Ananda River Yoga Retreat Centers — Mission Statement
Our mission is to create a place of non-judgment where people can engage in deep, experiential, and transformative yoga. We believe healing and awakening do not come from bypassing the body or idealizing spirituality, but from meeting the lived experience of being human with clarity, curiosity, and care.
At Ananda River, we integrate modern science with ancient practice. Through mindful movement, breathwork, and somatic inquiry, we guide participants to recognize how emotional memory is stored in the body—within fascia, ligaments, and muscle tissue—and how it can be safely released. As the body learns to let go, energy is allowed to move through the chakra centers, restoring balance between mind, body, and spirit.
Our retreats emphasize direct experience over belief. Breathwork is used as a primary tool to regulate the nervous system, deepen awareness, and support the integration of physical and emotional release. Movement becomes a language through which the body can complete unfinished patterns, and the mind can observe without being overwhelmed.
We exist to offer a grounded container for transformation—one rooted in presence rather than performance, exploration rather than judgment. Ananda River is a place to slow down, listen inward, and reconnect to the intelligence of the body as a pathway to clarity, resilience, and wholeness.
Cimarron Heights
Nestled above Washoe Valley with sweeping views over Washoe Lake and the Sierra Nevada mountains just east of Lake Tahoe, Cimarron Heights lies in a serene and quiet pine forest setting. The location overlooks the entire valley from an elevated perch, surrounded by high desert plains, distant snowy ridges, and a horizon that shifts subtly with light and weather. It’s a place where calm predominates — the stillness of early morning pines and the gentle sweep of breeze through open sky create a backdrop that feels transcendent without being sentimental. The landscape’s quiet presence naturally invites deep attention and reflection, offering an environment where people feel grounded and open to direct experience. From here you can literally look across the valley toward Tahoe’s alpine basin, a reminder of the vast natural systems that shape this region and ask something of us in return — to slow down, breathe, and simply be.
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe’s waters are central to its restorative power. Fed primarily by snowmelt and mountain springs, the lake is widely regarded as one of the clearest large alpine lakes in the world. In certain conditions, visibility extends more than a hundred feet below the surface—a reflection of both its depth and the extraordinary purity of its water. This clarity isn’t symbolic; it is measurable, physical, and felt.
For centuries, people have been drawn to Tahoe not just for its beauty, but for the way its waters affect the body and mind. Immersion—whether through swimming, cold exposure, or simply sitting at the shoreline—has a calming, regulating effect on the nervous system. The cold, mineral-rich water sharpens awareness, slows breath, and invites the body into a state of alert relaxation. Many experience this as deeply healing: a reset that is both physiological and subtle.
While comparisons to bottled water are often made in popular conversation, what matters more is the lived experience—the sense of clean contact with a natural body of water that remains remarkably unpolluted for its size. Tahoe’s purity is not an abstraction; it is something you feel immediately in the skin, the breath, and the clarity that follows.
Located just 30 minutes from Cimarron Heights, Lake Tahoe offers retreat participants access to this powerful natural element while allowing the retreat center itself to remain quiet, forested, and contained. Together, the stillness of the pines and the crystalline waters of the lake create a balanced environment—one that supports grounding, renewal, and a truly transcendent yoga experience rooted in the intelligence of nature.
Within a short drive of Washoe Valley, guests have access to three distinct hot-spring soaking locations, each offering a different atmosphere while drawing from the same geothermal systems that define this region of the Sierra Nevada. All three are easy day trips, allowing visitors to integrate soaking into their retreat experience without long travel.
Carson Hot Springs
Located in Carson City, Carson Hot Springs offers a classic mineral-water soaking experience with deep historical roots. The waters emerge naturally heated from underground geothermal sources and are rich in minerals long associated with muscle relaxation, joint relief, and nervous system calming. This location provides a structured, accessible environment for soaking and recovery, making it an easy and reliable option for guests seeking physical restoration.
Steamboat Hot Springs
South of Reno, Steamboat Hot Springs sits within an active geothermal area where heated water rises through volcanic rock and fault lines. The mineral-dense spring water is known for its grounding, warming qualities and its ability to ease muscular tension after physical practice. The surrounding landscape retains a more natural, elemental feel, offering a quiet contrast to more developed soaking environments.
David Walley’s Hot Springs Resort
Nestled in the foothills near Genoa, David Walley’s Hot Springs combines expansive valley views with naturally heated mineral pools. Fed by mountain spring water that has traveled deep underground, the soaking experience here supports circulation, relaxation, and deep rest. The open setting and slower pace make it especially well suited for extended soaking and reflection.
The Healing Nature of Mountain Spring Water
Across all three locations, the water originates as mountain snowmelt and spring water, filtered slowly through layers of granite, volcanic stone, and mineral-rich earth before resurfacing as geothermal springs. This natural filtration process contributes to the water’s clarity and mineral content. Warm immersion helps increase circulation, soften connective tissue, and encourage the body’s natural recovery processes. For many, soaking also supports mental quieting and a sense of energetic reset after yoga, breathwork, or long periods of reflection.
Ananda River Yoga Retreat Centers 