Hike + Heal Sequoia National Park
A weekend of stewardship and self-care.
Hike + Heal Sequoia National Park is a Wilderness Wellness retreat facilitated by Hiking My Feelings in partnership with the Sequoia Parks Conservancy.
Deep within you lies a wilderness waiting to be explored—a world of untapped potential, dreams, and desires. Our retreat is designed to help you navigate this uncharted territory and uncover the true essence of your being. Through introspective workshops, guided meditations, and transformative exercises, you will embark on a journey of self-reflection and self-discovery, peeling back the layers to reveal your authentic self.
As you delve into the wilderness within, you will start to see the intricate threads that connect your inner world with the outer world of nature. Our skilled guides will help you understand the deep interplay between your thoughts, emotions, and the natural elements surrounding you. Through workshops and discussions, you will learn how to harness the wisdom of nature to cultivate mindfulness, resilience, and a profound sense of connection with the world around you.
It's no secret that our wild spaces have been impacted by human activity. But here's the beautiful truth: we have the power to make a positive change. In this immersive retreat, we will dive headfirst into the heart of environmental stewardship, rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. Together, we will embark on conservation projects, revitalizing trails, and restoring ecosystems, all while nurturing a deep connection to the lands we love.
Conservation projects to enrich your connection to the land.
Naturalist-led hikes with breathtaking views.
Guided self-discovery activities to shift your perspective.
Making memories with friends who feel like family.
📍We acknowledge that the area known as Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks is the ancestral lands of the Western Mono (Monache), Yokuts, Tübatulabal, Paiute, and Western Shoshone people. Curious about the history of the land where you work, live, and play? Native Land is a great place to start your research!
About Sequoia Parks Conservancy
The Sequoia Parks Conservancy envisions a future where we champion the work of the National Park Service to build healthy and resilient parks and where our programs and products create enduring connections to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks for everyone.
Choose Your Own Adventure
We’re offering three different stewardship retreat experiences at Sequoia National Park this summer to help us connect the dots between the outer wilderness and the wilderness that exists within each of us. While these events are fantastic on their own, they are also very powerful when experienced in sequence!
Our proven framework for tapping into the healing power of nature will empower you to build resilience, self-trust, compassion, and empathy. Integrating the skills learned in the park into your daily life back at home will help reduce stress, improve your mindset, and help you feel connected to something bigger than yourself. Through a combination of hiking, mindfulness activities, self-reflection practices, and community connection, participants can look forward to unearthing a connection to themselves, each other, and the world around them.
June 28-30, 2024
July 19-21, 2024
August 16-18, 2024
Choose Your Own Adventure
We’re offering three different stewardship retreat experiences at Sequoia National Park this summer to help us connect the dots between the outer wilderness and the wilderness that exists within each of us. While these events are fantastic on their own, they are also very powerful when experienced in sequence!
Our proven framework for tapping into the healing power of nature will empower you to build resilience, self-trust, compassion, and empathy. Integrating the skills learned in the park into your daily life back at home will help reduce stress, improve your mindset, and help you feel connected to something bigger than yourself. Through a combination of hiking, mindfulness activities, self-reflection practices, and community connection, participants can look forward to unearthing a connection to themselves, each other, and the world around them.
June 28-30, 2024
July 19-21, 2024
PROGRAM: Invasive Thoughts & Invasive Species
This summer we will be supporting a meadow restoration stewardship project with the Volunteers in Parks program. To help connect the dots between our inner and outer wilderness, we will be delivering our Invasive Thoughts & Invasive Species program on Saturday morning, as well as our Inner & Outer Space program in conjunction with the astronomy program on Saturday evening.
NOTE: you will be submitting your registration payment to the Sequoia Parks Conservancy. If you have any questions about the registration process or payment, please contact the folks at SPC.
August 16-18, 2024
Trip Itinerary
Friday
Meet at the Visitor’s Center
We start our weekend at the Foothills Visitor’s Center, where you’ll check in for the retreat. At 3pm, we’ll caravan up to our private campground inside Sequoia National Park.
(subject to change based on road damage and repairs)
Dinner + Campfire Chats
Whether you want to keep it simple with dehydrated backpacking food or create something from scratch on your camp stove, we’re excited to see what you’re whipping up for dinner! After we eat, we’ll gather around the campfire to connect as a community and close the day.
Welcome Workshop
When we arrive, we’ll set up camp and get familiar with our surroundings for the weekend. Before dinner, we’ll go for a short (30 minutes each way) hike and kick off the retreat with a Welcome Workshhop!
Saturday
Stewardship Project
After breakfast, we’ll caravan to the site of our stewardship project. We’ll be in the field for most of the morning, so bring snacks or a lunch! We highly recommend long pants + long sleeves as we’ll be doing a meadow restoration and will be in the sun for a few hours.
