By Gary M
Summer, 2006 - Lupin Lodge is a 110-acre private naturist club and resort where clothes are optional and having fun is infectious. The club is surrounded by pine-fragrant hills in the Santa Cruz Mountains that separate the beach community of Santa Cruz, California from the high tech corridor known as “Silicon Valley” near San Jose. Lupin is about an hour’s drive south of San Francisco and it has blended naturist enthusiasts from this mix of Bay Area countercultures through many generations.
Next only to the natural beauty that surrounds it, Lupin’s most appealing feature may be its microclimate. While the California coast endures its annual spring and early-summer ritual of daily low clouds and fog, Lupin is located high enough in the mountains to usually avoid what the locals call “The June Gloom,” and remains perhaps the sunniest spot in the Bay Area during those months.
Newcomers are often surprised to learn that the resort began life in 1936 as a winery, and that its buildings have been built and rebuilt by many a succession of owners through the years. None of the buildings used by the guests—the registration office/store, the upper pool complex, nor the main clubhouse/restaurant—look more than a few years old, and that’s because they aren’t. A spirit of rebuilding and renewal is one of Lupin’s ongoing cultural traditions. And it is that spirit that saved them from more than one hurdle in their history.
Glyn Stout, the present owner, purchased Lupin Lodge in 1979 and renamed it Lupin Naturist Club. The club thrived through the boom years of the 1980s and 90’s as the computer geeks in nearby Silicon Valley literally invented all the personal computers and cell phones and personal data toys that we take for granted today. Most of these engineers were in their 20s and 30s with new families, and many were attracted to nearby Lupin as an escape from their stress-filled work weeks.
When the high tech boom ended in 2000, the club’s membership began to decline. Several of the planned renovations to the water tank and swimming pool were postponed. By 2003, the local economy began to recover, and Glyn began to think about finding new ways of managing the club. In the course of a couple of years, Glyn, his wife Lori Kay, and other Lupin stalwarts invited others to assist with management. Sometimes it worked, others times it didn’t; but Glyn and Lori Kay had just had twin girls, and both wanted to spend more time at home.
Eventually Lori Kay Stout—who had always had a leading hand in steering Lupin along—decided to become the new Chief Operating Officer. Ardis Williams, a longtime Lupin member, stepped forward to became Chief Operations Officer. Professionally, Ardis had been a successful real estate agent for many years. “I just love people,” she said, and had written the club’s monthly newsletter for quite some time. Williams supervised a group of volunteers to run the registration office, and has “put together a working system” that will serve until she hires permanent staff.
Lori Kay is confident that the new staff is ready for the 2007 season, and adds—noting how Lupin continues to be particularly attractive to women—“We’re female run and female friendly!”
Since its beginning, Lupin has paid attention to multiple aspects of full, flourishing human life. Care about bodily health is seen in its massage workshops, healthy diet options in the café, and the development of excellent tennis and volleyball courts (for years, the latter was known throughout the west coast as the best nudist volleyball court around). Acknowledging that creativity and aesthetic appreciation are distinctly human features, Lupin has encouraged photographers, painters, sculptures, musicians, and performers to hone their skills in this clothing-optional environment, and to use their art—when possible—to express an open acceptance for the human body.
Lori Kay organizes regular art shows in the clubhouse, where the visual arts are displayed on the walls for all to appreciate. Guest and club-member musicians play everything from classical, to jazz, to blues—and draw visitors not usually inclined to naturist venues. With its sincere and insightful support of local artists, Lupin has made a regional name for itself as both an outstanding naturist and art-centered recreational facility.
Jon and Shiela Springs organize the Lupin Camera Club, hosting get-togethers on a regular basis to share ideas for photo projects at or away from Lupin. Not all of the photos taken by the photo club pertain directly to naturism, and the club members understand that there’ more to life than just being naked. Their contribution to Lupin’s atmosphere is manifest, however, in their work shown in the clubhouse and in their contributions to various club events—recording the activities for Lupin’s history and showing others what men and women can do when they look at life with unrestricted vision.
Lupin’s recognition of the humanity’s potential for more than pure recreation sets it apart from most other naturist parks in the country. Still, for those there for the day or week who are just looking for some naked relaxation, Lupin offers more than enough to stay occupied. The swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, tennis court, sand and hard volleyball courts and nature trails are all here, as well as a basketball court and two play areas for the kids.
The NudeDome is a social center of the park. It’s a yurt: a round canvas-sided structure some fifty feet in diameter with lattice-like inner siding that rises about eight feet in the air and then slopes up into a teepee-like point in the center. In years past, the Dome was used to show nearly new released movies each week, it was where the Lupin Camera Club met for those serious about learning the art of nude photography, and it was where the Lupin Massage School met every week. Lupin was rare among American nudist resorts in actively promoting massage as a part of naturism, and for years professional massage therapists held classes there for those who wished to earn a certificate as a masseuse. According to Ardis Williams, “All these workshops may be brought back. They are part of our history and our heritage.”
Naturists for decades have known Lupin’s restaurant to serve some of the best food available regionally to naked people. For years, the club has been fortunate to attract chefs interested in providing healthy gourmet meals to guests who appreciate the difference some extra care and time in preparation can provide. Lupin’s chef Brandy Franks this past summer has offered such menu items as wild mushroom-stuffed pork roast, mashed maple-glazed sweet potatoes, and butternut squash sauté. A local newspaper cooking review recently spotlighted her cooking prowess.
The TV & game room adjacent to the restaurant remains the club’s social center after dark. The club has rebuilt its library of movie videos, paperback book, and jigsaw puzzles and has created there a “hot zone” so people with wireless laptop computers can get in a little office work or check their email if they must (after all, a naked computer geek, is still a computer geek.)
Some things about Lupin have not changed, however. As long as any of the staff can remember, visitors who sat quietly outside the Clubhouse past sunset have seen local deer venture onto the main lawn to munch on the grass, usually in groups of twos and threes. The area also harbors a family of raccoons, plus a few other mostly-harmless four-legged creatures.
Overnight guests may rent a furnished yurt with queen-sized bed, camp in their own tent, or rent an RV hookup. Clothing-optional beaches within an hour’s drive to the north include Bonny Doon. Officially sanctioned as "clothing-optional," Gray Whale Cove and Baker Beach are just a half hour further north. For more information on Lupin Lodge, see or email them at relax@lupinlodge.org.
