My wife’s family has these major family reunions every other year. The last two times we’ve had the reunion at the Hidden Springs Ranch in Altamont, UT. It’s a great place, really, except that it’s three hours from Salt Lake City and some of us drive Audis with cruise control modules that have burned out and cost $500 to fix so as a matter of principle we refuse to fix them and resign ourselves to having a tired right leg on long drives.
There are places closer to SLC, but what they lack is the ability to house 100 people in one building. The family has tried cabins before, but they like having one large building so that people can interact more. The last time they did cabins it rained the whole time so every family stayed in their own cabins the whole time and the whole purpose of having a family reunion was shot. The place in Altamont is nice because it has several nice, large bedrooms upstairs for the grandparents, about ten large rooms in the basement with bunk beds for all the kids and their parents, a game room, kitchen, and a huge common room that could fit 300 people if it needed to.
So if you know of any places similar to Hidden Springs Ranch, only closer to SLC, let me know.
BTW, if you’ve got a few million this might not be such a bad business model for you to invest in. The building would cost you $3-4M, the land would cost you another few million if it were in or around the Park City/Heber area, but then you’ve got a nice place to use yourself, and you can rent it out for $7-15K per weekend, and given that Hidden Springs out in the middle of nowhere requires that you reserve two years ahead of time, it sounds like there’s plenty of demand to go around. I’d consider doing it myself if I had $10M to blow.
We like to go to the Rockin’ R Ranch. http://www.rockinrranch.com. They have a big lodge where everyone can stay in a very “big house” type of setting. Plus all their activities, food, and lodging is included in one price.
If I sound like I’m selling it a bit, I probably am. I grew up in Antimony and it is the family business.
I want to know where you decided to go! Our family meets once a year and again don’t want to travel as far as Hidden Springs or Rockin R Ranch. Isn’t there someplace in Northern Utah, say north of Spanish Fork? Please share what you learned because I’m looking for someplace that will fit 100 people too!
Tammie
I too am looking for a place not too far from the Provo area for about 80-100 people, not too expensive. Thanks
Hi everyone… Our family has reunions once a year too – but we find it much more fun & a lot cheaper to rent a group site for camping with a large pavillion. We have full weekend reunions Friday Morning till Sunday night & they are a blast!!! There are so many options when choosing a group area… State parks – city parks – canyon parks – county parks & private resorts…
We have ours up one of the canyons & there is plenty of fun – We have breakfasts & lunches & BBQs & Pot Luck. We have people camping in tents, people with trailers & Motor Homes & local people that just drive up each day & some that prefer to stay in a local hotel & drive up each day. It works very well…
The trick for us is trying to find a spot to accomodate 300-500 people at a time… If anyone has any ideas along that line, that would be huge for us!
BTW our spot only costs around $400 – $500 for the entire weekend… Much cheaper then a lot of other ideas…
Hope this info helps someone…
Tanya