Refreshing Mountain Retreat and Adventure Center — Hotel in Clay Township

I took my 5 year old here for a mommy/daughter staycation for a few nights at the lodge aka hotel style room. I figured a cabin was too big for just the two of us. Here are some things you should know:

Lodge style rooms- there is not a fridge or microwave. You will use these things in the dining hall. You won't have access to cooking, just microwave and a mini fridge. When I was there (July 2020, COVID time) there wasn't a lot of people, so it was weird being in a HUGE dining hall with just us two. You'll need to walk down to the dining hall using a long series of steps with naturally placed stone to get there from your room. The steps on the bottom half are uneven and spaced oddly, so watch your step! The top half has normal steps.

Lodge Room- When I stayed with my 5 year old they gave us plenty of towels. I came back for a subsequent night with my brother and they would not give me the same room I just had. The room they gave us had few towels. Keep in mind the beds are NOT made, but you'll be given sheets to do it yourself. It was comfy. One of the beds had hairs all over the mattress pad. I don't think they wash them! You will need to bring your own toiletries as they only provide small bars of soap.

TIP 1 Their TP 'stays with you' after the job is done, so bring your own! TIP 2 The outdoor light is right by your door, so when you open the door at night, moths and bugs fly in IMMEDIATELY because of the light. Solve this by unscrewing the light bulb a bit until the end of your stay. Don't forget to twist it back when you leave.

Zip lining- Their guides were fantastic. I ended up doing all 3 courses. They have a 3 person minimum. It was only 2 of us, and they said if we paid for 3 we could go with 2 due to "social distancing" which didn't make sense. Paying for 3 still =2. I ended up speaking to someone NOT in the front office and they were able to let us go, which makes sense because the staff are just sitting around, so might as well bring some money in. No changes and no refunds on zip lining!

Pool- We had to have bracelets to get in. It was pretty packed for some reason, but it thinned out. Some visitors have to schedule pool times between cleanings throughout the day. Not sure how that works. Pool has a diving board and a deceptively fast slide. TIP 3 Bring your own pool towel. They do not provide them.

Cafe- Don't rely on this as a source of dinner or a good lunch. They have a great selection of ice cream. They have one flavor of slushie (Blue- which is delicious btw!) The paninis are made with inexpensive ingredients, so they're more fit for an 8 year olds pallette. The $3.00 personal pizza is just a microwavable Red Barron pizza heated up. The pretzels are tasty. If you want coffee in the AM, you're SOL because they open at 11am. They were super nice and made the best milkshake I've ever had (mix moose tracks and cookies and cream ice cream!). TIP 4 You can buy wood from the cafe for $5 a bundle. BUT it's basically in plank form and will smother your fire. Bring your own wood or a hatchet to slice the thin planks into usable pieces. We fire grilled carne asada and it was fantastic. Don't forget your lighter!

The wildlife tour was REALLY full when we did it. It was cute and the reptiles were well taken care of. The guide was very patient of my 5 year old who loves reptiles.

When I made my booking, everything rested on whether or not we could "piggyback" on someone else's zip lining (3+ person rule) so I didn't schedule horseback riding until we got there. Of course, it was filled up and we were super disappointed. I can imagine that if you're here for a week, you'd be bored unless you're with a group and lots of activities are planned.

So, there you have it. All and all, I...

