Stone City Treehouse

In midwinter, from the treehouse deck at Stone City, you can listen for the stream running under the ice. A short walk away, a wood-fired sauna sits beside that same water. The stream is where this micro-retreat in the woods of Hardwick, Vermont, began.

Heather Davis, a single mother and nonprofit professional, has lived on the land for 24 years and raised her two children there. She writes that the stream sparked the vision of a place where others could reconnect with the natural world. She built the retreat from the ground up, with much of the work her own and help from friends and neighbors. The structures use reused and local materials, the property runs on solar power, and waste is composted. LUXlife Magazine's Hospitality Awards 2025 named it Best Treehouse & Glamping Retreat for Vermont and gave it a Sustainability Excellence Award.

Guests stay in the treehouse, which is open year-round for up to two people and reached by a ladder to the sleeping loft, or in the Pebble Tent, a canvas bell tent open May through October. Kayaks, bikes and snowshoes are provided. There is no cell service on the property. The pages also describe an upcoming six-sided, handmade timber-framed cabin.

The Forest Spa is the center of the place: a wood-fired sauna, cold plunges in the stream, a trough or a snowbank depending on the season, and a Woodland Lounge with a fire bowl for tea between rounds. Robes, slippers and woodland essential oils are provided. The Twelve Fires Sauna Circle is a limited annual membership that gives one private streamside sauna session a month for a year. Add-ons include massage, a private photoshoot and yoga.