The Spruce Lodge — Hotel in South Fork

I wanted to like the Spruce Lodge, but for $100+/night I expected better than one step up from a Motel 6. The pictures make it look much more cozy and quaint than it really is. We stayed in the Baxterville Room. The bed was so creaky you couldn’t roll over without waking the other person up. The paint and texture was peeling off the walls, giving it a very run-down look. Some of the towels had stains resembling poop on them. There was a clog in the bathroom sink. The hardwood floors had nails sticking up partly, so that our socks caught when we walked in that area. The floors were creaky, and fellow guests going past in the hallway sounded like a herd of elephants. The noise from the lobby also carried up to our room and we were woken up each morning by chatter in the foyer below us at 6 AM. The floors were also incredibly dirty. After walking the few feet from the bathroom to the bed, I had to brush dirt and hair off my feet. My husband, trying to be non-confrontational, asked if there was a mop he could use to clean our very dirty floor…and they gave him one to do it himself without apology or offering to help. Which brings me to their “don’t like it? There’s the door” attitude. They have signs posted saying their restaurant is where “happy people eat. If you are grumpy or in a hurry, come back another day.” A sign in their so-so continental breakfast area says they reserve the right to charge you for taking extra food. The only time I saw a staff member, she came into the breakfast area with wet hair, scowling at the guests. She had a little boy with her so I took her for a guest, until she started swearing at the “little bastard” cat who had snuck in through the front door. When my husband told me she was an employee (the one who gave him the mop), I was shocked at the complete lack of professionalism.

At check out my husband brought some of these issues to the attention of a gentleman who we had not seen previously and he said we should have brought it up sooner. Since the lady who gave us the mop was so surly though, we didn’t think there was much point. If you bring up that your floor needs mopping and they let you do it yourself, how much help...

This Lodge has everything that matters, the 2 star is wrong, who cares if it doesn't have a covering on its out door entry to the upper rooms, who cared that it doesn't have a high maintenance swimming pool. What it does have when you walk thru the front door is CLASS. The rooster out front and the fat black cat out front named Fat Carl are just the tip of the iceburg. When you enter you find the inviting sun room that guests get a generous choice of free breakfast items that can be enjoyed by those guests staying. The interior has a very person able decor that just reminds how things really were before we were enen a twinkle in our parents eyes. The antler table to the moose that can't stop tipping a bottle, you to will find something to remember. The feel of the rooms is awesome. It is the stuffed teddy bear on a night stand and the note that is next to your free water in the room that will make you smile. The owners have a alot on their plates, from rinning a lodge , a awesome breakfast restaurant that not only serves guests but locals alike, running a u haul business and what appears to be a Real estate business that I saw listings for it all the way along 285 north. I will conclude with abother fact. The owners brought a couple of in keeper's from Louisiana and they were given jobs to run this classy establishment, It takes alot to help someone in need during these times. This Lodge is a very reasonable distance from Beaver Creek lake and the Great Sand Dunes...

I was eagerly excited and full of exuberant enticement as I approached what was, in my mind, an enthralling work of craftsmanship. Everything I had expected and more. Entitled to enter I exhaled as I approached and appreciated the summit of said workmanship. Every bit as dramatically woven the half log steps that seemed to float in the air and brought me to the entertaining idea that my journey had just begun! And as I gazed across what I viewed at the time to be my kingdom to take, my inheritance, what my bloodline had assured me to be, in fact, a volley of neverending yet memorable experiences that leave little to question.... I, a God amongst mortals, had taken my rightful place that my ancestors had once fought vigorously to maintain. No man could ever in my time take that, this and all I had parlayed in the ways of breaking my coin bag to obtain; away from me!

Lowering my gaze from the scenery before me I turned in for the evening and layed my ego to rest as I faced an unknown future of adventure, heartache, Glee and substance abuse, the likes this world had nor would ever see again!

Overall a wonderful experaince and I give it a dutyfull blue, Facebook, thumbs up! And then there was everything else after you are graced with the allowance of gazing upon "The Spruce Lodges" wonderful, wooden, wacky, well built staircase! Ascend it alone or with the...