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WorldMark Bison Ranch - Resort Review |
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WorldMark Bison Ranch |
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submit your review of WorldMark Bison Ranch
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| Author: |
4dabirds |
| Visited on: |
07/11/2003 |
| Average Rating: |
4.75 |
| Staff professionalism: |
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| Resort grounds: |
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| Room cleanness: |
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| Submitted on: |
06/04/2004 |
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Pros:
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A wonderful resort to take the family if you enjoy the outdoors and really want to get away from the hustle and bustle. |
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Cons:
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If you are looking for a place to be "entertained", this is absolutely NOT it. NO fast food places near by - NO amusement parks - NO glitz and glamour... just life in it's simplest form! |
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Review:
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Each summer, we take a few days and head up to Bison Ranch with our boys (10/14) and nephews (9/11). The kids ask about it all year long and seem to really look forward to the trip. I love the fact that our WM membership has given them a tradition we would have never had otherwise!
While places like the Grand Canyon call the masses, you will find many of Arizona's treasures are hidden and not on any well-worn paths! Perhaps this is what keeps drawing us back year-after-year. There is so much to see and do within an hour's drive from Bison that it could realistically take us a lifetime to explore. What a wonderful thought that with WM we will be able to :)
The units at Bison are very spacious with plenty of room for 6. The kids really appreciate the murphy bed in the living room vs. a pull-out couch. The only issue we have had is that the dining table isn't very large. With all 6 of us we are very cramped around the 48" round table! Other than this, every other aspect has been what we would expect from a WM resort with the bonus of additional activities (such as the fishing and horseback riding) available right on the resort grounds.
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| Author: |
sue1947 |
| Visited on: |
03/24/2006 |
| Average Rating: |
4.50 |
| Staff professionalism: |
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| Resort grounds: |
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| Room quality: |
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| Submitted on: |
04/08/2006 |
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Pros:
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Nice peaceful location. Large units. |
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Cons:
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The rooms over the shops had many maintenance issues. I suspect they don't get used much and, as a result, the types of things like a malfunctioning smoke detector, ice maker, lamps, toilet etc don't get noticed and reported. Response was quick once they were notified. |
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Review:
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We split a week between Bison Ranch and the VI exchange property in Santa Fe. We love the out of doors and don't like crowds, so this was a perfect spot. There are trails in the area for hiking or snowshoeing and skiing in the winter. We used BR as a base for a variety of National Parks. We spent a day at Petrified Forest National Park and loved it; ran out of time to do the longer trails in the south end. We drove north through Holbrook and then east to the park. You can do this as a one-way trip starting with the visitor's center in the north and stopping along the way for a variety of short trails and viewpoints. I've seen petrified wood at Gingko in Washington, and this is 300% better. Crystals grew inside to create multi-colored 'wood' with amethyst, jaspar etc. Very interesting and pretty. Plus the Painted desert with mostly reds and whites in the north changing to gray/blue/purple further south. We really enjoyed the trail down and through the Blue Mesa area. We drove out the south end to Show Low with a short side trip to see Pinetop and then back to Bison Ranch.
Cheapest gas and best groceries are in Show Low. However, if you're coming from Phoenix via Payson, stop there for groceries.
We also did a day trip over to Sunset Crater National Monument and Wupatki NM. We didn't spend too much time there; we've seen lots of cinder cones and lava flows; this is very similar to flows in Central Oregon. Wupatki has pueblo ruins in a pretty setting. We did a loop drive down through Sedona where we spent a couple of hours and then back to Bison Ranch. this was a long day with lots of driving.
Bison Ranch itself has some nice little statues, a gazebo etc for a nice relaxing area to take it easy. |
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| Author: |
teamkimball |
| Visited on: |
02/14/2004 |
| Average Rating: |
4.25 |
| Staff professionalism: |
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| Resort grounds: |
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| Submitted on: |
05/16/2006 |
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Pros:
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nice and quiet, REALLY remote, great place to get away. |
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Cons:
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REALLY remote...we drove from LA and it took us close to 8 hours. |
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Review:
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we stopped in the last town before bison ranch (the last semi-big town) and had the BEST steak an chicken ever. we also had great burgers closer to bison ranch...a small town right before overgaard. however, although i love road trips and love adventure, my friend and brother weren't too thrilled about driving ALL day and then getting locked out of the resort...yes...no one answered the door, so we had to drive to the best western, call WM repeatedly, try to find other lodging since it was after midnight, and then FINALLY someone answered. i think they had fallen asleep, but they claimed that they couldn't hear the phone due to the loud washing machines. (we had called over and over to remind them that we were getting in late). they did comp us 1 free night's stay because we spent 2 hours in the freezing cold (it was february!!!) trying to check in. would be a cool place for kids but seeing as how it was just some friends and i, there wasn't too much to do. i did enjoy relaxing there though. |
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| Author: |
kempfamily |
| Visited on: |
07/08/2007 |
| Average Rating: |
3.75 |
| Staff professionalism: |
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| Resort grounds: |
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| Room quality: |
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| Room cleanness: |
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| Submitted on: |
07/22/2007 |
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Pros:
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The rooms/codos themselves are exceptional, roomy, comfortable and extremely clean. |
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Cons:
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The resort is extremely isolated, depressing, unkept, unlean and boring. |
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Review:
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"Oh, give me a home where the buffalo don't roam
Where the deer and the antelope used to play
Where nothing is heard but discouraging words
And there's nothing to do all day..."
