week
RMA kids on the trailsNot ready to pay yet? Apply below and we'll hold a conversation, not just a seat.
Cripple Creek, Colorado · August 12–16, 2026. We'd love to have you with us. Tell us a little about who you are, and we'll reach out personally to save your seat.
We got your application. Keep an eye on your inbox and texts — we'll reach out personally to save your seat.
see you in the Garden ✦Fly into Denver (DEN) or Colorado Springs (COS). We'll run one shuttle from each airport to camp on arrival day, and one back after send-off.
If you land before or after the shuttle window, you'll use your own transportation, or we'll connect you with others arriving around the same time so you can coordinate a ride together. Camp is in Cripple Creek, about an hour from Colorado Springs and 2.5 hours from Denver.
Yes, you can arrive anytime Thursday. But the earlier the better: every hour in the Garden counts, and you won't want to miss a thing.
Nope. We'll provide you with a tent and camping equipment. Just bring yourself, your clothes, and an openness to falling asleep under the Colorado stars.
Everything on-site: your lodging (cabin or camping), all meals, and every workshop, ceremony, and activity: sound healing, breathwork, yoga, ecstatic dance, the initiation workshops, the service day, and all the camp classics like archery, kayaking, high ropes, and the leap of faith.
The only things not included are your travel to Colorado and anything personal you want to pick up along the way.
Adults ready to remember who they are, an even circle of men and women. You don't need retreat experience, a perfect fitness level, or your life figured out. If you feel the pull, that's your invitation.
No. You'll hear us pray and talk about God openly here, but this isn't about religion. There's no denomination, no dogma, and nothing you have to believe to belong. We simply create space for something bigger than ourselves. Whether you call it God, Spirit, or you're still figuring that out, come exactly as you are. The Garden has room for you.
Everything here is an invitation, never an obligation. You're always free to opt out, observe, or take space. That said, the people who lean in the furthest tend to leave the most changed.
Layers: Colorado mountain mornings and evenings get cool even in August. Comfortable clothes you can move, dance, and play in, a swimsuit, closed-toe shoes for hiking and ropes, a water bottle, and a journal.
A full packing list will be sent to you after you register.
Cabins sleep five, and we'll do our best to honor roommate requests. Just let us know when you register. And if you're coming solo: perfect. Most people do, and by night one it won't feel that way.
Yes, the cabin rate can be split into two payments of $600. If something comes up and you can't make it, reach out to us and we'll work with you on options.
still wondering something? let's talk it through, human to human ✦
…plus a full staff of 16 men and women, yoga facilitation, and our beloved local camp crew. You'll be held the whole way.
Some people spend their lives searching for purpose. Janelle simply lived hers, and made everyone around her believe they could too.
Before Return to the Garden had a name, Janelle Orsborn helped plant the seed. She was there at the beginning of this mission of Pursuing Purpose, believing with her whole heart that no one should have to remember who they are alone.
In honor of her life, we give away a full scholarship to the Garden: a seat at the fire, given freely, the way she gave herself. Every year, someone will stand beneath these mountains, laugh until they cry, and remember who they are, because of her.
Her light didn't leave. It got planted.
Apply for the Scholarship this one's for you, Janelle ✦
the way we remember her, lighting up the circle
forever part of the family
Because purpose isn't found. It's remembered. And the Garden is where we remember together.
Save My Spot