Sacred Springs: The people.
I can’t say enough good things about our experience at sacred Springs. But before I get to the property, let me tell you about the hosts. We had first planned on going to the property a month ago and had some serious car troubles that made that journey impossible. I’m pretty cynical, so typically anywhere that I’ve paid some amount of money to put a deposit down and circumstances have come up that impacted our ability to get somewhere,not the place we were going, I usually just consider the deposit given as a loss. Never to be see again.“ thanks for playing, but sorry we have to keep your money because we are uncaring un-empathetic, greedy bastards.” That was not even remotely close to the experience we had BEFORE even making it there. We reached out to inform Gary and Daren that we would be unable to make it, sadly but would be looking forward to coming in the future. These remarkable gentlemen who were so kind throughout the entire communication process before we even booked, continued this kindness and added empathy and sympathy for our situation. Still emailing and talking to us while we were in the midst of a horrific experience with our vehicle, not near our home and dealing with the costs and every other negative you could have. These two were like a ray of sunshine. Their gracious and sincere words in the emails and their hospitality and generosity is like nothing I’ve seen in years… decades even. They not only offered to refund our deposit but grant us a courtesy night stay. Katherine and I were utterly flabbergasted. That treatment pretty much insured that we would be going there immediately upon getting our vehicle situation sorted. Once sorted, did EXACTLY THAT and were anxiously and excitedly on our way. More to follow….
Sacred Springs: The Arrival
When you leave Hwy 17 and travel the 10 or so miles down off road, but easily navigable, and you think“without gps, how would we find them”. This answer was instantly provided by the adorable and welcoming little pink flamingo providing initial and throughout, guidance right up to the entry of Sacred Springs”. What a treat to the eyes. You can immediately tell this will be a relaxing experience. And I do not relax easily. Gary comes up to the vehicle with a huge and inviting grin and offers his hand and the warmest welcome one could receive. He then invites us to join him as he humbly but with pride, shares his beloved sanctuary as it is now(which is so well thought out from the from the artisanal flora arrangements to the fauna housing areas), and with a beaming grin…talks about and shares with detail, their plans for continued growth and considerate expansion. He LOVES this place. It is a part of him. He escorted us to our perfectly sculpted and designed area, which had every appointment one would need to enjoy a nice getaway. There is a very nice rest room and shower room designed so creatively and with every necessary creature comfort, that looks like the building could have been in architectural digest. I was just as comfortable using this area at 9am or 2am, and no less comfortable than I would have been at home. As he makes his way to the community center, it is externally adorned with a grille, sink, heat lamps and inside….wow. We really did not need to bring ANYTHING from home if we didn’t want to. And…anyone who has a little candy basket adorned with SMARTIES is number one in my book. For my wife, the healthy snacks basket made her smile as well. He merrily showed us several other accoutrement at the property and we then made our way to our camp site to start our set up process. I won’t bore you with that.😁
Sacred Springs: The Experience
The very brief introduction and photos that social media sites grant hosts, to introduce their respective locations DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN to do Sacred Springs the justice it deserves. Every bit of everything you see when you are looking to book, is INCLUDED as part of the experience. They don’t charge for the kayaks you see in the picture they don’t charge to use the Kingston charcoal starter in the community room. They don’t charge for ice. It’s it’s all part of the experience. Yes, there are some items that are charged and they make sense to be especially the chickens. We bring our own eggs and even I was tempted to purchase some of those eggs and we will be doing that next time. Each site has its own very large and lovely fire pit that can act as a grill. Each campsite has a large picnic table with a tablecloth under an overhead shade. Each area has a magnificent view from its location on top of the plateau. And everywhere you look around you. Everywhere. Is well found out plant placement or artsy creative displays. We were blown away. The views down to the river and at the river were stunning and all thoughtfully curated in a way that you had maximum viewing of the things that you were going to experience. Our host came by and said hello and had lovely chats that were not pushy or felt forced. we had amazing conversations where we shared our history they shared theirs. They shared their vision of where they were going to take things plans ideas with depth to them not just abstract. Kat and I truly felt like we had made new friends. I had never felt so relaxed. And and that’s something to say because I am an uptight Chicago Italian. So when I say relaxed that’s a rarity and this place achieved it and these people helped foster it every nuance of our time spent there will never be forgotten. We have already rebooked for the next month as a result of this experience and Sacred Springs will be our go to experience when we are looking to enjoy a single day getaway or a full relaxing weekend. We only stayed for one day and it felt like we had been there for several. There was not a single negative experience nor do I have a single negative word to say about anything that took place during that 24 hour period of time. I will close this review by saying something most people won’t. First, I’m not a big social media person and nothing drives me more insane than when someone ASKS me to give a review. That was not the case here from the minute we arrived. I was looking forward to writing this and I tend to be a bit verbose but my emotion of the experience comes out in my writing following the experience. I want to be compelled to write something extravagant because it has become part of Kat in my world. And that’s a rarity. This place did exactly that and with that said these gentlemen have my permission to post any one of these reviews anywhere they think they would most help present their Sanctuary to people who could use it most. In addition, They also have my permission at any time to provide my contact information to anyone who would like to talk to somebody who has been there. In this day and age of unheard-of levels of spam by sharing personal contact information just through daily use something like this does not happen. So I hope they take me up on that because no truer words have been spoken nor more positive camping experience been enjoyed. Thank you guys so much for giving so much to us and only really giving a small amount of you and your place to accomplish that Sincerely, Kat and William
