Dan&Assana

Far Meadow Cabins - Review

We spent 4 days at Far Meadows with friends based on the two articles in Sunset magazine. We rented all three cabins and had the place to ourselves, which was very nice. If you are going to need just one cabin, get the Red A-frame since it has some privacy. The classic A-frame and the log cabin are effectively in each other’s personal space. Since we had all three cabins, I can compare and contrast them to each other, in addition to general pros/cons about the site.

General notes
Pros

• True to its name: far from anything and everything.
• Reasonably available wifi, albeit slow.
• Very quiet and serene.
• Great for a small group.
• Ok towels.
• Lots of outdoor seating with multiple fire pits.
• Unlimited firewood.
• Pet friendly.
• More in the cabin descriptions below.

Cons

• True to its name: far from anything and everything! As in 35 minutes of vomit-inducing winding narrow road to the closest village (Bass Lake).
• Inconsistent amenities: for example one cabin had 2 soaps, one 1, and the third none. The cabin that slept 4 had 2 sets of towels, the one that slept 2, four sets, etc.
• The classic A-frame’s outdoor trashcan had garbage it in when we arrived and none of the cans were never cleared in the 4 days we were there.
• Extremely poor lighting in all, especially in the kitchens.
• Extremely ratty and old linens, dishes, utensils, furniture, and blankets. Bring your own bedding. The utensils and the stoves appear older than the cabins themselves, especially the red A-frame’s.
• More in the cabin descriptions below.

Cabin Notes
Classic A-frame The best of the three cabins, it has a nice bathroom with a tub, a well laid out kitchen, and the best deck and outdoor area & furniture of the three. It has good water pressure and the instant water heater works very well. However, the fridge is outside the cabin and you have to walk thru the bathroom to get to it. The kitchen’s teeeeeeensy light — as in 1” — is a joke. The stove is old and has two little burners. No microwave, oven or even a toaster. Dishes are mish mashed, chipped and old.

The log cabin The most spacious in terms of usable indoor space, except for the kitchen that is about 3’x3’. But it does have a stove with an oven — albeit very old — and a butcher-block countertop which was quite handy. Also, the windows fully open and allow more then 2 people to be “in” the kitchen area from the outside, a handy way to keep the chef company.

Red A-frame This is the newest building, but by FAR the worst. Aside from quite a few amenity issues, such as missing and burnt out light bulbs (bedside lamp, downstair floor lamp, kitchen) the construction is so shabby that we seriously doubt it ever passed inspection. For example, the staircase is held by 2.5 screws, vs the 8 needed. I say 2.5 because one of the screws is only partially screwed in! There is a 3” hole on the bathroom wall which appears to be a simple mistake, but no one bothered to fix. It does NOT have a flush toilet (!!), which they forget mention anywhere on their website. Instead it has a eco-toilet, which is nothing more than a litter box with a seat. You poo in the box, cover it up with some saw dust looking thing, and once every 4 days the care taker empties it out. Ick. We asked him to empty it on daily basis. He said no, that would be a waste of his time. When we insisted, he begrudgingly said ok, but didn’t do much about it. Ah, and the box is in bathroom, about 6-8 feet from the bed. The bed is against the sloped wall of the A-frame, but there is a 4x4 beam that splits the head of the bed (you can see the beam in one of their own photos). Good luck if you are tall since the bed is bolted to the floor and can’t be moved away from the beam. The second bed is just a futon on the bare floor — not what one would call a bed. There is no privacy between the two beds. The instant water heater is neither instant, nor a heater. The very sparse furniture is old and stained. Even the router is an old slow router! The road to this cabin will require an SUV. It does have a stove, but it is very old. We are baffled that anyone would construct a new cabin and fill it with such old ratty items. But they match the quality of the construction.

Final Notes
The place looks really good on paper, there are nice photographs online, and has been mentioned in many magazine. Perhaps once upon a time it lived up to the hype, but definitely set your expectations WAYYYY low.