Hosting Retreats, Events, Trainings, and Your Personal Adventures into Appalachia
We are excited to have you at Roots to Sky Sanctuary. We actively host yoga retreats, non-profit board or staff retreats, youth groups, training programs, and if you’re just with your family or with a few friends we have Airbnb and VRBO options for you to choose from. While at the Sanctuary you will have access to a stunning 125 acres of natural beauty and walking trails.
We’re also here for larger festivals, weddings, and other celebratory events. Reach out and inquire if you’re looking for a venue or retreat space to manifest your dream gathering!
Each space below will allow you to disconnect from the world and enter into a true wilderness paradise. Perfectly situated in the Allegheny Mountains of Western Maryland if you choose to venture outside the Sanctuary, we are just a short drive from Deep Creek Lake Resort, Canaan Valley, Timberline Mountain Ski Resort, Blackwater Falls State Park, and the Dolly Sods.
We are located just north of two of the largest and most remote wilderness areas in the Mid Atlantic - the Monongahela National Forest and George Washington National Forest. We are a 15 minute drive to the thriving artist and outdoor activity communities in the cultural pockets of Thomas and Davis, WV, one of the areas best kept secrets - where you can enjoy restaurants, live music, art galleries, ski resorts,cafés, breweries, bars, and antique shops. Our wifi connection is strong for all the main cell phone carriers!
Venue Rental Brochure
Download our Venue Rental Brochure and Tri-Fold to get a more detailed feel of the spaces available:
Venue Rental Brochure
Venue Spaces
The Heart House
Book Directly on Airbnb!
This fully-furnished private house sleeps 22+ people in 16 beds. This fully-furnished private house beckons guests to relax and explore the hidden gems of West Virginia and Maryland.
Accommodating 22 people, with the potential for more, this spacious house ensures ample room for families or groups. With a full kitchen plus kitchenette. 3 bathrooms, plus 3 outdoor showers. 4 separate living spaces for lounging options.
Sleeping arrangements are as follows:
Sleeps: 22+
4 bedrooms
3 bathrooms
Outdoor showers
Beds: 1 King, 2 Queen, 5 full, 8 twin
Featuring a foosball table and many board games.
Nature enthusiasts will delight in the property’s access to a pond within view of your bedrooms and expansive acres of woods to hike, cross country ski or snowshoe, inviting guests to immerse themselves in the beauty of the surrounding landscape. We have intentionally left out TVs, allowing guests to disconnect from screens and fully immerse themselves in the tranquility of the mountains. The house is privately yours. There are other rental units on the Sanctuary.
The Mountain Cabin
Book Directly on Airbnb!
This bright, fully-furnished cabin accommodates 5 guests with its 2 bedrooms. The master bedroom has a queen size bed and the other bedroom has a twin/full bunk bed, and a second twin pullout trundle bed underneath.
It has one bathroom, kitchen, and an open living room and dining area. The cabin is situated in a picturesque forest clearing surrounding a pond. A larger cabin house and a couple other buildings are nestled around the pond in the clearing. Our wifi connection is strong for all the main cell phone carriers!
The Shell House
Step inside the Shell House, where open floors and open hearts meet beneath a canopy of sky and trees. This is where artists, healers, and changemakers gather to rest, create, and imagine new possibilities.
From yoga to board meetings, the Shell House adapts to your vision and is a versatile space for retreats, creativity, rituals, and celebrations.
The Shell House is a spacious 2,800-square-foot retreat hub, thoughtfully renovated to serve as a versatile studio, kitchen, and dining area for large groups and retreats. We've opened the entire upstairs, transforming it into a stunning 1,200-square-foot Hickory wood-floored gathering space. This light-filled room is ideal for yoga and meditation classes, dance parties, board meetings, ceremonies, poetry readings, art workshops, and more.
On the first floor, you’ll find two brand-new, beautifully designed full bathrooms, a partially finished kitchen, and a generous front deck overlooking the lush, grassy expanse between the Heart House and the Mountain Cabin. The Shell House also offers overflow indoor sleeping space and convenient amenities for campers.
Whether you need an inspiring classroom, a dynamic meeting space, or a movement sanctuary, the shell house can be rented on its own to accommodate your indoor group gatherings with ease.
The Wander Wagon
Book Directly on Airbnb!
Surrounded by fantastic ferns, and starry skies, The Wander Wagon will transport you to serenity in comfort. Sleep in peace on 12inch memory foam mattress, after a day of hiking the 125 acres of Roots to Sky Sanctuary.
Roast Marshmallows on the fire pit to the symphony of crickets and hoot Owls, after a day of exploring the art galleries of Thomas or the waterfalls of Blackwater Falls State Park or Swallow Falls State Park.
Camp Beneath the Sky
Immerse yourself in the beauty and stillness of nature across our expansive, open-air camping grounds. With 125 acres of lush meadows, shaded forest nooks, and peaceful clearings, Roots to Sky Sanctuary offers endless options for tent camping and outdoor gatherings.