Hike + Heal
After our stewardship project, we’ll head out for a short hike to a swimming hole to cool down and refresh ourselves. Along the way, we’ll pause to connect the dots between our inner and outer wilderness.
Free Time + Dinner
When we get back from the swimming hole, it’s your time to spend however you wish. Journal, take a nap, bust out your art supplies, the world is your oyster! Feel free to make yourself dinner before the evening programs.
Sunset Hike + Star Party
After we cook dinner and eat together, we’ll head out for our sunset hike. Once the stars come out, it’s time to learn about the constellations and connect the dots between inner and outer space. Bring a headlamp, as we will be hiking back out under the starry night sky!
Sunday
Morning Meditation
Greet the sun and warm up your soul with a grounding meditation that will help you tap into your inner calm when the world feels chaotic around you.
Walk + Talk in the Giant Forest
Let’s exchange contact info, take tons of photos, talk about our dreams, and use this morning as a moving meditation to seal in this experience. We will be exploring the Giant Forest at a slow, meandering pace as we learn about the history of healing in the National Park system.
Closing Ceremony + Check Out
Before we check out of the campground, we’ll circle up one more time for our closing ceremony to reflect on our time together and set intentions for life after the retreat.
What’s Included?
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We will meet at the Visitors Center on Friday and caravan into the park together. Your access to Sequoia National Park is included in registration.
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Your retreat registration includes your camping reservation for two nights at a private service campground inside Sequoia National Park. You are responsible for bringing your own equipment. See the packing list below for more information about what to bring.
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The research is clear, spending time in nature is beneficial for the body, mind, and spirit. On our guided hikes, you will learn techniques to turn any outdoor activity into a mindful experience. Experience the healing power of nature via guided self-discovery activities all weekend long on and off the trail.
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Through guided self-discovery exercises, participants can look forward to a weekend of disconnection from every day life to facilitate a deep reconnection with themselves and each other. Workshops are facilitated on Friday evening, Saturday morning and evening, and Sunday morning.
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While our healing journeys are deeply personal and unique to our lived experiences, we all have at least one thing in common: we’ve survived everything life has dealt our way so far. Healing in community reminds us that we are never alone in what we’ve experienced and that together, we rise.
What to Bring
Retreat Facilitators
We’re here for you.
Hike + Heal Sequoia National Park is a Wilderness Wellness retreat facilitated by Sydney + Barry Williams - the dynamic duo behind all things Hiking My Feelings. Together, we bring decades of experience in community building and facilitation, outdoor education, and self-reflection.
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ABOUT SYDNEY
When former collegiate athlete and competitive skydiver, Sydney Williams, unexpectedly found herself on the receiving end of a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis, while grappling with unresolved trauma from a decades-old sexual assault, she set out on a mission: turn her pain into power. Two hikes across Catalina Island and 80 miles later, she founded Hiking My Feelings® to help others tap into the mind-body connection and healing power of nature that helped kick her self-limiting beliefs and disease into remission.Having more than 12 years of marketing experience with Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands, Sydney serves up her “truth juice” style of storytelling to break wide open tough conversations with practical, powerful content and experiences. Over the years, she’s been featured on the SXSW stage, as well as in Health Magazine, Diabetic Living Magazine, San Diego Union-Tribune, Huffington Post, Psychology Today, US News & World Report, and numerous other publications. Today, she is the author of Hiking My Feelings: Stepping Into to the Healing Power of Nature, and she travels across the country empowering others to summit their personal mountains on their way to becoming Well Beings.
Sydney is a certified Wilderness First Responder (SOLO, 2021), and instructor at the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park. Sydney facilitates guided self-discovery exercises, leads the hikes, and is here to help you blaze your own trail to self-love.
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ABOUT BARRY
Barry was living in the Upper East Side of Manhattan selling technology to banks and working with Fortune 100 companies when he had the opportunity to skydive the first time. That first jumped changed his life, and within 18 months, he went from living in the same building as Derek Jeter to living in a trailer in the backwoods of Maine, pursuing his instructor ratings in the skydiving industry. After a 16-year career as a professional skydiver, Barry was all-in on Hiking My Feelings.Hailing from New Hampshire, he spent his life hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains, where he also earned his Wilderness EMT certification. Barry lives by Bruce Lee’s recommendation; “be like water” and finds inspiration in the works of Alan Watts and Jiddu Krishnamurti. When he’s not leading hikes for Hiking My Feelings, producing content for our weekly videos, or driving the van, you can find him on his paddleboard, at a local reggae show, or cooking up an incredible meal.
Barry is usually pulls up the rear on the hikes to ensure no hiker is left behind.
$325
Registration includes:
Access to Sequoia National Park
Two Nights of Camping
Mindful Hiking
Self-Reflection Rituals
Community Connection
Gift Bag