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About the retreat

Why this place exists

The Wellness Retreat is a small, hand-built camp on a piece of land in Aniwa, Wisconsin. This page is the part people write in and ask for: what is actually on the land, what a night here is honestly like, and how booking works when a person reads every request.

Book your stay What it's like
The short answer

A rustic camp, run by the people who built it.

We're in the northwoods of north-central Wisconsin, about 20 minutes east of Wausau. On the land there are two hand-built A-frame cabins, a canvas bell tent in the meadow, six tent sites in the woods, a wood-fired sauna, two small ponds with a canoe and kayaks, a butterfly house, walking trails, and meadows we let go to wildflowers on purpose.

It is not a hotel and it isn't trying to be. There's no front desk and no keycard, and nobody here you won't meet. When you send a booking request, a person reads it and writes back.

See where you'll stay
The monarch on the gable of the main cabin, over the prairie garden
Aniwa, WI20 minutes from Wausau

If you came here for the basics

Still want a person? Call (920) 460-3614 or email reservations@wellnessretreataniwa.com.

A butterfly, a crane, a turtle

Why the stays are named for animals

Each one carries the name of a Wisconsin native that is endangered or threatened here. It's also practical: two hand-built A-frames in the same woods look enough alike that a guest couldn't otherwise say which one they wanted.

The Karner BlueFor the Karner blue butterfly, a Wisconsin endangered species, and one you may well meet in the meadow here.
The Whooping CraneFor the whooping crane, among the rarest birds in North America and part of Wisconsin's reintroduced flock.
The Wood Turtle YurtFor the wood turtle, a threatened Wisconsin native of clean streams and river banks.
Who else is here

This land is the base camp of the Save A Monarch Association

The retreat is not only a place to stay. It is the home base of a monarch conservation group that works these ditches and meadows every summer, and the wildflowers you will be walking through are planted for that reason first.

June to September

The season

  • Wisconsin's main monarch migration months, and when the work here happens
  • Milkweed patches are flagged before the first mow so they are left standing
  • A working relationship with the county highway department keeps the roadside milkweed near camp
On the land

Two enclosures

  • Leaves carrying an egg are cut and brought back to camp
  • Both enclosures are planted with milkweed and Wisconsin native wildflowers
  • They are raised and released after the chrysalis stage, safe from predators through the most delicate part of their life
If you want to help

Save A Monarch gives volunteers free camping

  • Their volunteer days (ditch flagging, the monarch rescue, the milkweed clean-up) come with free camping for volunteers, offered by Save A Monarch
  • Sites are limited and reservations are required, so arrange it through Save A Monarch rather than through our booking form
  • Instruction, safety vests and collecting supplies are provided; no experience needed
  • You will learn to handle, raise and release monarchs
Chris Bellis in a hi-vis vest and straw hat, checking a roadside milkweed plant
Chris, checking a roadside patch before the mowers come through
A tagged monarch resting on a fingertip, a small round tag on its hindwing
A tagged monarch on a fingertip, ready to go
A monarch with its wings open on black-eyed susans, a second monarch behind it
Wings open on the black-eyed susans, a second one behind
A monarch with open wings feeding on a stand of purple asters
Working the purple asters late in the season
The same ground, before and after

How it came to be

Some of these frames have the buildings standing on bare graded dirt with nothing planted yet. In others the same green roofs are barely findable behind the wildflowers. It was built first, planted heavily with natives after, and then left to fill in.

A finished cabin with a green metal roof standing on bare graded dirt, nothing planted around it
A finished cabin on bare grade, before anything was planted
A pond with freshly cut earth banks and a length of pipe lying on the grass
A pond with the banks still raw, and a pipe not yet buried
The main cabin and the round corn crib across a rough field, with a mound of fresh soil between them
The main cabin and the corn crib across a rough field
A pond holding the reflection of birch trees, its banks grown in
A pond holding the trees, banks grown over
Tall grasses and pink wildflowers in front of a cabin, which is mostly hidden behind them
The same buildings, mostly hidden now
Purple asters in bloom in front of the main cabin and a shade umbrella
Asters right up against the main cabin

The monarch population has fallen by more than 90% in recent years, the lowest it has been since the 1950s. Save A Monarch's answer to that is unglamorous and local: walk the ditches, find the eggs before the mower does, raise them through the stage where almost nothing survives, and let them go.

The other half of it is teaching. Most of what helps is a garden with the right native wildflowers in the right spot, and it does not have to be a big one. A small garden with the right flowers makes a real difference, which is the whole reason the meadows here are left to grow.

Chris Bellis, who owns the retreat, founded Save A Monarch after a talk on the life of a butterfly at Hartman Creek State Park in Waupaca. He has raised and released over a thousand monarchs since. If you are staying in June through September, the work is going on around you, and volunteers are what the group runs on.

Visit Save A Monarch Volunteer days & events

Save A Monarch is its own organization and is reached separately: text (920) 707-8027. Donations go through their site, not ours.

The heart of it

The corn crib

The round building with the green roof is the corn crib. It's the one place on the property that belongs to everybody at once: a fire, a deck of cards, the lights on after dark. It comes with every stay. Nobody sleeps in it; it's somewhere to end up rather than somewhere to turn in.

See the corn crib
Inside the corn crib: a fire, rugs and chairs pulled up
Comes with any stayShared space, not a place to sleep
Before you book

What it's honestly like

We'd rather you know this now than find it out at nine at night with a phone at 4%. It's rustic on purpose, and it isn't for everyone.

Power is in three placesThe shared kitchen, the corn crib, and the yurt. No A-frame cabin and no tent site has electricity.
No running water indoorsDrinking water is an electric five-gallon dispenser in the shared kitchen, hot and cold on demand, refilled for guests. Washing up is at an outdoor sink on a hose.
A clean outhousePlus a solar shower and an outdoor bathtub. All shared, all outdoors. There is no indoor toilet.
Fire, and free firewoodFirepits, an outdoor grill, and a wood-fired sauna. Burn restrictions are set by the county, not by us.
Uneven, unlit groundThe trails and paths are rough underfoot and dark after the string lights end. Bring a headlamp.
Two ponds, no lifeguardChildren need watching near the water and near the fire. That one's on you, and we say so in the terms.

What the shared kitchen has

It's downstairs in the main cabin, everyone staying uses it, and it means that if you bring your own food you have almost everything else.

  • A fridge and a freezer
  • A hot plate and a toaster oven, but no oven and no stove
  • Pots, pans and utensils
  • Cabinets to keep your food in
  • Hot and cold drinking water
  • The only indoor power on the property

If you need to charge a phone, run a CPAP or a breast pump, that's where you do it, not at your cabin or your site. Read the full terms →

How we work

A person reads every request

No money moves until a person says yes. A person reads every request, and a person makes every charge.

A request, not a reservationThe code you get on screen confirms we received you. Your stay is confirmed when we write back.
Your card is only heldStripe places a hold. We never see your card number, and you're charged at the moment we confirm, not before.
Cancel free at 48 hoursFull refund up to 48 hours before check-in. Inside that, call us anyway.
Whole-retreat is quoted by handNo fixed price for the campground. We send you a number; you accept or decline it, and only then is there a card at all.

We don't publish a live availability calendar. Ask us and we'll tell you straight. Send a request →

The land

Around the grounds

The main cabin, the shared kitchen, the corn crib, the sauna, and the meadows we let grow.

Come see it

You're welcome on the land.

Questions first is fine. Call (920) 460-3614, email reservations@wellnessretreataniwa.com, or send a request and we'll write back.

Book your stay