Stone Mountain Lodge — Hotel in Berthoud

SM was a beautiful setting to have our wedding this past July. Yes, it’s a little out of the way and yes, if you look at reviews from a year ago, some of their facilities used to be damaged by the devastating Lyons flood BUT none of that was present or an issue for us. I’m pretty sure all the damage has been repaired by now and the grounds are a picturesque setting for a ceremony and reception.

Because they don’t have a lot of people staying there outside of weddings, their office hours for phone calling is a bit more limited. I preferred to deal with email but we never had a problem getting them on the phone if we needed to (because we looked up and wrote down their hours). The cabins are cute! If you’re the sort of person who wants 5 star hotel amenities (like room service), maybe you should look elsewhere but if you like log cabins, they’re really nice. The bathtub in one of the cabins had some issues with not immediately draining, which presented me with an interesting situation while I was dying my hair black (didn’t want to stain my toes or feet) but overall it was a minor thing. I wasn’t in the lodge rooms myself but some of my friends were and when I poked my head it, it seems cozy. Again, not 5 stars but the convenience of having rooms on location so no one has to drive after drinking is far more important to me than room service or an on-site gym (there is a pool however).

Convenient again was the ability to rent linens directly from them. We didn’t have to set them up or take them down and they looked great! If you wanted, you could rent an Oskar Blues bus, again making sure all your guests are safe and happy. We had the venue for the entire day (big plus) from 11am to technically 11pm (but essentially they let us party until midnight). We could rent sound systems, lighting systems, extra tents, and more. It was a one-stop shop and that was awesome.

The only things I’d say that anyone really needs to be aware of is that cell phones don’t work up there. No service for anyone. You have to go back to the days of preplanning and make sure that people know how to get there (it’s very simple) because they can’t call on the way. There is wireless internet but it’s a tad slow. Because they give out the venue to couples for an entire day, you can’t book your rehearsal date until less than a month from your wedding. When you want to get all your ducks in a row, that’s a little unsettling to have to wait so close to the date but you don’t have to worry about someone else running a rehearsal the morning or afternoon of your own booking.

Thanks to Erika (our coordinator) for her professional and prompt attention before, during, and after the event.

There’s a ton of ways to make this place a budget friendly venue or an everything-you-ever-wanted-that-money-can-buy venue. We found it to be a great value for our money. ...

It was so bad we left and drove another hour to a different hotel, arriving there at 10 pm with a six year old. It was that bad. What was wrong? I'll try and list it all but I'm going to miss some things! The chair in the living room couldn't be sat in, the lower cabinets were wonky, the floor was a peeling scratched-up mess, the stove had the left part of the handle TIED ON WITH STRING, it had an "odor", we didn't even check the fold-out mattress because having looked at the couch we didn't want to see what was going to be in it. The bathtub had jets but none of us were inclined to use it considering how rotten and mildewy the caulking was, and the bottom of the window had a very visibly rotten corner. We're talking "so rotten it collapsed inwards and is black" rotten and moldy. It was still in the high 80s when we arrived, and the AC was broken and the inside of the cabin was a sauna. We had planned to cook on the stove, but a: didn't trust it not to explode and b: didn't want to make the place into even more of an oven. The fridge was up against the wall with the table in front of it...and the door opened facing the wall. Getting anything in or out of it was going to be tricky. Even the stairs to the loft were very steep and the railing? The holes in it were so narrow you can't actually grab it like a rail, your hand won't fit. My six-year-old was terrified of coming back down it; the stairs are extremely steep. Not a problem if it has a good grabbable hand rail, and it didn't. The cabin was unusable. Very. Time to contact the office and try a different cabin, or leave. We'd looked at the other half of the cabin and our cabin was not a fluke, but we were a long ways from anywhere and it had been a very long day and were hoping that ONE of the cabins was safe and usable. The office was empty, so I called to leave a message, and it repeated the "leave a message" spiel twice and hung up the first time. Second time, it repeated it one-and-a-half times and hung up. No message could be left. I called the other number, no answer and "mailbox is full". I resorted to email. That was Thursday night, it's Sunday afternoon and we still haven't heard back from them. At least the health impact from the mold wore off on my husband. He was congested and headachy from it for quite awhile afterwards. Pluses? The outside is pretty and a running fan was put in the loft window. I don't even want to think about how it would have smelled without that fan. Oh, and there was toilet paper in the bathroom and the upper kitchen cabinets looked nice. TV was a flatscreen, and while I could not be paid to sit on any of the living room furniture the kitchen chairs were solid wood and...

the rooms definitely need to be updated. From uncomfortable beds to the oven door not closing... to the stained carpets.... and curtain that is too short it only covers half of the window. There was an alarm clock that was set at 530 am. that we had to unplug to turn off. Literally ruining our 12 year anniversary vacation. We never get to sleep in, so being rudely awakened at 530am when we were expecting to be able to sleep in on our vacation was very irritating. Also, the shower is so small.. I'm only 5'3, and I had to bend my knees to get under the water... we also had to let the water run for a couple minutes the pipes are rusty so the water came out brown/orange first There was a smooshed dead spider with its guts out that was left on the bathroom wall right above where all of our towels were hanging... There is one glass shelf in the bathroom that was barely hanging on, so it was uncomfortable to use. The toilet needed a lot of babysitting for it to actually flush.. the handle doesnt go up all the way by itself so we have to lift it back up all the way manually.. we had to figure this out the hard way. Also, the headboard to the bed was also barely hanging on. Oh yea, did I mention the squeaky mattress?

How is there a kitchenette but no table/chair area to actually sit and eat? We were forced to eat uncomfortably on the very springy bed.

It's kind of a dead area, so you're forced to use wifi, and their wifi connection is okay definitely not the best.. Oh yea, also when we first got to the room, it was colder inside the room than temps outside, and it was 38 degrees outside. 🙃

Be prepared to not have anywhere to put your luggage. They didn't even have those things to fold out to use either.

Also, apparently, the phones inside the rooms don't work because someone from room #1 knocked on our door around 8 pm for us to call her lost cell, claiming her phone in the room was not...