Poetry Retreat with Joy Sullivan
reserve your spotPaintrock Canyon Ranch
May 25 - 30, 2025
Join us for a five-night generative workshop, writing and riding alongside Joy at the Paintrock Canyon Ranch in Wyoming.
The Program
Every day will begin with a half-day horseback ride, taking in the vast and varying landscapes of the ranch and surrounding area. On these expansive rides, we’ll have room to spread out, riding beneath towering canyon walls next to the rushing creek and through meadows atop rolling hills. We’ll explore the picturesque Red Hills, breaking for a picnic lunch, writing, and discussion.
The afternoons will be dedicated to generative workshops, formative mentorship and writing time. Inspired by the lush landscape, craft workshops will focus on creating evocative imagery, writing the weird, risky, and wild, and learning to season a sentence with both flavor and texture.
Every evening, we’ll gather again under a star-studded sky and enjoy dinner designed with local ingredients, then circle around the fire pit to chat creativity and slow, chewy art.
All riding and writing levels welcome. This workshop is specifically intended for those desiring to reconnect to the sacredness of horses, wild spaces, and of the self.
About Joy Sullivan
Joy Sullivan is the author of Instructions for Traveling West and the founder of Sustenance, an online writing community that helps writers hone their craft and find connection. For years, she served as the poet-in-residence for the Wexner Center for the Arts and has guest-lectured in classrooms from Stanford to Florida International University.
Accommodations
The accommodations at the Paintrock Canyon Ranch are designed to put you as close to nature as possible, but with all the comforts of home. Large, private safari style tents are stylishly furnished with full-sized beds, bedside tables, dressers and chairs. These sturdy, elegant tents are located next to the Paintrock Creek at the entrance to the spectacular Paintrock Canyon.
Meals
All meals will be creatively prepared by a private chef, featuring Ranchlands beef and local produce and dairy whenever possible. Meals at the ranch will be seated, but casual and friendly and accompanied by wine and beer. We are happy to accommodate all dietary preferences with advance notice.
Location
The ranch, located near Hyattville, is 1 1/2 hours from Cody, Wyoming, and 3 hours from Billings, Montana. Both cities have airports with multiple daily flights from major airports. Roundtrip shuttles from the Cody airport to the ranch can be booked via Explore Cody Transportation.
Rates
$4,270 per person includes all activities, instruction, amenities, and meals. Tax and optional gratuity not included. All tents are private.
Please reach out to us with any questions at: stay@ranchlands.com or 719-641-2089.
Paintrock Canyon Ranch
The Paintrock Canyon Ranch sprawls across northern Wyoming and is made up of rolling meadows and streams carving through high alpine valleys. The ranch’s landscape is characterized by the Paintrock Canyon, which starts at the ranch headquarters and meanders for 8 miles, opening into the Paintrock Basin at foot of Cloud Peak, the highest peak in the Bighorn range. The Canyon itself is shaped by steep limestone slopes that climb thousands of feet high above the trail. Red sandstone cliffs, whose color transforms from deep orange to burgundy red with the changing light, rise above the meadows surrounding the ranch’s headquarters. The ranch is located 1.5 hours from Cody, WY, and 3 hours from Billings, MT where the largest commercial airports are. Shuttles through a third party are bookable to the ranch from Cody. Car rentals are also available from both airports.
learn more about the ranchMORE UPCOMING EVENTS
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