Our first Worldmark Resort experience, and to say we were a bit disappointed was an understatement.
The 2 bedroom condo was fine, in fact, very clean, roomy and comfortable, I even personally slept on the Murphy bed with my wife and we slumbered just fine. That being said, the resort itself (amenities, activities, grounds and general surroundings) fell short of anyone’s expectations, to say the least.
I’ve read all of the reviews about this resort and if you read between the lines, there is a certain air of sympathy for this place, well deserved, no doubt, but let’s call a spade a spade; this is no place to take a vacation, period. There are plenty and I mean PLENTY of other resorts and places to stay with pools and air hockey, other than this remote, reserved, boring, trite and “staged” resort.
The grounds, especially where the shops are located are completely disgusting – the grass, brown and unkept in spots, the trees wilty and the flowers and shrubs overgrown and un-cared for. The ashtrays, located all along the backside of the resort were completely overfilled, and there weren’t that many people there, so how long had they gone un-emptied? I don’t even want to get into the condition of the public restroom located across from the gazebo. The shops, truly pathetic, most overpriced, except for the general store; the shop owner, a charming and seemingly genuine cowboy, is quick on the draw with humorous comments and playful banter – he has a touch of everything in there, even chicken and a few stakes if you feel inclined to BBQ on your balcony – (we did, but after much cleaning, the BBQ had been left filthy, and the balcony itself was completely dust and dirt ridden).
Where are the Bison? They went back to their point of origin in Arizona, according to everyone we spoke to, including the cowboys that ran the horse stables, on premises, who incidentally house the last remaining Bison, a sad, lonely single sole, whom you can’t help but watch in his small metal caged space and feel sorry for… a perfect mascot and representation for this resort – sad, pathetic, lonely and longing to be something and/or somewhere else in the world, other than here. The Bison had been removed about a year or two ago, due to the fact that people, tourists, WM owners included, were badgering and taunting the poor beasts, creating a financial and safety liability for the ranchers and the resort, so they simply removed them, all of them, except for one.
The pictures people have posted in the past are completely outdated, the rooms look the same, but the fishing pond is low, the aerator off and I can’t imagine there are actually fish in there to be caught. There are no teepees. There is no lake or pond in front of the resort at all, as shown in the resort pictures, there is only a small, overgrown swamp-like weed puddle, I swear, you can not even see any water what so ever.
The information booth was closed the entire time we were there, but we did do some exploring of the area on our own. Let me tell you something, buy your groceries before you get there, don’t plan on eating out, unless you want to drive 35 long, lonely, uneventful miles to the nearest town, SHOW-LOW, which is completely not exciting either, I assure you.
Was this town, Overgaard, ever a resort destination? The locals say yes, but that since the fire of 2002, which burned and literally destroyed 500,000 acres, including homes, commerce, and the natural beauty of the area, the entire location has just gone virtually bankrupt of any value. It’s sad, and you want to do something to reach out to these people. We even ate at the chuck wagon diner, on premises, but it truly wasn’t that good, come on, and we were literally attacked by so many flies, inside the building, they were taking down and hanging new fly strips in and around the restaurant while we ate. The owner, which we had a chance to talk to, was very kind and upbeat about the whole place, encouraged with renewed growth – she told us that since the smell of smoke from burnt and rotting trees had finally all but dissipated last year, they had seen more customers and were excited about the future.
It won’t take you long, not even by the end of your trip in deep retrospect to feel sorry for the shop owners, the cowboys and surrounding townspeople, as well as feeling sorry for the other WM owners (including yourselves) that actually cashed in some ever so valuable vacation points for the trip here (luckily we got in some bonus time). The painted store fronts and bronze sculptures look really neat in the pictures, I agree, but in person, they just look out of place, trite and “staged.” The surrounding area is a barren wasteland of burnt tree embers, and generic green-roofed cabin rentals, I mean it, the builders in the area must have received some kind of deal on light glossy log wood and green roofs, because virtually every cabin in the area looks exactly the same.
In closing, if you feel inclined to help an ailing resort and it’s surround shops and townspeople, and you don’t mind isolated and unkept conditions, and have no expectations, nor do not care to see any Bison, take long and uneventful trip to Bison Ranch – and I’ll send you my condolences for your selfless efforts.
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1 June 2005:
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23 May 2005:
Featured owner Boaterkathy.
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