Whether you’re pitching a solo tent under the stars or organizing a group retreat, our land provides space to breathe, roam, and reconnect.
Campers have access to nearby amenities, including full bathrooms at the Shell House, and are just steps away from the sanctuary’s central spaces. Wake to birdsong, gather around a shared campfire, and enjoy the restorative power of sleeping on sacred ground. This is camping with purpose—where community, simplicity, and nature come together.
Follow Us on Insta
Over at the Sanctuary the leaves 🍁 have been turning and falling to the ground. Here is a view of the Heart House from the front of the pond. The Heart House can sleep up to twenty-two people in beds. This is the space where we host many guests and groups for our dynamic fellowship programming. If you are looking for a venue to host an upcoming event, retreat, or training we can send you more information. Hit us with a DM!
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On indigenous people’s day we remembers Falling in love and being again in right relationship with the air, water, fire, earth, and ether. In eternal gratitude to the land beneath our feet.
The Earth we steward at Roots to Sky is at the mouth of Patawomeck and the Seneca Rocks is the traditional unceded land of the Shawandasse Tula people. The name means Southwind Earth in the Algonquin language.
Our circle gets tighter as we make new relatives and weave in our old ones here at Roots to Sky Sanctuary. Listening to Mother Earth as she whispers.
#indigenousland #fourdirections #medicinewheel #heartspace #landjustice #landback #peacemaking #listening #connections
#Reflecting back on some of the wonderful course collaborations with @jhaferd from Spring 2022. Thanks to the students at City College @spitzerschool_ccny, the incredible team @rootstoskysanctuary, for the ongoing work of “Restorying the Potomac”, which began a year ago with the Sp ‘22 studio.
During the three day site visit, undergraduate design students worked to bring undervalued stories of this land to life.
Stay tuned for more photos, and updates from the output of the RTP Fellows!
#Repost @jhaferd
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RESTORYING THE POTOMAC, PART 1
Faculty : JEROME HAFERD @jhaferd
Restoring the Potomac is a land-based research, restorying, exhibition and ‘re-monumenting’ project being undertaken in collaboration with the Roots to Sky Collective in the Appalachian Mountains. The project seeks to generate new forms of living archive, activism and interpretive practice connecting and transecting the modern day and pre-colonial Potomac River watershed. The first in a multi-year endeavor, Spring ‘22 advanced studio engaged the Land as a protagonist for design : to produce spatial scholarship and propose architectural interventions of memorialization, cultivation, and stewardship beginning at two critical sites : The Fairfax Stone and the Roots to Sky Sanctuary. This work challenges prevailing modes of architecture, and inspire us to think at the scale of the stone, monument, regional, and planetary.
Jerome Haferd is a licensed architect and educator based in Harlem, NY. He is co-founder of the award-winning design and research practice BRANDT : HAFERD. His writing on archaeology, Blackness, and speculation has recently been published in Log and Project journals. Jerome is assistant professor at CCNY, and conducts course collaborations with Yale, Columbia and elsewhere. He is also a core initiator of Dark Matter U. Jerome received his M. Arch at Yale and his B.S. from Ohio State. He has worked in the offices of OMA/Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi Architects. BRANDT : HAFERD are 2020 AIA New Practices New York recipients. Haferd was winner of the 2020 Studio Prize (CCNY).
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#Architecture #AdvancedStudio #CCNY #appalachia
#fairfaxstonemonument #potomacriver
In July 2023, Antonio Carassco one of our esteemed Humanities in Place Fellows led a ceremonious weekend for our community. We had nearly 70 people come to sit around the fire, share stories, make music, and heal with the land. These few shots were part of our opening circle ⭕️ in front of the Sanctuary pond.
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#humanities #landstewards #RootsToSky #buildingsanctuary #mellonfoundationfellows #humanitiesinplace #community #growtogether #appalachia #westvirginia #mountainscape #circleup #tendingthefire @xocoyotlantonio
We are ending out an incredible summer of Roots to Sky programming! We couldn’t be more thrilled by the events and retreats, rooted in healing, humanities, regenerative farming, and the arts that we were able to host at the land 🥁
As we prepare for the fall we will be sharing some flashbacks and special moments from 2023. This photo was taken during the opening ceremony and drum invocation for Beauty in the Backyard a creative arts healing retreat that brought over 350 people to the Sanctuary.
We have incredible fellowship programming still coming up in the last few months of the year. Check the link in our bio to learn more about the upcoming events!
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📸 @zoophoriaphotography
Hello! Welcome to the instagram account for the Roots To Sky Sanctuary Family!
We are excited to share our mission and work with you all via this platform.
More soon…!
-RTSS
© 2026 Roots to Sky Sanctuary
Nestled between Thomas, West Virginia
and Oakland, Maryland
Nestled between Thomas, West Virginia
and Oakland, Maryland
