Martinwood Cabins- Westwind Log Cabin

A group of avid birders and I took advantage of this lodge on a rather cool summer weekend recently. 9 of us attended and enjoyed the 7 bedrooms (plus loft with double beds) offered by our host Theresa. As has been noted, the lodge comes with two kitchens and two family rooms. Most everything you need is indeed included, especially a copy of Kangaroo Jack with the upstairs TV. I must have watched that fine film approximately 0 – 18 times in our two day stay.
We never could get the 10 person hot tub up to temperature to actually use. I think the highest it got was around 90 — not exactly hot tub worthy. But this is a minor gripe as we were quite busy with our birding in the area.
There is a fire pit on the side of the lodge which made for a lovely evening next to a bonfire with some beers and smores. Birders love smores, it’s a known fact.
The 4 bathrooms included in the lodge is nice when you have such a large group, no fighting over showers and the like. The nice decal of the scuba diver on the toilet tanks adds a pleasant diversion while you’re taking a whizz.
There is zero cell service, except for Sprint customers, apparently. This is kind of a bummer as nobody in the entire world has Sprint. While I suppose it may be desirable for some persons to completely disconnect from society, birders and persons of my age tend to get a little twitchy after 24 hours of no internet access. It would be delightful if the cabin had wifi.
Luckily all our group arrived before darkness fell — I wouldn’t want to try to find the place in the dark. You might end up in a ditch. The owner recently had the steep gravel drive replaced partially with concrete and it’s a good thing. I think several of my fellow birders would have failed to scale a gravel drive so very steep and would have been stuck doing their birding from the bottom of the drive.
Another «nice to have» would be better televisions, the current models are small and difficult to see from across the large family rooms. We wanted to watch some shows on birding but found it difficult to do so and had to resort to going outside to see birds — not ideal.
Checkout is at 11:00am and I can see how it could be a scramble to get up and get everything prepped for checkout, as it is expected you have the dishwasher run and unloaded, as well as all trash taken out, I believe. Luckily birders are used to being early risers to «catch the worm», as they say.
All in all we had an excellent experience just bordering on five stars. Internet service at the lodge and a more liberal checkout policy would push it firmly into 5 star territory for me. That being said, I would definitely return here for activities other than birding as well, as you are in the edges of Hocking Hills state park and there are lots of activities nearby.
Kudos to our host Theresa for a fine stay and thanks to my fellow birders for such a fine weekend watching birds and Kangaroo Jack.

For those who want the short version: This place is an awesome place to stay for a vacation get away for a large group!
Here’s the detailed version:
The house is located in Hocking Hills and is the perfect place for a large group of people! There are 3 floors with 8 bedrooms and 11 beds. The top floor is a loft that has 2 beds. There are 4 bedrooms on the main floor– 3 that have 1 bed, and 1 room that has full sized bunk beds. On the bottom floor, there are 3 bedrooms– 2 rooms that have 1 bed and 1 room that has bunk beds. Note: all the beds are queen/​full sized beds even the bunk beds so the house could potentially sleep 22 people. The house is a beautiful lodge with hardwood floors (don’t forget to take slippers!).
There are 2 kitchens which was a bonus when cooking for a large group! There are also 2 dining room tables (one on the main floor, one downstairs) and 2 living room spaces. The house has 4 bathrooms (2 on each floor). Note: If you go there with a lot of people, try to be one of the first to take a shower because the hot water DOES run out if everyone is taking consecutive showers.
When you go, towels (including beach towels) and linens/​blankets are provided. They also provide some toilet paper and soap (dish soap, shampoo, etc) which was enough for a 2 day stay but if you’re staying for the whole week, you may need to bring more.
In the kitchen, you can find plates, silverware, some pots and pans, cups. They have some cooking utensils like spatulas, ladles, can opener, etc. They have a coffee maker and filters but if you like fresh coffee beans, you have to bring your own coffee grinder.

There are 2 TVs there which both have DVD players and direct TV but they don’t have HDMI connections so you can’t hook up an Xbox. There’s no wi-​fi and you probably won’t be able to get good cell phone service while there. But they do have corn hole, scrabble, taboo and a couple decks of cards for game night! It was actually great to get away from technology i.e. internet, etc and enjoy time with the family.
In order to get there, you have to drive on some country roads– some that look like they are only one lane so I recommend trying to get there before dark just because it’s so hard to see when it’s night time. Also on the website, they recommend 4 wheel drive which I totally agree with! You have to drive up this steep gravel/​stone driveway. One of our cars was a sedan and had trouble getting up the entire way. If you don’t have 4WD, you can still make it up (although if it may be a problem if it’s snowing) but try driving in reverse. Our larger cars (mini SUVs/​Vans that didn’t have 4WD) had problems going up driving forward, but were able to make it up in reverse. Again, it’s a lot easier driving up in reverse during the day than at night.
The contact person is Theresa. She was quick to respond to questions we had about the place via email. I didn’t really have much contact with her since someone else dealt with the reservation but she seemed nice when I met her when we checked out of the lodge.