When our ski club visited Keystone in February 2026, we stayed at the River Run Village but our condos were spread out and none of our condos were in the same building. My roommate and I had a 2 Bedroom unit in the Dakota Lodge, unit 8494.
Check-in was at the main center, a short ride away from our building. Fortunately our bus stopped there first where a representative from each unit checked in at the front desk. The bus then dropped us off near the ice rink (which is a miniature golf course in the summer) and is surrounded by the Buffalo Lodge, the Dakota Lodge, and Expedition Station.
Dakota Lodge (credit: booking.com)
Ground Floor
Upon entering the lobby there’s a set of double doors. A key is required to enter the second set of doors.
Dakota Lodge Main Entrance
There’s a table and chairs and a couple of sofas around a fireplace – although I don’t think the fire was ever lit while I was there.
Also on this ground floor are a couple of bathrooms and then, beyond them and through a key-card door is the sauna area. I didn’t take photos because it was often occupied and it’s hard to get photos while also trying to hold open a sauna door that keeps wanting to close!
Down the main hallway on the ground floor is the ski locker room. It’s about what you’d expect except a little nicer in that it’s carpeted and the lockers are wooden, not metal. Our locker keys were on lanyards in our room and there was one key per bedroom. There is a charge if you lose one of the locker keys. Perhaps it’s too expensive to change out the ski locker locks to electronic ones to match the room, but if there were multiple people in each bedroom it sure would be a pain to have to have to coordinate use of the key.
Outside
Out the back door is the heated pool at two hot tubs. I didn’t try out the pool but did see others in the pool. The hot tub on the right was “warm” some days but, as I understand it, was never really hot. As a result we spent all our time in the hot tub on the left. This photo is the view from our room. The building on the left (you can just see its roof) is a bathhouse that has a toilet and a shower. On either side of the door to the shower/toilet are cabinets with blue-striped pool towels. There are bins for towel collection near the exits. These facilities are shared between the Dakota Lodge and the Arapahoe Lodge next door.
Pool and Hot Tubs share by Dakota Lodge and The Arapahoe
There’s only one elevator in the building and it’s located just down the hall from the ski locker room. While it’s reasonably large – it can handle a luggage cart along with a few people, it’s quite slow. There are stairwells at either end of the hallway. But for a flatlander like me, even just walking any distance at this altitude takes effort and walking up the stairs was a no-go. I was so glad that our group had paid for porterage so that our bags were delivered to our rooms. I don’t know what we paid, but it was worth it.
Third Floor
The numbering system was quite odd to me. I’d have thought room 8494 would be on the fourth floor but the rooms seemed to be sequentially numbered, regardless of what floor that ended up being. To reach our room we took the elevator to the third floor, landing in the elevator lobby.
Dakota Third Floor Elevator Lobby
We then turned right and headed almost to the far end to reach room 8494 on the right, facing the mountain.
Dakota Lodge Third Floor Hallway
Unit 8494
This is a 2-bedroom unit that could technically sleep six though it would be a bit tight.
Common Areas
Immediately upon entering there’s a small bench on the left with a tray underneath that’s the perfect place to store wet ski boots. Above the bench are some pegs for whatever outdoor gear you need to store there. Beside the front door is another board where the lanyards for the ski locker were hung though they’re not present in this photo.
Unit 8494 Entry Area
The kitchen was immediately to the right upon entering. It had a full-size refrigerator which was plenty large enough for the two of us. I did have issues after my soft drinks had been in the fridge overnight. The temperature was set so low that I ended up with a cola icee! We turned the temp up slightly and had no more issues after that first night.
Unit 8494 Kitchen
We had more than enough dishes that we only had to run the dishwasher every 3rd day or so. My roomie made a big pot of chili and, along with our group dinners, that lasted through the week for us. There were three or four stools that tucked under the counter. We used those any time we ate as it was more convenient than eating at the high top table.
That high top table was to the right of the kitchen, between the door to the second bedroom and the fireplace. There was a convenient electric outlet under the table that made it my home base for my computer.
Unit 8494 Hightop Table
The living room featured a gas fireplace that we used often topped by a ginormous TV that we never got to use. The reason: we could never get it turned on! We had several visits from the maintenance staff but none of them could ever get it to turn on. Finding the power button was a challenge but even when pressed, it still did not turn on. It’s a shame because it looks like it would be a great one. One note: from what I can tell, all of the units have Roku TV which gives you access to loads of streaming services, but no live TV. Since the units are individually owned perhaps that’s not true for all units but in the two units I visited that was the case.
Unit 8494 TV and Fireplace
A large L-shaped sofa faced the TV with the short leg against the window that overlooks the pool and hot tubs. The sofa was pretty comfortable but did reflect a bit of wear in that when seated on several of the cushions I felt like it was trying to dump me back on the floor. It’s not a reason NOT to stay in the unit, just something to be aware of.
Unit 8494 Sofa
Between the fireplace and the window was a sliding door leading to a small balcony that overlooked the pool.
Unit 8494 Balcony
Master Bedroom
The door to the master bedroom is between the sofa and the kitchen counter. The king-sized bed is on the left with a chest across from it.
