What an amazing location! I’ve visited before but this time I brought 9 of my friends! What a perfect weekend getaway to hike, hang out, and do a high ropes course. The staff is phenomenal and helped make the experience that much better by consistently going the extra mile. The cafe provides a perfect morning coffee and then you can sit and sip with an incredible view. Also, everyone HAS to try the pizza, it will exceed your expectations tenfold.

The only thing I would’ve changed is planning to make my trip longer. It’s hard to leave such a peaceful getaway.

I online booked room for 1 night at Dawn of Hope Ranch late afternoon of same day I needed a room that night. I got immediate confirmation via text and caretaker female's name. An hour later my circumstances changed and I had our family dog accompanying me, so I texted female caretaker to check if a well-behaved potty-trained non-barking exhausted dog ( he'd hiked 9 hours that day) could stay in my assigned room. The caretaker allowed the dog to stay in the assigned room rather than re-assigning me to a dog-friendly room elsewhere on the ranch property. Dog & I arrived at 10pm, found the lodge building with well-lit entrance, door propped open, since caretaker not at check-in desk at that late hour, she'd texted me the directions to room on 2nd floor of lodge and room passcode. The room was large, furnished with nicely arranged basic amenities. The king bed was comfortable and had a wonderful full body pillow & warm comforter. The trundle child beds alongside the king-sized bed looked inviting , but since no children accompanied me, they were in-used that night. The setting was quiet, allowing me to sleep soundly 9 hours. The caretaker had texted a suggestion that I test out their restaurant located in lower level of lodge, by dining there for breakfast before I departed the following morning. The breakfast menu, hardcopy left in the room, sounded inviting. However, I didn't have time to have breakfast due to sleeping in and needing to get on road to keep my travel itinerary on schedule.. Overall, helpful last minute room booking, flexible to changed guest count (added dog), seamless after hours access to room, regret didn't sample breakfast in onsite restaurant, would book again and recommend to others seeking a quiet environment and willing to drive a few extra miles from nearest tiny town of Florissant, CO. One more thing that may attract potential customers: TOTALLY DARK SKIES ( a jewel in today's brightly lit up developed world).

Can't think of any improvements

It was private and quiet, but yet not far off of the main road a very peaceful place and wonderful

That it wasn’t free

This facility is a work in progress, but will likely be great once it is finished. The location especially is very nice if (like us) you want to access the Crags Trailhead for Pike's Peak, or even if you want to stay in a quiet place in the boonies with a dark night sky. On the first night of our 2-night stay, we saw The Milky Way overhead at about 10pm from the dirt parking lot!! There are some lights in the parking lot that we wished we could have switched off, but even with them, after giving our eyes some time to adjust to the darkness, the night sky was breathtaking! The room was very spacious and had a balcony where you could sit when the weather cooperates. The towels were very nice. The bed was comfortable. The building itself has a nice rustic and welcoming vibe, and has a couple of food and drink establishments within that we did not get a chance to patronize.

There was heavy construction taking place in the building, with a significant amount of dust and construction equipment throughout the walking paths and front yard. Overall, the property looked unfinished and not ready to receive guests yet. The room had very poor lighting. The brightest light in the room was in the closet, while the vanity had no lighting at all. Since the vanity was the only mirror in the room, it was extremely inconvenient to brush your teeth, get ready, or apply makeup without adequate lighting. The coffee machine basically didn't work. Water and steam spilled all over the counter while brewing, the coffee did not brew properly, and coffee grounds ended up in your cup with very weak coffee. There were not enough coffee pods provided and no proper creamer, but in the end that didn't matter because the machine didn't work anyway. To make matters worse, there were no tissues or paper towels in the room to clean up the water that spilled because of the malfunctioning machine, we had to resort to using toilet paper! There was no TV in the room, which for city slickers like us was a real downer. This is something you should be able to take for granted nowadays. There was hardly any table space available in the room. A small table with two chairs would have been very useful, especially for guests who want to sit and drink tea/coffee or eat something. The microwave was placed next to the vanity sink, taking up most of the available space around the sink and making the area difficult to use. A better arrangement would be to place the microwave and refrigerator together on a small separate table or counter. The shower water temperature often spiked or fluctuated. We did not see anybody at the front desk for pretty much the whole time that we were in our room, but admittedly we were out hiking most of both the days we stayed there.