Half Moon Lake Lodge - Pinedale

Where to begin. Our family stayed here for 3 nights recently. Upon arrival at 8pm, we were told at the front that it is a cabin and they do all they can to seal the cabins up but it is a cabin so don’t be surprised by mice dropping. We own a cabin in the mountains and we thought we understood how that can be but we were greeted by a cabin full of mice droppings, on the floors, in the bedsheets, it appeared no one had been in the cabin in some time. As it was later in the evening with two small children there wasn’t much to do but shake out the sheets and deal with it. After shaking out the sheets we also happened to spot a black widow on the pillow. I have a new appreciation for the term rustic. The front door did not shut/seal properly, $10 in weather stripping materials would go a long way in sealing the cabin against pests. Again, we like to think of ourselves as mountain people used to the rustic experience but for $250 a night you’d like to not find mice droppings in the bed. The next morning they offered to change the sheets and put some traps out. The following two nights we caught 5 mice in about the first two hours before placing the traps outside the rest of the night so as to not have to listen to the mice in the traps.The breakfasts were outstanding outside of the last day when the lodge only had one man manning the whole operation of kitchen/waiting/dealing with check outs for all the guests of all the cabins coming down for breakfast. The owners are very hospitable but the entire place appears to only have about 3 employees for the whole operation. Cocktails on the deck are amazing .I know folks say it’s hard to hire help but this place really needs to find a way to pay about 2-3 more full time employees and a dedicated housekeeper.

I had dinner with my family at the Half Moon Lake Lodge on Tuesday evening, August 15, 2023. We arrived on time for our reservation (scheduled two weeks in advance), there were no other patrons in the restaurant at the time and only three in the bar had to go into the bar and ask the bartender to get someone to seat us. Our group of seven ordered four beers, one cocktail and one glass of wine took forever to get the first round. Asked for a second round and the bartender was too busy talking to her three friends seated at the bar to fill our order finally had to go into the bar and confront her on her lousy service and she got, shall we say, defensive when I could see that she was talking rather than pouring. Meal finally came out and the food was cold, steaks were overcooked, and the lamb chops looked like shoe leather. I have dined at the Half Moon Lake Lodge many times in the past when the establishment was owned by Jack McMurry the service was exceptional, and the food was outstanding but no longer. Don't waste your time and money on the Half Moon Lake Lodge today it's not worth the agony. Go to the Stockman's in Pinedale, you will be greeted promptly, treated with respect and have an absolutely wonderful dining experience. I wouldn't take my dog back to the Half Moon Lake Lodge for kibble...

The cabin did not have heat or air conditioning, but was still 169 dollars a night. The HVAC wasn't broken, the cabin just did not have it installed. Their picture of the room shows a TV. However, the TV is hooked to a DVD player and there is no cable. There are better places at better prices in Pinedale.Rooms: 1/5

Haven't stayed at the lodge but the restaurant was top notch. Food quality was excellent and so was the service.

I really want to write this review fairly, as we had a very large party for several days and that can be a lot to accommodate. With that said, there were many issues that were unrelated to our party size and length of stay, and for the amount of money we paid totally unacceptable.For background, this was a 4 night, 5 day stay, accommodating most of the cabins they have available.1. Check in time was 4pm, so plan to lose almost a full day of your stay. We had to kill about 2 hours in Pinedale before we could check in.2. The card readers were not working for us to fully pay. Cards had to be ran several times to get them to work.3. This place is run down. The lodge itself looks beautiful, but if you 're planning on staying in the cabins, what they call rustic is truly just a lack of maintenance. We were in cabin 12, or the house. You 'll quickly notice the power box and conduits to the left, and the uncovered wire coming from it. This is a major safety issue, and unless resolved I would not recommend having any curious children in the area.4. The pond is a mosquito hell hole. I understand that it 's nature, that it would be incredibly costly to maintain, but it 's a true eyesore. When I say that there are mosquitoes, I mean there are mosquitoes. From literal sun up to sun down you have to be erratically reapplying bug spray as well as wear full length clothing for protection. All day. Obviously not all insects are preventable, and you 're in the woods, but I can promise that this pond is not helping the issue. Many of the cabins have small decks with incredible views of the lake, but you can 't enjoy them because of the mosquitoes.5. As stated earlier, we stayed in cabin 12. The floors are just covered in sand/dirt. The walls were dirty. Only one window in the entire cabin had a properly functioning screen, and two windows didn 't have screens at all. My bedroom window was propped open with a shampoo bottle. Nothing seemed particularly clean. It 's listed as having a full kitchen, but does not include an oven or stove top, so be sure to bring a camp stove if you want hot meals. The refrigerator started leaking around day 3. This cabin is listed as having a king size bed, that is not true. The beds are also listed as being hypoallergenic gel, and I cannot attest to the material used in the mattresses, but I can say that they 're very hard and sound about 30 years old. The bathroom is DARK, and semi functional. If you 're planning to shower, make sure you bring a cup and rag because there is almost zero water pressure.6. We had family staying in cabins 9, 10, and 11 right next to us. Cabin 9 's door did not lock. Cabin 10 's sewage pump was unplugged, and took several hours to sort out why it smelled like...well sewage. By day four, Cabin 11 had actual puddles of raw sewage leaking behind it, in a trail that was being used. Also, Cabin 11 had not been cleaned before we arrived. We had family in other cabins down the road below us, and those seemed to be in much better condition.7. Our family had pre coordinated a meal with the lodge to be had on our last night there. Let 's be clear, this was done at least a few weeks in advance, so there was no reason for anything to be unexpected. From our understanding, they gave us a bulk deal of doing burgers and fries, as well as a coleslaw for $14 a plate. We were under the impression that ordering something else from the menu would still be an option, as several people had young children who would have preferred chicken strips. We were also under the impression that for $14 a plate we were going to be served actual plates, like a normal restaurant experience. What we got was a buffet style hot pan of burger patties, bags of buns, condiments sat out, a metal bowl of slaw, and a metal bowl of fries. Most of the burgers were alarmingly under cooked. The deck they have is beautiful, but jeez the food was a disappointment.Overall, very very expensive for what you get. We 're planning on booking elsewhere in the