Unit 8494 Master Bedroom
Straight ahead is the master closet.
Unit 8494 Master Closet
To the right – without a door to separate it – is the master bath. There’s a vanity with dual sinks on the left and across from that is the tub/shower.
Unit 8494 Master Bath
At the back is a small room with the toilet.
Unit 8494 Master Toilet
Second Bedroom
The second bedroom can technically sleep four people but, in my opinion, they’d need to all be children. There’s a queen bed with a metal frame over it that holds two twin bunks that run perpendicular to the main bed. The ladders to the upper levels was smack in the middle of the lower bed which made getting in & out of that bed a bit of a challenge.
Unit 8494 Second Bedroom
Plus, with the wall-mounted TV at the end of the bed, over the chest, the only person who could actually see the whole TV would be the person on the top bunk over the foot of the queen bed. It may be the weirdest setup I’ve ever encountered in ski lodging.
Unit 8494 Second Bedroom Upper Bunks
There was a single chest at the foot of the bed with three drawers. There was one small closet in the room and although there were quite a few hangers, there was no shelf space available because it was taken up by the bedding for the two upper bunks. There were no fewer than four humidifiers. I have no idea if any of them actually worked or not.
Unit 8494 Second Bedroom Closet
Hall Bath
As is standard in a 2BR unit, only the master has an en suite bathroom so the bath for the second bedroom opens into the main kitchen/living area. I did think the door was angled well so that you could slip between the bath and the second bedroom and never have to worry whether or not the blinds over the window were pulled or not. It was nice not having to cover up while still in a state of undress.
Unit 8494 Hall Bath
The bathroom itself was fairly large but oddly shaped. I’m not sure exactly how I’d have designed it differently but having a pedestal sink meant there was no storage on a counter. There was a ledge over the sink and below the mirror and I was able to put quite a few things there. While there were several shelves over the toilet, they already held extra towels, toilet paper and tissues, so there wasn’t a whole lot of space for my stuff. The shelves were so narrow that I ended up zipping up my Dopp kit and storing it on its side. Even then I had to always be sure the top was down on the toilet (admittedly a good practice anyway) for fear that something might fall off the shelf into it.
Unit 8494 Hall Bath Shelves
I did like the decor with its black and white bear themed shower curtain. And I appreciated the shelving unit in the tub area. There was a built-in soap dish and, of course, the corners of the tub, to set things on but the provided toiletry bottles were so large those areas would have been quite crowded. These moveable shelves gave me a place to store my razor and shave gel too. The baskets also had a couple of hooks on them which was a good place to hang a wash cloth or a wet swimsuit. I’d have preferred to have a clothesline for the swimsuit but since it was just me, it wasn’t an issue. If more people had needed to hang their suits, I’m not sure where we’d have put them.
Unit 8494 Hall Bath Shower Shelves
There was a single towel rack next to the tub but three hooks had been added on the wall behind the door. There was also a large hook on the back of the door. Still, if this bath was meant to be used by the four people in the second bedroom, there just wasn’t a lot of space for 4 wash cloths, 4 towels and 4 swimsuits.
Unit 8494 Hall Bath Decor
I will say the sink hot water got hot VERY quickly but found it odd that the shower did not heat up as quickly. I did love that the showerhead was adjustable and I could get a really strong spray from it.
Other Common Areas
This building does not have a fitness center, though other complexes in River Run do. It does have laundry rooms on the 2nd and 4th floors. This photo is of the 2nd floor unit and I assume the 4th floor room is much the same. It costs $2.50 per load to wash and $2.25 to dry. A coin machine was in the room and the machines seemed to take credit cards or payment via some sort of app, which was nice. We did not use these machines.
Dakota Lodge 2nd Floor Laundry Room
Location
As mentioned earlier, the building is right across from the winter ice rink/summer mini-golf and vehicles can pull up right to the front door, which is handy if you have a lot of luggage. There is basement parking with one spot allocated for each unit. The only “downside” to this building is the walk to the River Run Gondola area. It felt like quite a walk in ski boots while lugging gear to get to the other end of the village. I shouldn’t complain because at least we didn’t have to catch a shuttle; the shuttle station was about as long a walk as the Dakota. However the long walk to ski meant a shorter walk to restaurants and shopping in the River Run plaza. If you don’t like schlepping your skis, there is an overnight ski check at the gondola base but it’s $15 per night.
It’s not a very large area compared to some resorts but that was fine by me. On my day off I was easily able to make a swing through the whole village before deciding where to spend my money. Our group also had two dinners during the week as well as appetizers another night and we had pizza delivered a fourth night so we found plenty of diversity in our meals.
In the end
Booking through Keystone central reservations into the River Run village you can never be totally sure where your condo will be located. Our unit in the Dakota Lodge worked well for the two of us even though we had to walk to the other end of the village to ski. The pool and hot tub facilities were great and with only two of us in our 2BR condo, we had enough space so that we weren’t stepping on each other. While I could do without the bunk structure over the bed, I’d be happy to stay at Dakota Lodge on my next visit.
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