Pine Mountain State Resort Park

This is my 2^nd visit to Pine Mountain State Resort Park. I love this place. The hospitality is 2^nd to none. From the front desk staff to the Park Naturalist, everyone is very kind and helpful. My room was very clean. The mattresses in room 257 seem to be new and very comfortable. The views from the balconies are breath taking! The only issue with my room, it looks like a water leak occurred on the outside wall, and the paint has bubbled and needs repair. I have used the WiFi on property and the speed seems to be good. NOTE I was here for a sold out weekend, and WiFi was zipping right along. I have eaten at the Lodge Restaurant multiple times. The quality seems to be hit and miss in quality. My dinner was really tasty (crispy fresh fried chicken), however breakfast had a bit to be desired (Very sad and soggy hash browns, semi toasted English muffin). My breakfast should have been really good because I was the only person in the restaurant at 6:45 am! The food in general is good (not great). It’s really a shame, that in today’s world of foodies, cooking shows and lots of unemployed culinary school graduates, the food is hit and miss! However my service has always been excellent in at Mountain View Restaurant! The inconsistency of the food is what prevents a 5 star review. The hiking is amazing. I come here to get away from the hustle and bustle of living in a large metropolitan area. It is peaceful, calm, and the pace is slower. If you are looking for some peace and solitude, this is where you want to visit. I will be back!!!

My boyfriend and I stayed three nights in a one-​bedroom cabin with a wood-​burning fireplace. It was 4 rooms: living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. It included a small flat-​screen tv with cable, a full bed, loveseat with pullout bed, hair dryer, two outdoor chairs and picnic table. Kitchen included: electric stove and oven, full-​sized fridge, microwave, small coffee pot, toaster, basic dishes, flatware and cookware, table and 4 chairs. The cabin was clean and quiet. The bed was too soft: my boyfriend did not sleep well, and I felt like I was falling into a hole in the middle of the bed created by our weight. In sharp contrast, the loveseat was hard. When we arrived, there was a bucket full of ashes left outside by the previous guests. In our three-​day stay, it was never emptied, making it problematic for us to clean the fireplace after our use. The maid showed up one day but not the other. Firewood was provided at no extra charge; there was a small pile upon our arrival, but after that we had to call for it, they don’t bring it by otherwise. We enjoyed many of the trails and were pleased with the solitude, with the exception of a random gunshot heard at dusk and a group of guys with a drone taking photos/​video. I wish we had been more fortunate with the weather: the morning fog had an interesting and otherworldly quality, but the persistent damp, overcast days were a bit of a bummer. The sun shined on my last hours there, and it was a completely different place.

So before I begin my tirade I just want to say how beautiful pine mountain is. All of it. The scenery, the lodging, the outlooks, the atriums, the cove, the shelter. It was a spectacular place and perfect for our little wedding. However that being said I will likely never stay at the resort again. I’ll do some research and find a local bed and breakfast or see if the staff at Cumberland Gap down the street have a better clue about customer service. Every experience we had at the restaurant was so disappointing. The food was cold and sub par. The waiting staff was just awful. We gave them three chances, the third being after the park manager was gracious enough to pay for half of our meals. We even talked to the restaurant manager who took our phone numbers and emails and said he would try to make it up to us by providing a meal when we came back for our wedding and send us an email of the speciality items the cater for their special events. Not that he actually followed through. The veiw from the restaurant is amazing. Go and sit out on the patio next to the check in desk with some coffee… Just don’t bother going to the restaurant if you have any sort of expectations for good service or decent food. Proceeding that we blocked out rooms and went on our merry way to figure out the details before setting the reservations in stone. If I didn’t get Valerie on the other end it was always a waste of time. You would think they would have more then one competent person working the front desk. Multiple times the person would say, you know I don’t know… You know Valerie would know, let me leave her a message, or call back when Valerie is here. And you would just hope they actually left her one so she knew you called in the first place. My mother, being the first to arrive for our wedding weekend, went to check in and three of our reservations were wrong. They couldn’t do anything about it. She asked to talk to the park manager. She went up to Rita’s office where she said there was nothing they could do because that was how the reservations were made initially. Not that she would give my mother the respect of looking at her. She had her nose in her computer and fiddling with the mouse so my mom walked out of the office. When I arrived and heard the story we went back to the office where Valerie had just arrived to work. We explained what happened and she went through and saw that who ever had made the original reservations had not given me the cabins I had asked for and the reason we couldn’t get into the ones I thought I had reserved was because there were in-​house reservations. In house being family or friends of people working at the park. Something the park manager did not tell us or try to move around. So sweet, calm, wonderful Valerie then moved our reservations back to where they should have been from the start and then let us pick out the cottage with the widest kitchen avaliable because we were cooking all of our own food for the wedding. Everything from that point on was fine except when we went to use the stove and half the burners wouldn’t work. They were sending a maintenance worker in the morning… But by then my husband had fixed it already. I would recommend spending a day exploring the beautiful resort. Even renting out one of the shelters or Laurel Cove. But don’t waste your time on the catering or resturaunt if you expect anything. And the lodging is nice but you might have to reiterate 5 times what your trying to reserve and hopefully its right when uou get there. I never usually write bad reviews but this place was disappointment after disappointment. Go Valierie though! And whoever worked the front desk when we checked out. The only two people who can answer a quesion.

Hotel is very dated, but clean. Restaurant food is nothing to brag about, but service is good. The views from most rooms & dining area are «GREAT!» «AWESOME» hiking, especially the Chained Rock. Be sure to see the amphitheater also. However, the entire park is «BEAUTIFUL» & well maintained. Scenery is «PHENOMENAL» & you’ll most likely get a glimpse of some wildlife!!!

I ended up here on a fluke. The room price was on the high side for dated accomodations. On the plus side there was a balcony that overlooked trees on the backside. It would have been more enjoyable if there was a less noisy A/​C system though. The lodge serves good food with a view and has good service. Tried to go for a walk on a trail behind the lodge. Immediately was accosted by the the hotel trash area. There was stinky liquid all over the parking lot. They should have hosed that down! Then the trail looked over grown so I gave up.

No lights on walkways, icy parking lot and walkways, no luggage carts, no wi-​fi. The room was dirty when we checked in and had an odd smell. Overheard the guest service rep tell a patron there was no maintenance person on duty. Will NOT return here!

We decided to check out a park in Kentucky since it was different than the typical busy large park. We went and it was very quiet. Not many people on the roads. The park has a small Bible College along with a resort and golf course.
The first thing that struck me going in was the sign which reads, «Rated by X Golfing Company.» It was rated, but typically you say what you are rated, such as 10^th. This just says rated.
We drove around and the map online was done very well. Easy to follow, but we passed up the trail we wanted. There is not much parking at any one of these trails. The one we chose had a little turn off big enough for us and the van that was already there.
We chose the trail because it had a waterfall at the end of it. It was more like a trickle; which we were warned, but still dissappointed. The trail information did not mention anything about the skill of the trail. I would say it was moderate. The trail was steep in some areas and often no wider than my two feet. That wasn’t a problem until it got to the edge. Some of the trail was high up and on the edge as well as slippery. The tree roots helped our footing. The good thing is no one else was on the trail when we were so we didn’t have to move over for anyone.
Another area was Lookout point. It was high up and looked out over a couple little towns. Very pretty views at this and other overlooks.
I may like to come back and see what I didn’t get to the first time. The biggest advantage was the quietness due to only a few people around wherever we went.