The Land

Land Acknowledgement for Pleasures of Beltane


The Pleasures of Beltane camp will be located within traditional Pomo territory near the village site Bu’ldam, at what is known as Mendocino Woodlands National Historic Landmark State Park. We acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Pomo peoples on which our camp will be located. We sit in deep gratitude for this land and we acknowledge our traditional hosts, their past, and the generational traumas they have endured due to colonization and white supremacy. We acknowledge their leaders, past, present and emerging. 


In 2023, the Pleasures of Beltane camp made a donation to the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) on behalf of The Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, the original stewards of the Jackson Demonstration State Forest, to change the way CAL FIRE manages the land. For more information and to donate: https://www.wildcalifornia.org/savejackson.

Mendocino Woodlands


The Mendocino Woodlands is located northeast of the town of Mendocino. Directions to the camp will be included in a package you will receive prior to camp. You can find more information at https://www.mendocinowoodlands.org/directions


Camp 1 is nestled in redwoods and is very rustic. There are 2 cabin clusters we will have access to. The kitchen has 2 dining halls and there is a huge rec room that can hold an all camp ritual indoors. The cabins have fireplaces and assuming there is no fire restriction, campers will be allowed to use their fireplaces. Firewood is not provided but will be available at an additional charge. There is an open fire pit where outdoor rituals will be held, weather permitting.


Parts of Camp 1 are located on a slight hill and may not be accessible to all. There will be a car and someone to drive those people who need extra help getting to and from the dining hall and the outdoor ritual site.


The Cabins can accommodate 2 to 4 people; some are free-standing and others are duplexes. There are a few tent camping spots. 


Campers will have access to some electricity and refrigeration. There is no phone service but there is a phone for emergency use. 

A note on accessibility:

Pleasures of Beltane was hosted by the Mendocino Woodlands in 2023 (our inaugural event).  After camp, a number of attendees gave us feedback about how physically inaccessible this site is. There are steep slopes to traverse, and buildings are not close together.  We got lucky in 2023 in that it was relatively dry. Mendocino in the spring is unpredictable; it’s possible that we might get rain in 2024, which would make the trails muddy and even more difficult to navigate.

We want PoB to be as accessible as possible, while retaining the “out in nature” quality that makes witchcamps the immersive experiences that they are. Since last spring, we’ve been researching other possible sites for PoB, hoping to find something more accessible. We ended up researching 11 other sites (see list below). They all have their pros and cons, but unfortunately none of them were both more accessible and within our meager budget. Even with a higher sliding scale and some of us fronting our own personal money to make PoB 2024 happen, we are barely making it. 

The Mendocino Woodlands has a decades-long relationship with Reclaiming.  California Witchcamp, Mysteries of Samhain, Witchlets in the Woods, and Redwood Magic all happen there. Because of this long-standing relationship, the Woodlands is extremely accommodating to us, financially and in other ways. We are immensely grateful for the relationships that have been cultivated there, with Woodlands staff as well as with the land itself.

We decided to return to the Mendocino Woodlands for 2024, but we are committed to finding a more accessible site for 2025.  If you know of any possible sites for our camp, please let us know. Also, if there are ways that we can make the Woodlands more accessible for you, please let us know this too.  We will do whatever we can to make 2024 as comfortable as possible for as many people as possible. Thank you!



Sites we investigated:



PS. The other two sites at the Mendocino Woodlands, Camps 3 and 2, do not open until later in the season.