This is a nice little Christian based mountain retreat. We have enjoyed going to the pool here where you buy time slots in 1 hour increments ahead of time. It is required to dress conservative and women must wear 1 piece bathing suits. The snack bar is good and they have great coffee, and the roasted milkshake is excellent. The pool isn't that big, and while it does get kinda full sometimes it's usually still an enjoyable day. However, we went yesterday and a large group of certain people came and completely ruined the afternoon for everyone. They were extremely loud and obnoxious, rough housing all around the pool the entire 2 hours we were there. They were so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. The lifeguards and pool staff did nothing to calm the situation and this group just continued to get more loud and rough and pretty much just took over the entire pool. Most people started packing up and leaving early because nobody wants to be around that at a family place. I decided to stick around just to see if anything would be said. About 15 minutes before it was time for everyone to get out of the pool the one lifeguard started attempting to yell at the group, but of course they were so loud they couldn't hear her and those that did just ignored her anyway. The lifeguard finally got frustrated enough that she blew her whistle and yelled at them, but again they just ignored her. Finally it was about 10 minutes till close and one of the other lifeguards got the courage to take one of their balls they were using as a prop to chase and tackle and wrestle each other all over the pool. But the large number of grown men continued and the rest of the young adults and teenagers continued to escalate their behavior. Finally all the lifeguards decided enough is enough and walked over attempting to yell at the group to settle down, again being completely ignored. So they decided to close the pool 5 minutes early and made everyone get out. You would think that would be easy enough but even that was another 10 minutes of the adults yelling at the top of their lungs for the younger ones to get out of the pool, which to their credit were all lined up at the ladders waiting their turn to climb out, so again more unnecessary yelling. The group had also brought a huge Bluetooth speaker with them but thankfully the staff told them they couldn't use it up front. It would have been way to loud for the venue and I have no doubt the volume and type of music that would have been blasted. It was just very disappointing to see this place going downhill like this. When you have dozens of grown men cramming into a small pool filled with families and little kids, turning it into cage fight, and the staff just sits there and allows it to go, I don't even know what to say. This is the first time I've seen anything like this happen there, but if this is the kind of crowd they're going to attract and allow to run over everyone else trying to enjoy an afternoon, then they will lose my business and I am sure plenty more. Very disappointed with what used to be a great...

This is our 2nd stay at Refreshing Mountain Resorts and I can honestly say there will be many more to come :-)

Firstly, it's super easy to book cabins, rooms and activities, provided you do it early like anything else. The office staff is great and they make everything from check-in to check-out quick and enjoyable. Phil is an absolute gem, however, and goes out of his way to make everyone happy. It's people like him that make us want to return.

We love the spacious and comfy cabins being right in the middle of nature and all the nearby adventures/activities.

We recommend the adventure and activity packages especially zip lining (ages 5 and up). Last year, our 4 yr old daughter couldn't do many of the "fun stuff" and was so disappointed, but just last week, she did 7 zip lines along with all 3 levels of the obstacle course and loved every one of them! (I will confess that a few of the obstacles were a bit tough for a 5yr old) and I'd recommend you know your child's strength/confidence/agility before booking the 2nd and 3rd level course.

My wife and I must mention a few other names who helped make our experience even more wonderful:

Kelly and Peyton were our Zip Line & Obstacle Course guides. They're friendly, funny, knowledgeable and very informative with all of their experience. We remembered Kelly from Rock Climbing last year and she's just amazing!

Patrick was our guide at the Wildlife Animal Sanctuary. He was fantastic teaching us so much about the animals and answering all our questions about them. His fun facts about each animal are worth the short tour alone. Go check him out before he makes it big on National Geographic or YouTube or something 😁

Joel was our host for the 2 Escape Rooms we did with our family and friends last year and this year. Hands down, the guy is a genius and not only created the rooms with a fun/mysterious perspective, but also has really cool facts about each of the rooms and we can't wait to check out the outdoor room they're building soon!!

The large pools, fire pits (behind each cabin), walks around the pond, farm animals, and strolls to and from the cabins are all great memories for any family or group of friends. Drinks, shakes, iced coffees, ice cream and everything in Cafe319 is perfect, although if I was to upgrade anything, it would be the food in the Cafe. But hey, not going to complain as we do dinners in the many areas just minutes away.

In summary, I'm happy we can all get out of the house, travel just a couple hours and immerse ourselves into a new and fun environment. I definitely recommend Refreshing Mountain Resorts and will be back next year if not...