ARF Community Women’s Land
New Mexico
A place to hike, camp, and gather for local women, traveling women, and out-of-town visitors.
Ceremonial Grounds: for rituals, community celebrations, a place where visions materialize.
A Space for Women
Located in a beautiful isolated high desert valley, ARF is a refuge of 25 acres of meadows, a seasonal stream, and steep slopes, wooded with oak, willow, cottonwood, juniper, piñon, and ponderosa. At 7500’ high, ARF has a 4-season climate with hot summers and snowy cold winters. There is a short steep driveway into the land that is navigable only by 4-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles. Otherwise we park at the top of the hill and walk.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
ARF is located on the ancestral homelands of the Tesuque Pueblo, one of the six Tiwa Pueblos. We recognize that this land is one piece of a larger, boundless terrain for multiple Indigenous peoples. As guests, we extend gratitude and recognition to the original residents for the constant stewardship of the land we reside on, and to the many Indigenous peoples who still call these lands home.
OUR ORIGIN STORY:
In the late 1960s and 1970s the "back to the land" movement led many to escape urban life and return to a simpler life on the land, establishing land-based communes throughout the US.
Feminist lesbians too wanted this, but also wanted freedom from sexist patriarchal society. We were able to establish women's lands in many places where we could live together and establish community.
Since 1977 ARF has been a sanctuary for hundreds of lesbians, women, and children from all over the world.
VISITING US:
If you would like to visit ARF, please contact a community resident via ArfWomensLand@gmail.com. And see our “About” and “Stay” pages for detailed information.
Our goal is to preserve and steward the land and collaborate in developing projects and events that reflect our shared values of community for women and love of the earth. We aim to be responsible caretakers of the land, treating her not as a commodity but as a full partner in our lives.
ARF, a non-profit organization is stewarded collectively by lesbians for the benefit of lesbians, women, and children, and will be preserved in perpetuity. Land Trusts are a way of pooling resources, eliminating owner-tenant power relationships, and sustaining access and affordability for future generations of women.