About Balanced Rock

Upcoming Retreats at Balanced Rock

Venue & Amenities

Our staff and instructors are a fun group of inspired mountain adventurers who have honed their skills living and loving life in connection with wilderness. Accomplished musicians, artists, naturalists, yogis, healers, chefs, and free-spirits Balanced Rock instructors have a knack for making people feel super safe and comfortable in the mountains. We strive to help people feel capable and competent in their own selves in the wilderness through our competent, attentive guidance.

Meals

Menu Types

Getting Here

Location icon Balanced Rock, Yosemite National Park Road, Yosemite Valley, CA, USA

Directions

Each course explores a different region of the Park. With our staff of resident Yosemite experts, we specialize in visiting less crowded, yet stunningly beautiful corners of the Park. We have decades of collective experience in exploring Yosemite National Park, and have a wide range of hidden sanctuaries, secluded lakes, outdoor granite-slab yoga “studios”, and comfortable campsites in our routes and itineraries. If you want to also see some of the more popular icons and destinations, there is ample time at the beginning and end of each course. Once you complete your registration for a course, we will send you detailed directions and a map to the meeting place for your course. This will usually be a campground inside the park boundary on the Tioga Pass Road.

Customer Reviews

5.00 out of 5.0 average rating

5.0
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EVERY Balanced Rock Retreat is AMAZING!!
I've been on several Balanced Rock retreats and every single one was AMAZING!! The attention to detail for every participant made me feel like it was designed specifically for me. Everything from making sure my sleeping accommodations were cozy to yoga poses right for me in that moment to the Over-the-Top Excellent food! You can be assured you will be WELL taken care of and fully nourished in your body, mind and spirit!

5.0
Yoga Jambalaya 2019
Heather has a way of bringing the outside inside, and helping to connect people to nature right from the start of her yoga class. A wonderful way to stir a pot of something delicious! Jambalaya has always been amazing, but it keeps getting better

5.0
100% Worth every penny!
This trip couldn't have come at a better time in my life. I was finally able to quiet my heavily distracted and fast paced mind with the guided meditations and yoga poses taught by Jana. She meets you at your level and provides you with a variety of meditation styles to take home and practice whenever you like. Patrick prepared the best meals for the group and even snuck in a sweet dessert once in awhile. Overall, this retreat was much needed and I am very grateful to have been a part of it. The connections that were made on this trip will stay with me for a lifetime and I look forward to my next trip with them.

5.0
Women of Color Backpacking and Yoga Retreat
I've been backpacking and climbing for over nine years, and this was one of the most special, healing, and joyous backpacking trips I've ever been on. I really loved spending time in the mountains with women of color--sharing space to talk about our experiences, joys, and pains in the outdoors, and cultivating the healing that comes with being heard and seen (and from plunges in freezing alpine lakes). Thank you to the trip leaders, Grace and Miho, for holding such beautiful space, and to Balanced Rock for providing this magical and necessary space!

5.0
Amazing Journey
My yoga and backpacking retreat, couldn't have gone any better, this was a life changing experience were reconnecting to nature and spirit was the key, the instructors (Breezy and JP) are absolutely exceptional yoga instructors, they care tons about the welfare of the group, the food was super healthy and convenient, meditations were beyond my expectations, the place was fantastic and the instructors were super knowledge of our surrounding environment. ***** 5 stars Highly Recommended :)!!!!!

Mission & Vision

Balanced Rock inspires health and wellbeing through deep connection to nature and spirit.

Who We Are

Balanced Rock is a Yosemite-based non-profit that has been inspiring health and wellbeing through our programs and classes since 1999. Yosemite National Park is a world-heritage site celebrated as one of the most sacred places on earth. We are honored to offer backpacking journeys, weekend camping retreats, day-hikes, workshops, and lodge-based programs that focus on inward reflection, coupled with outward exploration of this incredible place.

Our compassionate, personable, and expert staff share a rare and unique combination of local Yosemite knowledge and passion for its natural history, with a spirited dedication to contemplative practices including yoga, meditation, and the creative arts.

Our courses are generally appropriate for all levels of experience. Join us in the wilderness this year to cultivate holistic health and wellness, rejuvenate yourself, and transform your life!

What We Do

At Balanced Rock, we’re devoted to providing opportunities for mindful living, self-care, and community involvement in connection with the natural world. Our core programs are nature-based retreats, workshops, and transformational adventures in Yosemite. Balanced Rock experiences offer a setting to cultivate personal balance, and to support our personal and community health. This is inspired by the wisdom found in spending quality time with the natural world. Balanced Rock courses pair the outdoors with contemplative and creative practices (yoga, meditation, art, music, Ayurveda, and self-care) to foster compassion, and facilitate personal empowerment. A Balanced Rock journey can transform your life!

Yoga in Yosemite

Yoga means union, and at Balanced Rock we focus on the union of our experienced connection with the natural world. Yoga in Yosemite is our breath as we walk along the trail, our posture and awareness as we share a delicious backcountry meal, our challenges with unforeseen obstacles, and our comfort in telling our story around a campfire. There are many reasons to practice yoga asana (postures) in the wilderness and all of our programs offer optional, mostly outdoor yoga classes with instructors registered through Yoga Alliance. We believe that any form of connection with the natural world is so important at this time in history, and yoga asana (postures), pranayama (breath-work), and meditation are particularly good tools to access this connection. Not to mention standing strong and stretching tall on top of a granite dome in is unbeatable!

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