︎

Salmon
Creek
Arts

Come to Salmon Creek:
🐌 WINTER WORKSHOPS: One, two and four week sessions Nov ‘26 to Mar ‘27 now open.
🎏 SCHOOLS OF SALMON CREEK: 2027 spring and fall applications open Sep 2026.
🌈 SUMMER STAYS: One or two week cabin rentals through August, more info here.
🌱 Our latest SEED MIX is now available.


Salmon Creek Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization offering year round programs at Salmon Creek Farm, a sanctuary of precious riparian and coast redwood habitat on Central Pomo land established as a counterculture commune in 1971, now a long term living art project shaped by many hands. 

We cultivate expanding communities of artists, each coming with an intention and something to offer, learning from each other and the land. There is time to slow down, space to take a step back, the chance to live close to the land, to participate in its cycles, dwelling in modest hand-crafted spaces within a communal free-range wild wooded environment.  



 
Schools of Salmon Creek is a free two month land-based student-run school in the spring and fall focused on the ‘embodied and living arts.’ Along with the one to four week Winter Workshops and skillshares they focus on the activities of life on the land through the lens of the artist: stewarding, cultivating, cooking, crafting, moving, and publishing. In the summer we offer one or two week retreats.

Salmon Creek Farm is located on 33 acres of second and third growth redwoods two miles from California’s Mendocino Coast. Old logging roads and foot trails criss-cross south facing slopes from sunny meadows, gardens, orchards, communal outdoor kitchen, and dance deck on top, to eight original commune cabins each nestled in their own nook of the terrain, across a ravine that bisects the land to abandoned off-grid cabins, and finally down to Big Salmon Creek in the valley. It is an especially good spot to feel your small place in the big cycles of life on earth.


︎ DONATE ︎ FOLLOW ︎ READ ︎ SUBSCRIBE

EMAIL office (at) salmoncreekarts (dot) org

Staying at
Salmon
Creek
🧚 


Three ways: Summer Stays (1-2 weeks), Winter Workshops (1-4 weeks), and Spring and Fall sessions of Schools of Salmon Creek (8 weeks).


Dawn Cedar Walden Salmon River Moonlight Rainbow

Salmon Creek Farm is a 33 acre sanctuary of precious riparian and coastal redwood forest habitat, on Central Pomo land. In 1971 a commune was established during turbulent times by a group of young visionaries seeking less extractive and more intentional ways of living in what came to be known as Albion Nation. Now in the hands of the 501c3 Salmon Creek Arts, we imagine this sanctuary serving as a pocket of light, where you might “journey to refuel for what it is we need to do on the planet.” There is the possibility for both deep solitude - in private handcrafted iconic cozy cabins nestled among the coastal redwoods - and sociability with others sharing the land, and our wider community on California’s stunning Mendocino Coast.



Cabins are reached by foot trails across 33 acres of south-facing coastal redwoods. Each occupies a unique secluded nook in our south-facing wooded slope. They are rustic (ie, a mouse may occasionally find it’s way in and something will need to be done) but they were lovingly built, rebuilt, repaired, furnished, and embellished by many hands over the years with scavenged and thrifted local materials. 

Cabins have fast wifi, kitchenettes, outdoor showers, outhouses, bedding, and wood stove heat (Sep-May only), Private cabin kitchenettes have small fridge, sink, all utensils, drip/french coffee makers / grinder, and cook stove (most without oven). The OK (outdoor kitchen) and Dance Deck, the fruit orchard, and occasionally the Dawn cabin Kitchen and Dining Room open to communal use.

A resident host receives you at the front gate upon arrival and leads an extensive tour of the property and orienation to life on the land the following morning. Everyone is in touch by group chat to announce meals, invite each other over, ask for help with something, organize an event, say “hey I’m going to town if anyone needs anything,” etc.

ACCESS
  • You need a car to reach us and for the duration of your stay. We are located near the remote coastal village of Albion, California. Closest airports: SFO (3.5hrs) & STS (2 hrs).
  • Accessibility issues with all cabins, remote from cars and reached on foot.
FOOD
  • Meals not included unless otherwise noted.
  • All kitchens are strictly vegetarian.
  • Great food markets & restaurants 20min away in Mendocino.
COMMUNITY
  • Workshops and Schools exclusively for ages 21 and over.
  • We are unable to host pets (except ADA Service Animals).
  • No short term guests of guests or drop-in visitors.
ENVIRONMENT
  • This is a rustic outdoor-centric experience close to the land. Be willing, able, and even enthusiastic to walk trails, shower outdoors, and use an outhouse.
  • Guests pack out their own ‘trash’ and prepare beds for next guests.

