Esalen is open!

Starting Friday May 17 at 6:30 a.m., Highway 1 north of Esalen will reopen with the use of a 24/7 signalized traffic control, providing unrestricted public access with one-way alternating traffic in both the north and southbound directions. Please plan travel accordingly to accommodate a brief delay of up to 10-15 minutes at the traffic control site.

Highway 1 south of Esalen remains closed. Guests traveling from points south of us, please take the alternate route through Monterey.

Learn more.

Learn more.

Due to road closures along Highway 1 to our north and south, Esalen is closed through April 11.
Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the alternate route directions.

Esalen opens May 3, 2024

Visitors are now able to access Esalen as well as other businesses and trails in northern Big Sur via twice-daily convoys on Highway 1 operated by Caltrans.

Convoys run only at 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each day. These are the only opportunities to travel into and out of Big Sur, so visitors must plan accordingly.

Learn more.

Noël Vietor

Noël Vietor has been in an ongoing apprenticeship with the sacred gardens and wilds of California for the last two decades. Noël is a co-founder of the organization Wildtender, based in Big Sur, whose immersive wilderness programs cultivate kinship with the natural world, explore earth-based wisdom traditions, engender creativity, and nurture wholeness of self. Noël previously served as the Program Coordinator for the Esalen Institute Farm & Garden, organizing its land-based educational programs and practice of Relational Agriculture. Noël is an ongoing student of Gestalt in the tradition of Esalen co-founder Dick Price, and is invested in exploring and sharing the fertile and therapeutic intersection of Gestalt and wild nature. Noël finds joy and meaning through mindful hiking, drawing landscapes and plants, experimenting with wild-crafting arts, and raising her young daughter high on a ridge-top of Big Sur.

As co-founder of the organization Wildtender, Noël Vietor is dedicated to helping people relate meaningfully with the land, themselves, and each other. Noël finds joy and meaning through mindful hiking, nature drawing, wildcrafting, and raising her young daughter on a Big Sur ridge-top.

Noël Vietor

Noël Vietor has been in an ongoing apprenticeship with the sacred gardens and wilds of California for the last two decades. Noël is a co-founder of the organization Wildtender, based in Big Sur, whose immersive wilderness programs cultivate kinship with the natural world, explore earth-based wisdom traditions, engender creativity, and nurture wholeness of self. Noël previously served as the Program Coordinator for the Esalen Institute Farm & Garden, organizing its land-based educational programs and practice of Relational Agriculture. Noël is an ongoing student of Gestalt in the tradition of Esalen co-founder Dick Price, and is invested in exploring and sharing the fertile and therapeutic intersection of Gestalt and wild nature. Noël finds joy and meaning through mindful hiking, drawing landscapes and plants, experimenting with wild-crafting arts, and raising her young daughter high on a ridge-top of Big Sur.

As co-founder of the organization Wildtender, Noël Vietor is dedicated to helping people relate meaningfully with the land, themselves, and each other. Noël finds joy and meaning through mindful hiking, nature drawing, wildcrafting, and raising her young daughter on a Big Sur ridge-top.

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Past Workshops