I stayed in the Forest Haus, in one of the rooms with a Queen sized bed. I believe this is a newer addition to the Urban Cowboy Lodge, and introduces more affordable and dog-friendly rooms.
The broad strokes: Overall, this place has a lot of strenghts! My "average" rating is influenced by some of the finer details related to staying at the Forest Haus, but the property as a whole had some real positives, like:
1) The staff! They were all so lovely, warm, and welcoming.
2) The room furnishings! All of the choices, from the bed, bedding, chairs, light fixtures, were super thoughtful and very much in the "urban cowboy" spirit. The bed was so, so comfy, and there was a super cozy robe that they provided as well.
3) The on site restaurant: DELICIOUS! We ate breakfast there one morning, dinner one night at the main lodge, and had a pizza at the onsite pizza place one night. All of the food was outstanding!
4) There were a bunch of different seating areas around the main lodge area. A picnic table by a sweet little creek, chairs overlooking the mountain views, a fire pit area. Even though there were many guests on the grounds, it was set up in such a way that it still felt peaceful and private.
While the broad strokes are positive, some of the finer details were not as "on point," including:
1) Throughout the property, there were little stone steps leading to the various sitting areas. We encountered many loose stones, some of which didn't seem glued down at all. We fortunately did not take any tumbles but were surprised by how common it was for us to step onto a wobbly, stone step.
2) The Forest Haus is about a 5 min walk to the main lodge area. There were no sidewalks or pathways for us to walk on - we were walking along the side of the road to get up to the main lodge. The first bit of the walk is along a 40 mph road (it shouldn't be 40 mph - I hope this is changed, I know it's out of the control of the lodge). It felt fine for 2 ablebodied adults. However if I had elderly or young family members with me, I wouldn't have loved this.
3) There is no coffee machine in the room. There may have been a better solution, but I ended up buying a $12 thermos of coffee from the lodge on my first night there. I ended up drinking it each morning for the rest of my trip. I just need caffeine first thing to get going and don't care too much about the temperature, however I would have preferred a different solution, if not an in-room coffee maker.
4) This is for the Forest Haus only - certain details seemed like oversights vs. intentionally rustic. For example, the bathroom in my room was definitely clean, but old and the shower head was spraying water in a way that looked... unintentional? Old? Broken? The carpeting when you walk into the house looks for real from the 1970s? Like not retro carpeting that was installed recently but made to look old. This place isn't cheap. I was surprised.
5) I know this is currently being remediated but for a place that is in the wilderness, some common sense safety preparations were not in place. For example, there are currently bears (a mama and 4 cubs) who live in the nearby woods. They were a common sight. It's not unusual to see bears in the woods in upstate NY in the summer, and we know bears are drawn to garbage. So why is the dumpster set up right outside of the Forest Haus, without a locking mechanism? We literally watched the mama bear open the dumpster, pull out a garbage bag, and start to rummage through it. 24 hours later, the dumpster was still open and garbage left by the bear was still on the ground. I know there are plans to fix that, but I was just struck by the lack of foresight around something so predictable, and potentially dangerous to customers.
All of this said, I did enjoy my stay. If I'm in the area, I will go back to the lodge and the pizza shop for meals. However, I would stay elsewhere. It's just weighing the cost/benefits and for me, they didn't match up enough. read more