The Mountain Muse-2026
After having to cancel The Mountain Muse last year due to being evacuated for the Labor Mountain Fire, it was such a beautiful gift to be able to run this small retreat for Christian Creatives once more.
Nicole Deese was supposed to be our speaker last year. Despite the fire scare, she graciously agreed to come this year and lead six inspirational sessions to help writers develop their craft, a writing community, and skillfully weave their faith into their writing in ways that honor the Lord. Nicole was so honest and vulnerable about her writing journey as she shared, it was an incredible blessing to hear her speak.
This year, we added a track for artists. Celia “Ponderosa” Baker, our new camp host and wife of Seth “Ironwood” Baker our new facilities director is an art teacher, artist, and illustrator and led the artist campers on many adventures in plein air sketching and painting all over the camp. From pond to Inspiration Point to Weathertop at dawn, Celia had many activities and much inspiration to share!
They even practiced gesture drawing with Nessie Karu!
After our writing campers (and some artists, too!) listened to Nicole Deese speak, we would break for 2 to 4 hours of dedicated writing time using Nicole’s “speaks” to push us to learn and grow as writers!
Nicole told us about her own journey to publication during the first session.
In subsequent sessions, Nicole spoke about how to write well-rounded characters, revealed many of the ups and downs even award-winning authors face, highlighted the value of a writing community, answered a ton of our questions, and shared her wisdom about how to put our faith in our stories and articles in a powerful way!
However, just because we had four straight hours of silent writing time, didn’t mean that everyone stayed inside.
Those who wanted the long stretch of focused time to write, draw, or paint did so.
And those whose creativity needed a breath of fresh air and the surrounding beauty of meadow and forest put on their hiking boots and went exploring!
After a brisk walk, sitting by the wood stove with a snack was a great way to both warm up and get more words down on the page!
The artists in our group were able to take many different hikes as Celia aka Ponderosa took them to a variety of locations for plein air sketching and painting.
This included a dawn hike up to Weathertop where the meadow can be viewed from above.
It was an incredibly valuable time together.
Learning from experienced creatives Nicole and Celia.
Taking a risk and putting that new knowledge to work.
Taking time to soak up the natural beauty that God Himself painted all around us.
And buckling down to the busy task of getting words and paint onto the page!
In conclusion, let me leave you with a few of the things that Mountain Muse campers mentioned to me after our time on this quiet mountain meadow, creating beautiful things together.
“Camas was so beautiful this time of year and it was such a gift to get to rest with other creatives. The food was excellent and the speakers were very knowledgeable in their craft. I will definitely be coming back again for Mountain Muse!” —Kylie Durham
"It was a relaxing and productive weekend. I edited 12 chapters of Stormer of Moonstone Mountain. Wrote two blog posts and six pages of a new screenplay. Camas Meadows is a beautiful camp and I hope I can go back next year. Thanks, Rachel, for inviting me!" —Jill Williamson
“My writing has greatly benefitted from these retreats. The cozy mountain setting combined with amazing instruction from the likes of Editor Karen Ball, and authors Nicole Deese, Jill Williamson and Morgan Muse, have inundated me with excellent tips for great stories. The personal touch is something you can’t always get at a large conference. Each year of attendance, I come home with a full heart, helpful instruction, and motivation to keep going! Thank you, Camas Meadows Bible Camp! I can’t wait till next year!” —Beverly Basile
“Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” —Isaiah 64:8
