Seven Springs Lodge — Hotel in Russellville

My husband and I planned to spend a full week here riding the trails with our horses and ended up leaving after 4 days. Making reservations was difficult as there was little information online and when calling the office we were rushed off the phone.

On arrival there was a rain storm (which can be expected), but the spot we had reserved was so muddy and uneven we struggled to get our camper parked and then could not get level. We had to switch spots - the new spot ended up being a muddy mess too with all the rain and camping for several days.

The stalls were not designed with horses in mind. Despite being covered the ground was pure mud and not level at all. The horses were essentially standing on a hill the whole time. I am not sure what kind of horsemen come to this place but no one seemed to use shavings in these stalls. Other horses spent the night in the barn next to our horses and no one cleaned the stalls after they left. There was no manure pile in site- we ended up just tossing manure in the woods. With the mud it was impossible to get the pee out of the stalls. The stall walls are welded corral panels with several areas of sharp metal. The area around the barn was so muddy and slippery that tending to the horses was almost dangerous. Nothing a little excavating and gravel wouldnt fix. I found several nails on the ground outside the stalls. Our horses were stocked up and miserable by the time we decided to leave.

They described “turnouts” and “outdoor stalls”. These are the same - there is no turnout. The outdoor stalls are 10x10 corral panels with 8” of mud on an uneven surface.

The trails probably would have been better if it hadnt rained- however- they cater more towards jeeps and dirtbikes so, while all the trails were muddy to some degree, there were large sections of the trails that were intentionally dug out to make them muddier. There is no way you could ride these trails in hoof boots and I cant believe my horse didnt lose a shoe. The trails are a little complicated - while some are labeled there are many “alternate” routes that are not and you can get turned around very easily. The trails are labeled with a combination of letters, numbers, dirtbike signs, jeep signs and colors- so keeping track of where the heck we were was exhausting. After three days we saw pretty much everything and the trails werent really worth repeating.

The rattlesnake saloon was pretty cool to see. It was very crowded and loud and the food was just low end bar food. However the cave was nice and cool and they did a great job with the lighting.

The pool was a nice bonus and really helped with getting cooled down. It was clean and well maintained.

The staff was fairly accommodating while we were there- they even re opened the store when we showed up 10 minutes after closing to buy ice- which we very much appreciated. However- the lady in the office said she would be processing a refund since we left 4 days early and its been 9 days and no refund has been processed.

We had good wifi service down by the arena- something we hadnt expected.

We had expected more of an “East Fork” experience but that was definitely not the case. In better weather this would be OK for the weekend if the stalls were safer and more comfortable for the horses, but a whole week would be way too much. I would have gladly paid more if the money went towards improving the facilities and fixing the drainage...

We were greeted by a courteous and helpful staffer upon entering the lodge/office, in fact, all the staffers we talked to were knowledgeable, courteous and helpful. There's a gift shop, with gifts, snacks and some camping necessities, and a western sculpture art shop right next to the lodge where we signed in.||Signed up and were directed to our campsite that was easy to access and hook everything up on our RV in just a few minutes. There's other camping/lodging options there too.||The camping area, while not particularly attractive, is well designed and very adequate for camping for people and horses. There's a gas generator across the street from the campground that does make a noise, but it wasn't much of a bother to us, and it's something that's surely no fault of the owner and can't be helped.||There's some very interesting historical artifacts in and around the lodge, as well as out on the trails.||As for the riding trails, they're unlike any other I've seen. Simply breathtaking in some areas, and there's a wide variety of terrain, some is pretty challenging, but we learned during our short time there that there's always a detour around the challenging parts for those who do not want to meet the challenge. A lot of parts were really muddy, some knee deep to our horses, but our horses are Paso Finos so none of the technical terrain presented a problem to ours, I think it was so muddy because it had rained the night before our arrival.||They have at least 3 different types of trail: narrow (more challenging), wide (enough to drive a truck on), and there's the really wide gas line clearing you can ride on. It serves as a less challenging way to go as well as a 'short cut' if you need to get back sooner, and it appears that most if not all the trails begin and end into the gas line clearing. We were given a map, which I'm sure was accurate, but it didn't turn out to be much help for us, as it was just small, black and white, not very easy to understand for me. ||Since they have a simple trail marking system and good signs, it was pretty easy to find our way.||All in all, even though it was a 5 hour drive for us, I can't think of a better place to go horse camp, some I've been to may be about equal in my opinion. ||||The staff, management and beautiful trails made it well worth the trip, and the prices are hard to beat, for both the camping and restaurant food. ||||I'll go back when I can stay...

Okay let me preface this as it used to be a lovely getaway. We have went for years and it’s only this year it has been the worst experience ever. We book all our cabins months in advanced and apparently they updated all the prices of everything they did this after our booking was made and never informed us of any kind of price increase. The new office lady seems to have no idea what she’s doing and cannot add up anything to save her life. It took her three different times to get me a total. We always go during down time and have always been told we can use the covered stalls with no charge. This time we’re told we have to pay which is no big deal. We’re then told our total for two nights will be close to $450. I mentioned to her that it makes no sense how it cost that much (it was 8 horses) we’re told it’s now 15 dollars a day and we have to pay a cleaning fee and a riding fee per day (which wasn’t disclosed to us until that moment). Our family booked all of the cabins but one every year and has never had to pay that in the past. They also told family members they would have to pay the same rate for the uncovered stalls by their cabin which those stalls have always been included in the booking in the past. Those stalls are in desperate need of some type of maintenance as they are complete mud holes. I just was extremely disappointed in the office service that was given and how they failed to inform anyone who booked prior to price increases of the raise in rates. We decided collectively we will never come back to this place again. I will add the maintenance man was extremely helpful and friendly but that was about the only highlight I saw when it...