SCHOOLS OF SALMON CREEK
Prices: Free + $500 for communal evening meals / 8wks. Applications for 2027 open Sep 2026.

SUMMER STAYS
2027 prices: 1wk/2wks. Arrivals exclusively 3-6pm, departures by 11am Sundays.
  • Solo or couple at Salmon, Moonlight, Walden or River ($1350/$2150)
  • Solo or couple or 2 friends (2 beds) at Rainbow ($1850/$2950)
  • Solo, couple or 2 friends (2 beds) at Cedar ($2150/$3450)
  • Up to three (3 beds) at Dawn ($3100/$4950)


WINTER WORKSHOPS
Prices: 1wk/2wks/4wks + any workshop fee. Arrivals exclusively 1:30-4:30pm, departures by 11am Sundays.
  • Solo bedroom or loft in shared cabin Dawn ($1000/$1600/$2650)
  • Solo or couple at Salmon, Moonlight, Walden or River ($1200/$1925/$2650)
  • Solo or couple or 2 friends (2 beds) at Rainbow ($1750/$2800/$3950)
  • Solo, couple or 2 friends (2 beds) at Cedar ($1900/$3050/$4175)
  • Up to 3 people (3 beds) in two spaces at Dawn ($2500/$4000/$5500)


Full payment to book. Non-transferable. Cancel with full refund within 48 hours. 50% refund up to 8 weeks before arrival and none thereafter. Reschedule within the season if an alternate date/cabin is available up to 8 weeks before arrival, for 15% fee. Workshop fees, BIPOC donations, and booking/cleaning fees are non-refundable. No exceptions, we recommend travel insurance.

Inquiry form includes opportunity to either request support, or donate to a fund, for those of historically marginalized communities (especially BIPOC). These revenues are a critical and primary source of support for Salmon Creek Arts, work-trade arrangements are only available for designated weeks. Email Office(at) salmoncreekarts (dot) org

Cedar Rainbow Salmon Walden Dawn River Moonlight OK (Outdoor Kitchen)




Life with
the Land


Questions of quotidian domestic life are fundamental at Salmon Creek Farm. What are the local and global implications?

It can also be very sensual living this close to the seasons and the land...

︎ ANIMALS: For many reasons SCF is vegetarian. Many carnivorous visitors have found it to be a helpful place to experiment with a plant-based diet for the first time.

︎ FOOD: We eat with the seasons and aim to grow, forage, and preserve as much of our own food from the land as possible and invite everyone eating from the land to participate in that seasonal process.


︎ WASTE: We do not provide receptacles on the property and guests are responsible for their own ‘trash.’ We strive for zero waste, shop for minimal/no packaging, and compost zealously.

︎ HUMANURE: All cabins have cute outhouses with sawdust lined humanure buckets that are emptied regularly to nearby compost sites where it transforms into the richest soil on the land, and after a few years is spread around as mulch at established fruit trees.

︎ WATER: Our water is collected from a spring on the land where it is filtered and pumped to the top of the ridge where it is stored, treated, and gravity fed to all of the cabins and gardens.

︎ HEAT: To stay warm from October through April we burn wood sustainably harvested wood from the land which we chop and cure throughout the year.


︎ SHELTER: Our cabins were all constructed with scavenged wood, windows, doors, and fixtures in the early 1970’s. We have continued in that spirit, also working with wood sustainably harvested and milled from the land.

︎ FURNISHINGS: Local thrift stores have been the source for most of the cabin furnishings, with a special focus on ‘natural’ materials like woods, canes, ceramics, cottons, wools, etc. and promoting the re-use of local materials and products that still have life.

︎ PLASTICS: Just no. But once you try to completely eliminate them from your life, you realize it’s virtually impossible these days. 

As the climate is changing, we change, and as with everything, we do what we can, just trying to move with intention in the right direction...


︎ We aim to continually expand the views and voices informing SCF and broaden the range of folks coming, lowering barriers wherever possible to those who feel drawn to visit. As a queer owned and run space, it has a special sense of sanctuary for those who often don’t feel safe or welcome in rural spaces, especially BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks. We are on the land of Central Pomo people, they are still around and present today.
🌈️ to SALMON CREEK FARM