The Lodge at Needle Rock — Hotel in Paonia

Bottom line up front: this is a dream venue with a dream staff. We recently found the Lodge by chance and fell in love with the scenery. As with any venue, you'd think that's a pretty easy and quick assessment - but keep in mind that the sunrise over the West Elk mountains, sunset over Needle Rock, season changes, and wildlife (deer, incredible birds) can only be explained as "experiences" because they are beyond words. Sam and Kerstin picked an amazing location that also provides for an incredible amount of flexibility. When picking a venue it's important to me to consider more than the physical traits but the staff. The customer service at the lodge is unparalleled. I've never worked with anyone whom worked as diligently as the Kimbriels to ensure that the guest and official party were as happy with the product as we were. This comes from their responsiveness in communication and action, their planning and preparation (thinking of everything), coordination with other contributors such as food and beverage, and their attention to detail and flexibility. These are traits you cannot overlook if you want an event to go from good to great. The final review I have is simply the relationship we built during the process. I consider the Kambriel family to be good friends they truly care about their guest and clients as people and not as a business transaction. They went the extra mile many times in ways only someone engaged and compassionate could. We were their top priority in everything. In addition to the wedding experience, they lodged our guest. My wife and I didn't stay there but we haven't stopped hearing what an incredible experience the lodge was - from lawn games to hiking, the lodge breakfast to relaxing rooms. Choosing the Lodge at Needle Rock was a great decision. I cannot speak highly enough about our experience. The surpassed all of my expectations - and I had high expectations. Please feel freely to contact me via FB if you would like to hear more about the Lodge from a customer's perspective. Whatever your venue is, you need to consider the Lodge. If you're doing a wedding, you've...

My son and I had long planned a stay at the cabin on the Lodge at Needle Rock property. About a week prior to our stay, Kerstin the owner called to let me know county road crews had selected our visitation week to redo the gravel road to the lodge. She graciously offered to let us back out of our reservation. Discussing it with her, she indicated the road crews would prep the surface at the end of their work each day so our motorcycles could safely get through to the lodge down the 2 mile gravel road. Arrival day my son and I sat at a bakery in the small town of Crawford until we felt the crews would be done for the day. Who did we run into in town but Kerstin who was running errands. She said she'd drop off a dozen eggs in our cabin from her chickens. This was after previously asking if we'd prefer red or white wine. Sadly, the day we arrived to head down the road to the lodge, the crews were delayed and we got stuck behind the work crew 8/10's of a mile from the lodge. Then, they had a water truck dump lots of water on the dirt and gravel road bed creating a muddy mess of a road. It was impossible for us to venture forward without likely dropping our 800 pound motorcycles. We turned around and headed to another town where I texted Kerstin to let her know we simply couldn't safely make it. I was fully prepared to eat the $587 deposit I'd made as this surely would qualify as cancelling at the last minute. But Kerstin indicated it was neither our fault nor hers and she'd be refunding our entire deposit. How incredibly gracious and kind. This is a beautiful location and with an owner who is so customer focused, I'm sure we'd have had a wonderful visit. I highly recommend supporting...

Let me first say, the owners are delightful, easy to work with and very responsive to emails and texts. ||This cabin located on 80 acres, near the Lodge at Needle Rock, is anything but luxury, as described on the web site and on airbnb. I would call it rustic with a hint of modern conveniences. It has a small reasonable kitchen, oven and microwave. The bathroom is tiny, a good shower and excellent hot water. The bed was very good!||The internet is okay. Very slow sometimes, sometimes it disappears, comes back quickly.||But we had a significant wasp/yellow jacket problem. The owners suggested the previous visitors left the doors open. How ever we awoke every morning for 5 days, with at least 2 wasps buzzing around. We killed many in the cabin and went to use the grill only to find a large nest. The owners are responsive to our concerns but were unable to solve the problem during our stay. This is an old cabin, and we believe there is a nest in the walls. ||Do you think the owners might have offered some small refund? Nope…||So luxury….wrong description. But a reasonable cabin in the woods,...