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5 reviews for Gold Lake Mountain Resort and Spa
When leaving your worries behind and leaving behind your sense of self it helps to live close by Gold Lake Spa and Resort. It is located outside of Ward, off the Peak to Peak Highway. As I live in Longmont, Co, it is perhaps a 35 minute drive from my home. How nice for me.
I've been there three times, if that is any indication of how much I love it up there. The staff, whomever you talk with, is truly a pleasant person. Eager to share what they know, eager to be helpful and a genuine person who isn't just there to meet and greet. I've enjoyed staying in their cabins, sitting in their man-made hot springs, wearing their robes, enjoying the cabin's gas fireplaces and the grounds. I have walked around their lakes, ridden on the horses, eaten in Alice's for dinner, brunch and coffee snacks... somehow though, my most favorite time was there was in the winter, during the snow when it truly felt like a cabin the woods, isolated and secluded, with a four star restaurant and hot springs with moon and stars.
I went there for my first anniversary... I also went there for a romantic afternoon and enjoyed an 'afternoon' pass. I've been there for dinner only (Best service experience in Colorado at Alice's Restaurant). And I have stayed the entire weekend enjoying most of their amenities. Though I have not had the aromatherapy treatments or the body massage, I have enjoyed everything else at the Gold Lake Spa and Resort and I think it well worth the time and investment to stay and enjoy their hospitality. Go baby yourself. Enjoy no phones, no televisions, a huge fluffed down comforter and your own gas fireplace next to the bed in your cabin. I stayed in the winter with a raging snowstorm/lightning storm and that memory is still with me. It was fantastic.
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I was at a wedding at gold lake in June. It was horrible. The cabins were old and uncomfortable, the food was the worst ever!!!!! The service was non-existent, an all around awful experience.. Don't go, for the price go somewhere great. If there were minus stars I would give it that.
It was New Years Eve 2006, which also so happens to be my birthday... My friend Kim was having her wedding that night (free booze and limbo... What a combo right?) up at Gold Lake in Ward (or "weird" as the Boulderites call it). My punk boyfriend was stuck in Santa Fe due to some massive three-foot snow storm and I now had no date for the wedding, no legal person to smooch at 12 o'clock, and all by my lonesome on my birthday. Just needed to put the pity out there.
Think I moaned for more than 5 minutes? Yes, and then I took my burnt pancakes threw them in the garbage and decided to head on up to Gold Lake early to take my first trip on Snow Shoes.
That's right, nestled up in the mountains above Boulder is Ward, and the day could not have been more perfect. Wedding guests can stay on site in the holistic sort of alternative lodge/camp/Buddha setting, or just come early and hippie around the property in snowshoes or detoxing it up in one of their many outdoor hot tubs. I think you are supposed to pay for normal day fees, but when you are wedding a guest, you can just come a couple hours early and frolic around.
So for the first time I rented snowshoes and walked around the lake with another wedding guest. The sky was a rich blue and the lake was frozen over. About the same time that I started snowshoeing the wedding party was taking glorious pictures in front of the frozen lake in the snow.... It was a beautiful setting.
After my walk, I quickly changed into my wedding gear and joined the rest of the wedding guests in the lodge for cocktails. We gathered in the small lodge main room for a perfect and short wedding that held decorations of deer antlers and a mountain-retreat fireplace. The sit down dinner was a bit fancy for my taste, but the food and service was good.
Push the tables to the side and along came the best wedding band I have ever encountered... I barely noticed that it was my birthday, that is how much fun it was. I only noticed when the clock struck twelve and I was making out furiously with my hand... Or that could have been the champagne.
If you got the cash, and strive for an alternative setting for your next event or wedding, I highly suggest Gold Lake.
Strategy: The drive up to Gold Lake is curvy twisty and icy in the winter... Try to encourage your guests to stay over for the night. The prices are affordable... Then the party can go into the hot tub after the band goes home.... And you never know what happens after that. ;)
* Winter wonderland star number one is for a beautiful setting up high above Ward
** Ice Skating star number two is for offering breath taking snowshoeing trails
*** Mr. Homey star three is for making the lodge and wedding feel comfortable
**** Picture perfect star two is for providing me with good lighting so now all my pictures from that day make me look HOT
***** Crazy star five is a shout out to my boyfriend... who eventually made it home three days later when the highways opened back up again
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I experienced one of the greatest, most relaxing & fun days of my life at this resort & spa. It began with a wonderful brunch buffet in a beautiful old lodge. I felt like was at home, going back to grab seconds of the smoked salmon & vast cheese spread. After brunch a lovely dip in one of the jacuzzis built into the mountain, overlooking the lovely Gold Lake. Next was a little canoe adventure & back in the hot tub. Go up there for the day; nice drive, amazing experience.
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I had the spectacular pleasure of spending this past Sunday at Gold Lake. The drive up takes you through the town of Ward, CO (which is a bit like a mirror of David Lynch's imaginary towns in his movies and TV shows) where many a bus and car have gone to die. The old mining town also has a little white church with a bell in the steeple! Someone in our car said that Ward is where the angry hippies from the original movement in the '60s live, but I can't vouch for such a statement as I'm not from the area, and the comment just added to the color of the ride. As you pass through Ward, you're taken deeper up into the mountains through the pine and aspen trees at around 10,000 ft elevation (so drink plenty of water!). At this time of the year snow is still found dotting the landscape in dirty mounds, slowly melting away. We drove off the main paved highway on a dirt road in a couple of miles and there like an oasis gleaming in the distance is Gold Lake Mountain Resort and Spa. A restaurant lodge called Alice's (yes, like the song but not the original place) is the first substantial building and then following are several outbuidlings and cabins dotting the perimeter of the lake from which they take their name. Their meeting space is cozy, warm, inviting, and invites peace and resonance to any meeting or gathering here. The staff was so kind and attentive in setting up the space for my colleagues and I to meet and talk shop. We were provided yoga cushions for floor seating, bottled waters, fruit, and blankets to ward off a chill (although the room was nicely heated and prevented a possibility of such an occurrance). After our meeting, we had the pleasure of a trail horseback ride and I was saddled on a Norwegian Fjord horse whose name I can't spell is translated into English as "little star" and HE IS just that! "Little Star" has shorter legs than all of the other horses but he's not a pony! He's a master at the trail ride and is a gentle and loving equine. I was told that he's taken many a backpacking trip along the back side of Rocky Mountain National Park and has taught lots of surly kids how to ride. I was very pleased to share the ride with him. Our trail guide was a wonderful woman whose name escapes me, but her knowledge of the area and kind humor and friendly manner to our group did not. After our lovely ride, we indulged in the jacuzzis (clothing optional) and had a sublime soak. I left Gold Mountain relaxed, satiated, and fortified to go out into the world and continue to be in balance.
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