Last weekend I stayed at the Keystone Resort in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Travel Blog Exchange 2012 TBEX conference brought me to Keystone and in some ways showed the very best the resort had to offer, although the conference schedule was so packed that an extra day or two just to chill around the high elevation grounds of Keystone Resort would have been a pleasurable extension of my weekend getaway.
My room was in a Lakeside studio condo in the building adjacent to Keystone Lodge hotel. I paid $144.50 per night all-in for my condo unit on the TBEX conference rate. I loved the location of the room and all my needs were met with the room’s amenities.
On Saturday afternoon I walked around the 5-acre lake next to Keystone Lodge and I snapped photos of the Lodge. I was never inside a Keystone Lodge room so no photos to share of hotel rooms.
Keystone Lodge
The Lodge offers 152 guest rooms and 14 loft suites.
Interior side of Keystone Lodge overlooking pool.
There are over 30 lodging options at Keystone Resort from the hotel to condominium complexes to villas and townhomes in the valley. A Keystone Resort shuttle runs between different lodging areas to take guests to the ski lifts, shopping and dining areas and conference center.
These buildings adjacent to Keystone Lodge are several different lodging units. Lakeside is the building on the far left front and physically connected to the Keystone Lodge. My room was on the third floor of the Lakeside complex and offered this view of 5-acre lake from my balcony window.
June morning at Keystone Resort.
Keystone Lodge pool and spa are located behind the buildings on the right side in the photo above.
Pool at Keystone Lodge.
The pool is indoor/outdoor. There was not much space for the indoor part.
A large hot tub is located inside along with a sauna and steam room.
Keystone Lodge has a full spa facility. The workout room is accessed from the spa reception area and store.
Fitness Center at Keystone Lodge.
The bar lounge and fine dining restaurant space have a similar décor to hotels I have visited in Aspen and Vail. Antler chandeliers are ubiquitous in Rocky Mountain resorts.
Keystone Lodge lounge by Bighorn Restaurant.
The lobby at the main entrance is kind of small for seating arrangements. The lobby is bright and on good days the outdoor patio deck offers great views similar to Bighorn Restaurant on the floor below.
Patio deck off Keystone Lodge lobby.
View from Keystone Lodge lobby patio. Hotel rooms have windows facing perpendicular to the lake view in the photo, so I am not sure how much of the lake can be seen from hotel room balconies. Sounds like a Room 77 mission, although I was disappointed to learn at the TBEX conference the room view aspect of Room 77 that was hyped with the launch of the website last year has been replaced with a hotel rooms meta-search booking service business model.
Keystone Lodge lobby desk.
5-acre Lake walk at Keystone Village Lake, elevation 9,321 ft.
Altitude and a busy schedule kept me from taking nearly as many photos as I normally would snap on a trip to a new place. The photos in this post were from my only one hour excursion by myself to walk around the lake and Keystone Lodge. I actually skipped a seminar Saturday to get this time to myself.
The intensely blue sky at about 5pm made for some crisp photos with my pocket camera. I loved the beauty of Keystone. The elevation made me feel mentally handicapped at times. Memory connections were getting jumbled and lost. Probably a good thing I wasn’t a speaker.
Lakeside buildings.
I think my room was 4th from left on the third floor.
The building on the beach had open air seating and the activities desk was in the building away from the beach. The Activities Center is where you pay for rental boats and stuff. Below the condos are businesses like pizza and a pub and I saw a couple of men coming back to ground floor offices who looked like fishing guides.
Paddle boat rentals in June. Ice skating in winter.
Keystone Conference Center is across Highway 6 behind the buildings in the photo above. The Conference Center can be reached by walking through tunnels in a couple of locations to avoid traffic on the road above. Or wait for the shuttle bus.
The Valley view.
Trout fishing in America.
Volleyball anyone? The Keystone environment seemed quiet while a large conference of about 1,000 people like TBEX was happening. Seems like Keystone had plenty of facilities to access with little crowds compared to my summer visits to Aspen, Beaver Creek and Vail.
There were a couple of generations of geese working the lawns. This was the most exotic wildlife I saw in three days in the Rocky Mountains.
My most favorable impression of Keystone Resort is this place feels relaxing. Everything seemed quite a bit more low key than the resorts where I have stayed in Aspen and Beaver Creek. Keystone seemed to me a low-key getaway with all the facilities available to have fun and experience the high country of the Rocky Mountains at relatively low hotel rates for summer.
Related Posts:
Keystone Resort Colorado Pictorial Review Part 1 (June 19, 2012)
The largest brewery in the world at Golden, Colorado (June 18, 2012)
TBEX Beer Road Rally #TBEXRR – Beer Shots at 12,000+ ft. Loveland Pass, Colorado (June 16, 2012)
Ric Garrido, writer and content owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.
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