In the Peace Garden behind Carbondale’s True Nature Healing Arts, slumbering red willow branches jut from the snow like flaming torches, along with piles of twigs, leaves, and stones—“earth altars” built by visitors—while colorful ribbons on the Wishing Tree whisper in the wind. This serene haven one block off Main Street and steps from the bike path is Stefani Soychak’s happy place.

“During summertime, it’s so green, lush, and full you can’t see the whole garden,” says Soychak, general manager of the 14-year-old wellness sanctuary. “When the leaves have dropped, you see the entire landscape. It’s a beautiful contrast.”

Sharing an acre with the Peace Garden is a modern spa and a circular, 100-person kiva (a congregation hall inspired by Puebloan ritual chambers), half-buried outside of True Nature’s main building with movement studios, a boutique, and a plant-based cafe. True Nature’s campus—with extensive yoga, meditation, bodywork, sound healing, and spa programming—makes it the ultimate destination for a winter retreat. 

“Connecting with this dormant time of year,” Soychak says, “is all about learning to go inward and reconnect with yourself.” 

Guests choose from a menu of classes (restorative yoga using bolsters and blankets to facilitate deep relaxation, Nia dance) and treatments (scrubs, wraps, Reiki, aromatic steam shower, hot-stone massage), with interdisciplinary practitioner recommendations, to plan a customized, bespoke retreat (full- or half-day).

The terrarium-windowed organic cafe serves seasonal Ayurvedic recipes (daily soups, quiche, medicinal mushroom lattes) for breakfast and lunch. (Ayurvedic practitioner and True Nature cofounder Deva Shantay infuses the ancient Indian philosophy of balanced mind-body-spirit into every nook.)

The spa’s four treatment rooms with steam showers and Japanese soaking tubs are super private—communal areas are gracefully absent. “You feel very ‘held,’ as it is partially underground, but a lot of natural light comes in,” Soychak notes.

The new balancing and detoxifying Serenity Soak Bath (a lavender-scented pink infusion of yerba mate, aloe vera, jojoba oil, pomegranate, and açaì) revitalizes tired muscles. Ridgway-based ISUN’s nourishing cold-processed plant oils are steeped in “high vibrational” crystals like amethyst and sapphire to enhance facials, hot-stone massage, and the spa’s signature Journey of the Gems chakra-balancing experience.

Meanwhile, at True Nature’s three-day Winter Retreat hosted by yoga director Nicole Lindstrom (January 10–12), participants practice meditation and breathwork around the outdoor fire circle, followed by a “movement and introspection” workshop, shadow puppet-making and storytelling, candlelight myofascial release, and a “sound journey” through a sacred outdoor space to the music of gongs and harmonics from crystal bowls. Time for spa rituals, journaling, or strolling the labyrinth is carved into the itinerary.

“Sacred spaces to support our mental well-being are more important than ever,” Soychak says. Even after a cold day on Aspen Mountain, when there’s nothing more restorative than a soak in True Nature’s ritual bath: hot water steeped in medicinal herbs (rosemary, lavender, mugwort, sage) harvested from the Peace Garden and redolent of the fall.