Pros: The horseback rides were pretty fun, they take beautiful care of all the animals, the place…read morewas fairly pretty (at best), daily activities are organized for you, you can feed animals and roam the farm freely, has "our farm is your farm" kind of feel to it.
Cons: WAY overpriced for what you get. For the price, you would think they would roll out the red carpet for you so to speak, as has been the case at other all-inclusive places we have been to.
When we arrived, there was a very stale, boring feel to the place, not a good first impression. We arrived a little before lunch so we checked into our room and headed down to the lodge. We weren't really greeted much except by the girl who checked us in. Then up to the rooms and they were very plain and old. We entered our room from the outside, in back, and up two flights of stairs. Our bathroom was locked and unlockable so we had to actually go to the front desk since there's no phone to contact them in the room. So we got an alum wrench from the front desk to unlock it and it didn't work so we had to go back down to get someone who eventually came up to unlock it for us.
We were anticipating a nice lunch when we headed down to the dining room. However it ended up that THE FOOD WAS DISGUSTING! While we assumed there might be brisket, pulled pork, steaks, beans, and typical and FRESH cowboy food, this food was anything but all that. There were no choices. You either got a hot, a hamburger, and a couple different sides. The food tasted like food that has been sitting in a freezer for a few months and was taken out and heated up a little. The hamburger had a texture similar to that of a beef jerky. It had the smell of hospital food. So, not off to a great start! Worse, looking forward to the next 3 days of this kind of food was definitely a nightmare.
In the center of the lodge was a table full of Books of Mormon and we aren't Mormon so it felt a little uncomfortable.
We were way up in the mountains and not much around, but we did give in and drive 30 minutes up the road to a mom and pop restaurant one morning to grab a nice fresh breakfast to start the day off right. I was having a hard time not gagging when eating the food at the ranch so plugging my nose while trying to just get full was not a real joy. Our assigned table in the dining area was on the outside edges and a full family who was there for a family reunion took up the whole inside of the dining room. For drinks, we chose between watered down apple juice, orange punch, or water, no soda, no alcohol, that was it. We got through it I guess.
Our first activity was horse riding in the arena, followed by a trail ride. All the workers were in their teens and didn't seem particularly excited to work there. The enthusiasm just wasn't there.
So after the arena and trail ride our schedule allowed for a couple hours rest before dinner...and saying I was looking forward to that is like saying elephants can fly.
There wasn't much to do so we just went and rested in our dusty, old, dilapidated room. Then, we went to dinner, no good again.
Following dinner we had heard there might be some live music playing so we went out back to watch and that was lame. Little kids played on the swing set, about 4 people got up and sang a little, while my teenagers sat there with us in the hard metal chairs pretty bored. The only thing that was decent was the shaved ice you could buy at the little stand they opened up at the last minute. However, the shaved ice was FOR PURCHASE when with the amount of money we paid to be there, we shouldn't have had to pay.
We even paid once for some ice cream from the gift shop which was always closed unless you bugged someone to open it up for you. We saw that they actually had soda too but for purchase as well in the gift shop.
The second and third day was a packed schedule with some fun in the arena again, a trail ride, some hiking, archery and many of the activities they offered. They were okay, but they scheduled long trail rides and arena time back to back, which was HOT at this time of year. We were in the direct sun for hours each day.
The thing I looked forward to so much was some river rafting but not sure why but it wasn't even included when we went. I overheard someone saying they weren't doing it at the time, but I'm not sure why.
The other thing is that if you want to swim, don't plan to do it here. The pond is muddy and mushy on the bottom, not a swim spot at all.
If you want to play pool or any games you have to check out incomplete sets of equipment at the front desk and go play in an old, dusty, hot room in the back.
My favorite activities were the archery, arena, trail rides, and the volleyball we played one night. However, our activities often started late and most of the employees were very unenthusiastic. I even got an "in our territory" kind of feeling from them often.
WE WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE.
