THREE CREEKS

Three Creeks is a small oasis in the Eastern Sierra – purchased in 1998 in trust with Steven Foster and Meredith Little as a water dream sanctuary. Legally owned today by Gigi Coyle – it is shared and cared for by her lifetime partner Win Phelps with Kate Bunney and other guides and community stewards from Beyond Boundaries, Walking-Water, the Biosphere Foundation, Bioneers and more. We have partnered with over 20 guest stewards in the course of a year and hundreds of visitors in the last two decades. Most who come have trained in the practices of council and rites of passage, most are connected to the organizations named above and find here a deep time for incorporation. They come to know and love this place and share in its care and becoming.

We feel we are guests at best, living on stolen lands, current caretakers of this watering hole in the Owens Valley, originally named by the Numu, Northern Paiute people, and increasingly recognized as Paya huunadu, “place where the water flows.” It is a place of extremes, deepest valley in the continental US, one hour’s drive from both Death Valley and Mt. Whitney, where nature is vast enough to hold and teach all of us. It’s a place where even our deepest secrets and shadows can be brought to grace in the brightness of the desert sun, and be blown through us into the wild, high-mountain pinyons and junipers.

We hold this to be a place to learn in truth what it is to care for and be responsible for place, what our relationship is to place versus property. As such, this oasis is an opportunity for individuals to live a ceremonial life, to be a part of the work both here and elsewhere, to join in and support Beyond Boundaries projects, to be part of the healing needed worldwide, to mark personal and planetary transition and change, to confirm what and all we care about, what is ours to do, where we are to be, and what is truly possible and essential. People call this oasis a paradise and as such we each know that to be so, we must co-create this together every day.

Some important events take place here for people connected through these service organizations and other networks making positive contributions in these times. And, we are quiet here, do not publicly advertise, and are not zoned to be a community or a center open to the public. We are permitted in mainstream culture for one nuclear family, and believe in one larger family, in sharing the water, the history, the beauty and the land. We are open to some short- and long-term relations, working with those committed to stretch the boundaries and definitions of private property and be part of changing the limited options of owner, landlord, tenant, etc.

COLLABORATIONS

INITIATIVES

IF YOU HAVE MET US OR HEARD OF THREE CREEKS, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING…

Come for a minimum of two weeks alone and together on five acres with the few others who share the stewardship of Three Creeks. You are bound to meet other global pilgrims in service and in community with all the seen and unseen creatures abiding here. Water is at the center of our care and learning, and as people we have much to learn about how to be part of nature.

You will find…

In exchange…

We ask for your help and participation on the land along with other basic care-taking tasks… hopefully, learning more about what it takes… to be responsible for people and place.

We offer “camping with benefits”: a 24’ yurt w/camp kitchen & wood burning stove, a 15’ dome w/view across the pond to the Sierras, and four large screened tents surrounding the pond and in the tiny forest, all with access to a shared bath, office, living room and kitchenette, and a council hut and meditation/yoga room. Internet is available (and there is no cell reception).

Nearby are hot springs, a beautiful dry wash with petroglyph walls (walking distance), water birds and desert animals as co-residents, a large pond for swimming, a vast snow-capped mountain range and dormant volcanoes in the back yard, the ancient Bristlecone Pine forest to visit, and the high sage desert wilderness for exploration, fasting and prayer. We are here with respect and in the listening always for restoring of relations with Paiute Shoshone peoples, with gratitude for those who came before and those who will come.

Write us at: gigicoyle[at]gmail.com for more information.