Shadowcliff Mountain Lodge & Retreat Center

Shadowcliff begins with a tent and a campsite on the North Inlet stream. In 1956, Patt and Warren Rempel, then living in Manhattan, Kansas, where Warren was a campus minister at Kansas State University and Patt worked as a nurse, bought two lots there. Their dream had come from morning meditations on a promontory overlooking Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Lake. They wanted a simple, rustic lodge, and they wanted it to include many peoples and cultures, including the international students Warren worked alongside.

The Rempels built in summers. In 1959, with teams of student volunteers from Kansas State, they started the first cabin in six weeks, an A-frame they called the International Headquarters of Shadowcliff. It became the first part of Overlook Cabin. The main lodge, now Rempel Lodge, was begun in 1963 and finished in 1976. By 1981 the main buildings were complete, the work of roughly 650 volunteers from 42 countries. In 2000 the Rempels retired and, rather than sell, made sure the place would continue as a retreat for people from all walks of life.

Later leadership came from Bob Mann and Judith Christy, and in 2001 Shadowcliff became a nonprofit affiliate of Bridging the Gap, an environmental education organization. Over the next decade it hosted workshops for sustainability professionals, moved to LED lighting and low-flow fixtures, and set out the Compassionate Kitchen principles of local sourcing and less meat-centric meals. The Laws of Nature Interpretive Trail, added in 2013, carries ten laws of nature on signs and benches made by volunteers.

The season runs from late May to late September, since the buildings are not winterized. Guests stay in Rempel and Cliffside lodges or in the Fireside, Overlook and Riverbend cabins. Continental Divide Trail thru-hikers are welcome, and groups of up to about 50 gather for retreats and workshops. Meals are served family-style, and groups share in seva, the Sanskrit word for selfless service, by helping with cleanup. The North Inlet and Tonahutu trailheads of Rocky Mountain National Park are within walking distance.

Three invitational residencies now run alongside the guest season. In September, a cohort of interdisciplinary artists spends two weeks in Grand Lake. Still Point Sessions are one-week individual residencies. The Groundwork Residency brings a collective working on issues such as housing, food security and justice for a week of rest. Each ends with a free public event for Grand County residents.