Spring Lake Ranch

Great place and not too far from town for horseback riding. Nice trail along Spring Lake with beautiful views over the lake, meadows and forest. Got to see a black bear on our ride! Friendly staff and well mannered horse.

I called and booked a chalet suite for 3 nights. The elderly lady confirmed it and took my credit card details to hold the reservation. I arrived at the farm on the 14/09/2018 and it was lovely. The way to get their ones you pull of the highway....interacting with the cattle standing on the unpaved road was funny. Once I got there it looked so lovely - a nice ranch with lots of horses surrounded by a beautiful lake. My suite was also quite lovely. But that's it, what was positive. The old couple who own this place John and Mirna weren't there the first night. So they put the well-being of the farm in the hands of 10 young girls from Germany aged between 18 and 24. The next morning I got hold of the old lady Mirna, who seems quite confused to me, to ask her about my booking. And then she told me, that she only booked me in for 2 nights, because there are guests coming who vome every year and she couldn't say no to them!!! Honestly...that made me feel like a guest 2nd class and why didn't she told me that on the phone when I booked the nights. And if I wouldn't get hold of her this morning, she probably wouldn't have told me that. She didn't even apologized for that!!! So I had to find a place to stay for my 3rd night and she didn't support me at all. Another point: save your money for the dinner and cook yourself. The dinner includes salad, main and dessert, but the Portions are made for children or old People. So you won't get full by it. The same with breakfast. What I also don't like that there are only Germans. The guests were all German and also the 10 girls there. I think that old couple should choose a mixture of different cultures, genders and also ages to work for them. But since they don't pay their wranglers any money, I think nobody experienced would come and work for them. The girls are nice and horse back riding was alright but these young girls don't have a clue about that region, when I asked them some historic background for the Cariboo-Chilcotin Region. So John and Mirna could at least train them and give them enough food to eat, because they don't get more than the guests for working hard up to 15 hours a day without payment!!! They also could inform on their Website that there is no reception or service at all and their guest wifi isn't working at all. So if you come here, make sure to let people know that you won't have any service for the next days. So I wouldn't recommend this place. It looks nice but if you take a closer look behind the scenes...2 days were more than enough.

Very nice low-key location to relax and do some fun activities. We went in the winter and got to do sledding, skating on the lake, snowmobiling (brought in by us), and cross-country skiing. The cabins are minimal but cosy and well-maintained. The Host was hands off and friendly. The hot tub wasn't working, which wasn't ideal but certainly not a major problem; best to ask about it beforehand if it's a dealbreaker.

This place is absolutely beautiful and remote. If you want to enjoy nature and a peaceful mostly electronic-free resort this is the place to go. For awesome family times, great riding trails, and very good accommodations it's perfect. The owners are very accommodating and put the effort into making it a wonderful vacation for you. We were very happy with our stay! Thank you John and Myrna Barkowsky!

Beautiful country and horses, wonderful hosts, our 2nd time, will be back!