Trinity River Adventure Cabins

Husband & I are a couple of Aussies living in Venice Beach. We’d been desperate to get out of the city for a while, so we packed the car & our little rescue-​mutt & headed away into the wilderness for our 18^th anniversary.
The Miner’s Cabin offered a perfect, romantic, rustic retreat for us. You should think of your stay there as, «glamping». The cosy, one-​room-​loft-​bedroom cabin is clean and basic, the structure itself, utterly charming. The bathroom is but a toilet, the entire room the shower cubicle & it’s VERY clean, but most bathing happened in the river, shh, I’m not gonna lie.
The cabin’s heart is the pretty balcony that looks out over the crystal-​clear river, where we spent a lot of our time relaxing and cooking. The kitchen is only a small bar fridge (though they do provide a large ice chest with ample space — just don’t forget to buy ice), a sink, a microwave, toaster oven & an electric frying pan. Being outdoors folks though & a cook, we came prepared. I brought a portable gas burner which made the balcony a charming spot to fry up the beautiful, Steelhead Trout I was catching (FANTASTIC fishing). We ate meals out there too, to the majestic view of the river, the mountains & the pines, immediately before us. I also brought my cast iron dutch oven & used the wonderful, functional fire pit/​BBQ down on the river rock patio to roast vegetables in the fire.
If you are wise about when to open and close windows at appropriate parts of the day, the Miner’s Cabin stays wonderfully cool, even in the hottest of summer days as we experienced at around 103 °F. I think we used the swamp cooler once for an hour out of curiosity for what it may do. At night, the incredibly comfortable loft bed was heaven. We’d open up the pretty gable windows and enjoy the cool, evening breeze and sound of the lively river.
The big house next door, also owned by Heidi, had a large family group staying there. We’d only see them sometimes when we’d use the driveway which is shared. Even with their nearby presence, the cabin felt very secluded. Occasionally folks would float by down the river and you’d share a wave or smile. You can hear the highway which is quite incongruous as you seem so far away from civilization.
The river water is incredible. Our dog’s coat and our hair and skin have never felt so good from lolling about in the water.
Heidi has very detailed instructions and information available on the website and in the email package. Be sure to read them so you know exactly what you’re in for and any additional costs like a dog fee etc. All the info you need is there. Heidi is very communicative.
If you want the kind of no-​frills, communing with nature experience we were after, this place is for YOU!

We had a great time at Steph and Heidi’s biggest cabin on the property — the «Alpen Glow». It is an incredibly wonderful place, and Steph and Heidi really made an effort to make us happy here. I brought a group of classical musicians for the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, and we were able to practice outdoors on their river deck as well as in the spacious living room. I’ll try to post some videos of our string quartet on youtube… go look for them :)
Hands down, I would recommend this place. I think Unilocal filters out all the positive reviews they used to have on this site…

We had a truly wonderful time on the Trinity River –beautiful setting, fun kayaking, lovely dinners on the deck. Unfortunately, our experience of Adventure Inn after we left was extremely unpleasant.
We probably should have known. The full paged 8pt typed list of what we should clean, the 3.5% surcharge for using a credit card, the long list of cleaning duties that they don’t perform and the charges incurred if they do, should have tipped us off. But nothing could have adequately prepared us for the owner’s scathing email about how we left the cabin.
Reading this you can imagine that there are people who rent vacation cabins and trash them. It happens all the time, but it’s not the case here. We have rented many homes, together and separately, three psychotherapists, a social worker and our 4 well-​behaved kids. We stripped the beds and put the sheets next to the washer. With the limited cleaning equipment available (and given the owner’s passion for cleaning, leaving some dishwasher detergent, some dish soap, a new scrubby sponge and a wet mop would have been a thoughtful idea) we washed the counters, the stovetop and the table and swept all the rooms with a broom (which, along with a dust «Swifter» without any covers, constituted the entire cleaning arsenal available to us).
Heidi, the owner, alleged that the kitchen and dinning room were «Thick with dirt». We rented the cabin for three nights, and if it was given to us in antiseptic condition, one would have to wonder what «Thick with dirt» meant. She alleged that the stovetop was «caked with blackberry goo” – we had cleaned the stove and the counter with the sponge provided, and yes, we did make a blackberry pie and pancakes with the local berries we had picked. Had we known that a missed blackberry would be the basis for a $ 45 cleaning surcharge and a venomous email, we would have not bothered and gone to IHOP. The owners allege it took 13+man hours to clean the cabin we used for 3 nights.
It is clear that the owners of «Alpen Glow» treasure their cabin. They should, it’s a beautiful spot. They should not rent it out; it is too emotionally taxing for them. They decided to levy a $ 45 cleaning charge in addition to the $ 85 cleaning fee that they customarily charge. My advice is to rent a cabin elsewhere and see if you can get on Adventure Inn’s cleaning crew and make $ 130 for wiping down the counters and wet mopping the floors. It’s a beautiful area, and with an income stream like that, lucrative as well.